Sistine Chapel & St. Peter's Basilica Early Morning Express Tour

Our guide, Denis, was fabulous. Charming, informative and personal. Couldn't have asked for a better guide. I submitted a previous review stating this. HOWEVER ... after further thought, this was crazy expensive and a bit misleading that this was pre-crowds as an "early bird" tour. It was technically private as it was my wife and I with Denis, but the other thousands of tourists also on private and early bird tours (including multiple pushy groups of 30) made it seem anything but early bird. Stupid crazy packed, and I mean wall to wall people by the time we got the corridor of maps. In hindsight, we should have been more specific on what we wanted to see. We missed the Raphael Gallery which was on our must-see list, and was taken outside of security to visit the store before we realized we were literally out of the secured area and would have to wade back through the line to get in to St. Peter's again. Did not spend enough time in St. Peter's, we would have preferred saying goodbye to Denis inside knowing this after the fact. Very disappointed with that aspect. We will take responsibility to not have spoken up sooner, but with the choreographed tour, we were led along until it was too realize the Raphael's were not on the tour list. I would have happily given up on the Byzantine artifacts, etc. and streamed past the crowds in the long gallery to see this. This is not on Denis, he was great, but do your research on what you want to see and DO NOT expect this tour to be anything close to "private". And state up front what you want to see. The after hours evening tour might be better?

We had booked a cruise that was leaving out of Rome - so my wife and I decided to fly in a few days early and do some touring. I worked with the *great* team from Eyes of Rome team to help customize some tours for us. For Day 1 - they customized and did a private Vatican / Colosseum Combo Tour. Our *amazing* guide Marta and our driver Massimo picked us up at our hotel and we discussed the plan for the day. We visited the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, stoped for a very local and amazing lunch, and then toured the Colosseum. Marta was the most amazing, wonderful guide. She was so warm and friendly - and had such deep knowledge about the places we visited - but also when driving around Rome pointed out so many interesting things. On the second day - we needed to be to the boat by 3pm or so - so the team suggested a private, abbreviated walking tour. We had a new guide Michela and got to see Massimo again! Michela was also amazing. She took us to the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona and the Trevi fountain. She also booked another stellar local / authentic restaurant for us for lunch. We're definitely planning on returning and doing a more involved tour of Southern Italy - and will be contacting Eyes of Rome when we do

My husband and I were very fortunate to have selected Azzurra as our guide. She met us at our hotel right on time and quickly secured a cab to Vatican City. We found her to be a genuinely kind person who made sure to adjust the tour to prioritize our interests. We loved the intimate nature of the private tour and appreciated the opportunity to ask for clarification and elaboration. Azzurra was so knowledgeable and familiar with every aspect of the art, history, and nuances of the Vatican complex that no question went unanswered. The tour surpassed all our expectations. The beauty and history of St. Peter's, the Vatican Museums, and the Sistine Chapel are beyond words, and this tour really enhanced our experience exploring them. Highly recommend!