Description
- Round-trip private transportation from the Transportation Hub at your Civitavecchia Cruise pier!
- Air-conditioned, fully licensed, and insured transportation!
- Private English-speaking certified shore excursion guide!
- Private licensed driver!
- Admission into the Vatican Museums including the Sistine Chapel!
- Guided private excursion of the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica!
- Walking excursion of Old Rome's most famous sites!
- Free time in Old Rome!
- Escape the cruise ship shore excursion crowds and enjoy the unique sights of Rome and the surrounding area!
A great private Civitavecchia shore excursion option for larger groups of 9 or more looking for private, personalized sightseeing excursion service to see the Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, and more!
Your private excursion group will catch the free shuttle from your Civitavecchia cruise ship pier to the transportation hub near the harbor's main gate. Your English-speaking driver will be waiting for you, assist you on board your private vehicle, and set out in your air-conditioned transportation on the approximately 80-minute journey to Rome. The private sightseeing shore excursion driver will be giving commentary along the route.
On arrival in Rome, you will meet your professionally trained, licensed cruise excursion guide and begin your visit to Vatican City, the smallest state in the world. No waiting in the long line to buy tickets, you will enter the Vatican Museum with your guide by-passing the wait. The Vatican Museum is one of the largest and most famous museums in the entire world. It contains more than one hundred thousand pieces of an incredible treasure, collected by the Catholic church over the centuries. Sadly, time only allows you to see only about 4 miles of galleries and salons. Your guide will lead you on a planned course to avoid some of the crowds, bypass some of the lesser-known pieces, and focus on some of the most important and famous pieces in the collection.
At the end of the museum is a staircase that leads you to perhaps the most famous room in the museum. The Sistine Chapel is the location for Catholic clergy meetings and other important Vatican services since its construction in 1473 AD. Inside the chapel is a visual overload of frescoes created by the greatest artists of all time including Bernini, Signorelli, Raphael, Rosselli, Botticelli, and of course Michelangelo. His most famous fresco, covering 12,000 square feet of the ceiling took four years, with him standing and craning his neck on scaffolding 68 feet up in the air. It consists of 59 panels, the middle nine, depicting stories of Noah, the creation of the world, and the creation and fall of Adam and Eve, which are perhaps the most famous. These are surrounded by frescos of the prophets and Sibyls, which in turn are surrounded by frescos of Jesus' ancestors.
Your private Civitavecchia shore excursion guide will lead your group to another staircase that will take you from the chapel down to a side entrance of St. Peter's Basilica. The church has the largest area and volume of any Christian church in the world and can accommodate 60,000 people. The current church started in 1506, and was built over the first St. Peter's Church built in the 4th century A.D. The current altar was created over the spot where St. Peter, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and considered to be the first Pope, is believed to have been crucified and buried.
The construction took almost 120 years during which time more than 20 popes and over 10 designers added their influence to the design and construction. The seventh designer, Michelangelo, then in his seventies, is given credit for a majority of the buildings you see today. Some of the many treasures within the church are Michelangelo's cupola, Bernini's 66-foot-high sculpted bronze canopy, mosaic paintings, and Michelangelo's "Pieta" which he carved when he was only 24. The total time in Vatican City is approximately three hours.
From the Vatican, you will drive to Old Rome. You will then have approximately 60 minutes of free time to grab a quick lunch, shop, or sightsee. The cost of lunch is not included in your excursion price. After the break, your guide will lead you on a walking exploration to some of the must-see attractions in this area including Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon. All too soon, you will say goodbyes to your guide rejoin your driver, and head back to your cruise ship pier in Civitavecchia, approximately 80 minutes away.
Please note the sequence of visits may change due to traffic. Anticipate large crowds at all sites.
PLEASE NOTE: Vatican regulations require the following information from the guest booking the excursion, at the time of booking. 1) Name, 2) Birth date, 3) Place of birth as it appears on their valid passport. This ONLY applies to the person making the booking and not everyone in the group. This guest must also present the same passport used for booking to the Vatican officials upon arrival at the museum.
For smaller groups of 8 or fewer, please see our
Civitavecchia Private Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica, and Sistine Chapel Excursion.
Where we meet
For the Civitavecchia Private Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica, and Sistine Chapel Sightseeing Excursion, you will meet your local excursion staff at your Civitavecchia cruise ship port transportation hub, located at the main entrance to the port. All necessary details will be printed on your Electronic Shore Excursion Ticket. Please allow enough time to catch the port shuttle to the transportation hub for your private excursion departure.
Cancellation
For the Civitavecchia Private Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica, and Sistine Chapel Sightseeing Excursion, we issue full refund for your deposit or full payment to us if: Canceled by client prior to excursion date with a minimum of 24 hours prior notice by email to reservations@shoreexcursioneer.com.
For cancellation reasons below, you must contact us via email within 14 days after your excursion:
- Your ship arrives into port late and you cannot make it in time to the meeting location (we will verify with the tour operator).
- Your ship skips/misses the port.
- Weather conditions or equipment failure prevents the operator from running the excursion.
- A medical problem prevents you from safely participating in the excursion (we will verify with the excursion operator and the guest may send doctor's note). This applies to individuals only and not the remainder of the group.
- Cancellations/deposit refund requests that do not comply with the above may not be subject to refund.
- Refunds may be subject to a service charge fee as determined by the payment processor, please refer to Terms and Conditions for more information.
