Visiting the Vatican Museums with Kids and LivItaly Tours

Easter weekend in Rome is the busiest time to visit with pilgrims and tourists from around the world converging to celebrate this holy occasion. We decided to embrace the chaos of long queues and massive crowds to join in all the activities. Plus, I will never turn down any opportunity to visit Italy. We spent my kids’ Spring Break last week in Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast and Rome.

My husband and I visited Rome over seven years ago without the kids so we were excited to show them the Eternal City. It would have been sacrilegious not to show them the Sistine Chapel but we knew we were facing incredibly long lines and large crowds.

These take away from appreciating the museums and the masterpieces. LivItaly Tours’ Early Entrance tour to the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica was our saving grace. Go on a virtual tour with us through these incredible attractions.

Our tour started at a meeting point outside the entrance of the Vatican Museum entrance at 7:15 AM. We met our tour guide, Marcello, who we instantly knew was going to make this a fun tour. He spoke excellent English and had such a great personality.

LivItaly’s tours are designed with a maximum of six people. But, we were paired up with another American family with two teenage sons due to the number of people who signed up and number of tour guides. We didn’t mind and it worked out well to have kids the same age doing this tour together. We all walked at the same pace and the kids could relate well to each other.

The museum opened at 8AM so there was still some lining up to do. But, the tour groups have a special line and everything moved quickly after it opened. Marcello led us to a desk to get a device that would allow him to talk to all of us without yelling over the crowd of people. We each had the device tuned to a specific channel and with a headset.

The Vatican Museums are made up of several museums, rooms, two palaces, courtyards and even apartments. It is a large complex that houses paintings, sculptures, archaeological objects and priceless art pieces that were collected by the Popes throughout several centuries. It was founded by Pope Julius II in the 16^th century.

It has a diverse collection that includes mummies, ancient busts, household items from ancient times, tapestries, etc. Of course, the most famous area is the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo’s masterpieces.

As you can see, we had some areas practically to ourselves early in our visit. It made such a huge difference with enjoying the art and architecture while trying not to get pushed around in the process.

Marcello asked us if we didn’t mind going to the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel first. These were the two most visited sections of the Vatican Museums. This would require a bit more walking later on but would beat most of the other tour groups and early risers. Beating the crowds was a good tradeoff for doing a bit more walking.

Raphael Rooms

These four rooms used to be Pope Julius II’s private apartments. Raphael, one of the Renaissance masters, painted these frescoes from 1508 to 1520. His students continued the paintings after Raphael died in 1524. Raphael was only able to complete two of the rooms. The other two rooms were a combination of his work and his students.

The most famous room is Stanza della Segnatura (Roo of Signature). This contained Pope Julius II’s private library with four frescoes showing the pillars of knowledge: Theology, Philosophy, Poetry and Law.

The School of Athens (for Philosophy) is one that was most familiar to us. A portion of it, where Plato and Aristotle were in a discussion, was used in the museum ticket.

My daughter was excited to see this painting in person. She recently took AP European History and they analyzed this painting. I love it when travel and education meet down the road.

It was interesting to know that Raphael used Da Vinci to portray Plato. He also put Michelangelo as the figure on the bottom part of the steps and painted himself in the right hand corner. As Marcello pointed out, it was the selfie of his time to make the kids associate it with the modern times.

The ceilings on these rooms were also incredible. It was understandable why these rooms were the most visited after the Sistine Chapel. Don’t miss them!

The Sistine Chapel

The star of the Vatican Museums is undoubtedly the Sistine Chapel. Construction started in 1475 and was named after Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere. It’s not a very big chapel but filled with some of the best works of arts and priceless frescoes. The walls consisted of biblical scenes from Moses and Jesus Christ’s lives painted in the 15^th century as well as portraits of various Popes.

No photos are allowed inside the Sistine Chapel. It was at first due to licensing rights after a Japanese company paid for the restoration of the artwork but also because it is a sacred place. The guards keep a very watchful eye. If you really need to see photos of the famous ceiling, Google will show you many results.

The ceiling is called the History of Mankind before Christ based on the Old Testament. The one section most singled out and most famous was the Creation of Adam. Did you know that the background behind God is shaped like a brain? It took Michelangelo about four years from 1508-1512 to complete.

This was my second time seeing this masterpiece and it still took my breath away. It is mind blowing to think that one man created this incredible piece by himself with such intricate details and incorporating it into the architecture of the ceiling. It is also fascinating just how high the ceiling actually is.

My kids have seen videos and photos of the Sistine Chapel and were in awe when we walked in. Nothing can really prepare you for seeing in person the extraordinary ceiling and the frescoes.

Michelangelo also created The Last Judgement fresco on the altar wall 20 years after he finished the ceiling. This chapel was still used for some of the Pope’s private services. It is famously used by the Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals or conclave when voting for the next Pope.

We spent about 20 minutes at the chapel admiring Michelangelo’s masterpieces. It wasn’t as crowded yet which meant there were actually many seats available along the wall. The floor area wasn’t wall to wall filled with people and we could walk around freely.

I’ve heard stories from friends of not being able to move while visiting the Sistine Chapel during the summer season. We were so grateful to Marcello for giving us the opportunity to enjoy these amazing masterpieces for a reasonable amount of time and with some comfort. It made our visit here so much more enjoyable.

Other Vatican Museums Highlights

Take some time to see the details up close of the many tapestries hanging around the Gallery of the Tapestries. The intricate work is beyond remarkable. These were Flemish tapestries made from drawings by Raphael’s pupils.

The Gallery of Maps is my favorite area to photograph. Its ceiling reminds me a lot of the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. The room has 40 map frescoes that represented Italian regions and Pope Gregory XIII’s properties when they were painted in the 1580s. The ceiling has so many intricate details and it just seems to glow with all the gilded features.

We  also visited the Round Room or Sala Rotonda which was aptly named due to its shape. Its dome  was based on Rome’s Pantheon. The centerpiece was a large basin believed to have been in Emperor Nero’s house. Huge sculptures lined the wall but the most impressive was a gilded bronze statue of Hercules from the 2^nd century.

Busts, anyone? We went through the Hall or Gallery of Busts. This long corridor may have possibly had the largest collection of Greek and Roman busts. You name it, the gallery seemed to have every sort of person carved up.

The Vatican Museums have some wonderful courtyards and a great place to enjoy during warmer weather. Unfortunately, it was raining during our visit so we couldn’t fully enjoy it. We did walk through the well-trodden one quickly to see the sphere.

From the Sistine Chapel, we took the “shortcut” to St Peter’s Basilica. We understood this was only supposed to be for tour groups and individuals are supposed to go back to the museum. Though, there was really no guard watching the entrance.

St. Peter’s Basilica

St. Peter’s Basilica is the largest church in the world. I’ve visited many European churches over the years and I really believe this is the most beautiful church. Of course, the Catholic in me may be a little biased.

By the time we reached St. Peter’s Basilica, it was close to 11 AM and people were rushing to get in since the church was closing at 1 PM due to preparations for the Easter Vigil mass and the huge Easter mass the following day. The line outside to get in was ridiculously long so I’m glad we were already past security.

There were so many people trying to get into St. Peter’s Basilica. Despite moving slowly, we actually lost my 15-year-old daughter for a few minutes. She did know to go someplace where she could easily be seen and where we last made contact. My husband and Marcello found her with the help of that device.

We were inside this church several times before and it still astonishes me many years later. It was massive with so many impressive details, statues, mosaics and art pieces. The architecture is beyond incredible.

The church was shaped like a cross with the center positioned over St. Peter’s tomb. This interior has a capacity for 60,000 people. Since it was still Holy Week, some areas were covered including the famous Pieta by Michelangelo. The line that went through the interior moved slowly and we also couldn’t get as close to the altar or some areas.

It was hard to miss the huge canopy with four twisted marble columns known as the baldachin or baldacchino at the center of the papal altar created by Bernini. The bronzed 90 feet (30 m) tall, columns are decorated with gold vine leaves. It’s an extraordinary piece of work.

The Cathedra Petri or Throne of St. Peter is behind the baldacchino.  This extravagant sculpture of a larger gold and bronze chair encloses the relic of St. Peter’s chair he used for teaching. It is crowned with gold angelic sculptures and a stained glass window with a dove in the center symbolizing the Holy Spirit, the Church’s soul.

If you look to the bottom right, you could see the bronzed Statue of St. Peter Enthroned.  Its one extended foot has been worn away by faithful pilgrims who have kissed/caressed the foot to show their devotion to the saint. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get quite close to it.

It is quite overwhelming to visit the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica and even more so during busy seasons. We were so glad to do this LivItaly guided tour and highly recommend it. We learned so much compared to our self-guided tours from our last visit. There were so many things we missed. We also saw some previous exhibits from a different perspective.

This shows how important guided tours are for museums and historic churches especially when traveling with kids. Marcello, our guide, made sure we didn’t miss anything important and kept the kids engrossed throughout the whole tour. It’s not an easy feat to do with teens and museums. It was a fun but also educational tour and we’d gladly do it again.

Tips for Visiting the Vatican Museums with Kids

• Book a guided tour as soon as you know your itinerary. Our specific LivItaly Tours is called Vatican Early Entrance Small Group Tour. We highly recommend doing this tour to beat the crowds and especially if you’re traveling during the high season like summer, Christmas season or Easter week. It starts at 7:30 AM and lasts for 3.5 hours.
• Check out the rest of LivItaly’s Rome Tours. We now regret not doing the Colosseum tour with them too.
• Admission (included with tour price): 17 euros for Adults. Kids/Students under 25 are 8 euros. Kids under 6 are free. There is an extra 4 Euros to reserve online for “Skip the line”.
• Hours: Vatican museums are closed on Sundays and Catholic holidays. Though, the Vatican Museums are open and free on the last Sunday of each month from 9AM to 2 PM. Last entry is at 12;30 PM. Expect this time to be very crowded.
• Bring your own headsets to plug into tour group device. The headset lent out only had one earpiece.
• Dress Appropriately: Since you will also be entering St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel on this tour, it is important to wear appropriate clothing. No hats, sleeveless, shorts or skirts that aren’t covering the knees.
• Wear comfortable, walking shoes. It’s a lot of walking.
• Get plenty of rest the night before since you will wake up early and will do a lot of walking.
• Use the restrooms/toilets before tour starts. There were some by the ticket area inside.
• Photography is allowed in all areas of the museums but with no flash. No photography is allowed in the Sistine Chapel. Flash photography is allowed inside St Peter’s Basilica. No tripods or selfie sticks.
• Eat a good breakfast that will last until lunchtime. Bring some sort of snack or granola bars for the kids in between. There is a cafeteria inside the museums.
• Don’t bring large backpacks. This would require checking it in and backtracking to the entrance to pick it up. It is free to check in items at the cloakroom but check their rules and restrictions.

Disclosure: LivItaly Tours graciously provided my kids and I with the complimentary Vatican Early Entrance Small Group Tour. All opinions and photos are our own.

*Have you visited the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica?

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