To dig deep into the history and art of St Peter’s Basilica, explore the church on a walking tour with a Vatican guide. From St Peter’s Square, walk to the basilica. Inside, listen to stories about the popes, pilgrims and Renaissance art masters who have left their marks on this iconic Catholic site, whose Michelangelo-designed dome dominates the Rome skyline.

Walking tour of St Peter's Basilica and Square
Gaze in awe at the impressive dome designed by Michelangelo
Rub the foot of the statue of St Peter, and see Michelangelo's La Pietà

What's Included

Guided tour of St. Peter's Basilica & the Cupola
Entrance ticket to the Cupola
Breakfast at the bar "Al San Michele"
Headsets

Access to the Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel
Skip-the-line access

Meeting And Pickup

Meeting point

Borgo Santo Spirito, 17
Borgo Santo Spirito, 17, 00193 Roma RM, Italy
Meet your guide at the bar "Al San Michele" where you can take advantage of your included delicious Italian breakfast before starting your guided tour.

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

What To Expect

Meet your guide in the heart of Vatican City to begin your walking tour of one of Rome’s most legendary landmarks. Starting in St Peter’s Basilica, walk over to 2000 years of history. The tour will end in the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican.

Throughout the centuries, the humble church grew into the ornate icon it is today—the holiest of Roman Catholic sites. With your guide, walk around to see Renaissance art like Michelangelo’s La Pietà sculpture, as well as his cupolone—St Peter’s famous dome.

Admire mosaic works, see a statue of St Peter, visit the tomb of Pope John Paul II and stare in wonder at Bernini’s baldacchino, the elaborate canopy alter that sits above St Peter’s tomb. Your tour ends inside the basilica, where you may continue exploring independently, if you wish.

Included in your visit you will receive Vox City Guide, an audio-experiences selfguided visit of the city of Rome with audio commentary and stories from local experts. The code to download your VCG will be delivered directly to the Basilica.

St. Peter's Square

3 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

La Pieta

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

St. Peter's Basilica

45 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Vatican City

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Baldacchino di San Pietro, di Bernini

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Obelisco Vaticano

3 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Cupola di San Pietro

40 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Monument to Alexander VII

3 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Tomba di Giovanni Paolo II

3 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Porta Santa

3 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

St. Peter Enthroned

3 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Tomb of Urban VIII

3 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Basilica Papale di San Pietro

40 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Vatican Grottoes

5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Fontane di Piazza San Pietro

3 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Apolistic Palace (Pass By)

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Entrance to the Vatican requires a strict dress code (shoulders and knees must be covered - Low cut or sleeveless tops or shorts are not allowed for both men and women). Clients that do not adhere to the dress code will not be permitted entry to the Vatican.
Meet your guide at the bar "Al San Michele" (Borgo santo Spirito 17) where you can take advatage of the included breakfast
Not recommended for people with heath conditions as there will be 300 steps to climb to the top of the Cupola
Wheelchair accessible
Near public transportation

Surfaces are wheelchair accessible
Not recommended for pregnant travellers
No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
Travellers should have a moderate physical fitness level
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 30 travellers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.

Traveller Photos

Traveller Tips

Disorganised check-in,but otherwise worthwhile to have been able to skip the line and get in to St Peters.

The Basilica is a must see, but having the full understanding is essential.

All in all an excellent cultural experience well worth the money.

Reviews

4.5

1,554 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travellers.

Showing 1-10 of 1,554 reviews

It’s a Disaster

Helen_O, May 2023

The dreadful that guide who was unbearable to listen to more interested in his own story and did not explain to people about the amount of steps to the dome

Wonderful place; great guide.

Declan_R, May 2023

The guide was very knowledgeable and had great communication skills. St Peter’s is just an amazing place in terms of scale and details; she made it human! Excellent…

Terrible experience

Claudia_P, May 2023

No breakfast was offered and no warning that there would be a 3-4 hour waiting time to get into the basilica. I bought 2 tickets for me and my 75 year old mom but it was too difficult for her to wait for hours in the line. So we lost our money and when we asked the company to at least honour the breakfast that we paid for, we never heard back. What a disappointment this tour was for the amount of money we paid! Skip it or at least try another company, maybe they will at least have the business ethics to at least refund you partially.

They were not there for...

Mary_P, May 2023

They were not there for our tour. On Sunday for the coliseum we waited over 3 hours for Frederick to come and he NEVER showed. Another tour guide called him and he said he had cancelled. I want a refund for our St Peters your I am so upset about this I am using my sisters phone please my email is teatdtope6@gmail .com my name for this booking is Mary lou planko. iI want a full refund for my Discover now. Also so many people with our tour had the same problem

Tour guide was all over...

Robert_K, Apr 2023

Tour guide was all over the place, never really stayed on point! Was concerned where the bathrooms were! A bit confused, the Vatican and Cupola was magnificent!!

See the best first and linger as long as you’d like to see the rest.

Gail_H, Apr 2023

The cafe where we began was a great start with excellent pastries and coffee to chose from. Our guid was experienced, knowledgeable and ensured we all saw the highlights of the Basilica and walked safely through the cupola on a very wet day in Rome.

Don`t buy this tour as it is thrown out money - you don`t get anything for your money

Ivana_R, Apr 2023

No worth for money. The breakfast = coffee + croissant to go. The entrance into Basilica is for free. You pay only for cupola - 8 EUR by stairs/ 10 EUR by elevator. Kids for free. To get into Basilica you have to wait into queue for safety control, no special / quicker entrance for organized groups. We spent there almost one hour and during this hour we got VERY POOR information about Basilica or Vatican as "Pope is very close", "you are lucky that the sun is shining and we have no rain" ... The guide had no flag so it was very hard to follow her in the crowded basilica. Even we were the group of around 15 people and we were following the guide all the time, we got lost at the total end of the tour and spent around 1 hour more by looking for the place where to return the radio. We paid 4 adults price (as there was no option for kids) and the costs were 4 croissants, 4 teas and 2 x 10 EUR for entrance into cupola (and finally we decided to go by stairs as the queue for elevator was very long). We got almost no information from the guide. So the costs 50 EUR maximum and we paid 214,40USD!!! Please, don`t buy this tour as it is thrown out money and our worst experience of the Rome.

Roma

Lucy_M, Jan 2023

We had a great tour guide, he knew details on some many of the land markers within the Basilica/Vatican!! It was so worth the price.

Great tour of the basilica.

Daniel_L, Jan 2023

Its really a must to visit the St Peters basilica when in Rome. Furthermore, the guide was excellent and very knowledgeable describing the artefacts and sights in superb detail. I was enjoying this tour immensely.

St Peter’s Basilica

John_D, Dec 2022

St Peter’s Basilica: Pieta, St Peter’s tomb, Pope John Paul 11, - the whole experience was wonderful!

St. Peter’s Basilica

Denise_P, Dec 2022

Very informative and well worth your time. There is so much lost in what you are viewing without a tour guide. If it is of interest, outside of the gift shop, a Priest with bless your purchases and your family as well as fill any containers with Holy water.

Overwhelming.

Barbara_W, Dec 2022

Seeing the pieta and The archway and some other pieces of art. I was disappointed that there were very few places people to sit down. I would suggest the guide cuts down the overload on the info and provides a place for people to sit somewhere and contemplate some art other than sitting down in front of a pope's corpse.

Save Some Money and Get a Printed Guide

MARILEE_M, Nov 2022

While the guide was knowledgeable I suppose, it was impossible to understand her very well and her pace in the Basilica was too slow. Also, we should have been told about how we would have to go through the long entry line before meeting her. Because we didn’t know that, we missed our tour time. She was also late, so it made it even worse. We ended up walking around the Basilica on our own getting absolutely no information.

Waste of money

Javier_A, Nov 2022

Waste of money. They don’t advertise clearly you have to wait the same queue of the free visit. We arrived late, no refound posibility, only wait 2 hours for the next tour.

Great experience

KellieAnne_P, Nov 2022

Amazing experience the guide had lots of interesting information to share and made it very enjoyable.

Vatican City

Iain_M, Nov 2022

Had a great day visiting St Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican City. Had a very knowledgeable guide who gave us fantastic information about this amazing place

St. Peter’s Basilica - be prepared for the most beautiful place you have ever seen!

Yuiet_I, Nov 2022

The Basilica was so beautiful and our guide was amazing! Unfortunately we forgot her name as we were in awe of the beauty and had two previous tours in the day, but she was fantastic! A guide is a must as you will learn so much! If you have time after the tour - you should spend time exploring more. So much beauty and history to see!

St Peter's Basilica Guided Tour

Ann_F, Nov 2022

The inside of St Peter's Basilica is amazing and Sarah, our guide, was funny and informative. Well worth the visit. Visitors still need to queue up for the security checkpoints so allow plenty of time.

Great

Harold_M, Nov 2022

Sal was a brilliant guide One of the best Great day due to Sal He answered all of my questions and elaborated on points that other guides didn’t do he is a credit to your organisation and I would very happy to have him as a guide again when I return to Rome next year

We were in the queue for...

Linda_M, Nov 2022

We were in the queue for police checks and entrance more than 2 hours before our slot as we'd seen how busy it was the day before. As our time slot approached we spoke to the police about moving up the queue so we didn't miss the tour but there's no way around the police checks and certainly no separate entrance for pre booked tours. Entrance to the Basilica is free. Next time I'd queue, get free entrance and hire an audio guide. Total waste of money. Not recommended in any way

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