A guided tour of the Vatican Museums: how does it work?

It is inevitable to visit the Vatican museums during your stay in Rome. To make the most of it, we advise you to choose a guided tour in order to have precise information about the history of the Vatican City, Rome, etc. Knowing how the tour works will also help you prepare your questions. In this article, we will tell you about the steps of the guided tour.

The model of the Vatican

It consists of giving you overall explanations about the Vatican and the museum. They will include why it exists, where the works come from, how it works, etc. This is the advantage of doing these activities with a guided tour to get more information. This information will give you an idea of what you will see next. In other words, they will put you in the context of the visit. Indeed, the guide takes the time to tell you about the history of the country. Having an idea of the history will allow you to better understand what you are going to see on site. The goal is to situate you in space and time.

The Belvedere courtyard

After the first step, you will spend time in the Belvedere courtyard to again get explanations of the buildings there. This is where you will see the giant golden ball that is of interest. We talk in particular about the sphere in the sphere, that is to say a small sphere embedded in a larger one. It is also in the Belvedere courtyard that you will get more details about the Sistine Chapel. Normally the visit to the chapel is scheduled for the end, but explanations are given in advance because talking in this sacred place is forbidden. Before arriving at the chapel, you will take a tour of one of the most beautiful galleries in the Vatican. It is the gallery of the geographical maps. Many visitors don't linger here too long because they are in a hurry to visit the next room. The room in question is the most famous in the Vatican. The gallery is still a room with many details and the explanations of the guide will allow you to learn more about maps. Remember also that these maps are no longer relevant today, but they are still part of history. Finally, you will visit the Sistine Chapel which represents the icing on the cake. This is the place that motivates most visitors when they want to visit the Vatican museums.

Chiaramonti and pio-clementino museum

Passing through the chiaramonti museum is unavoidable to access the main museum buildings. You will see the sculptures of important and intellectual personalities of the time as well as hundreds of busts. In all this impressive collection, the guide will be pleased to show you the most emblematic of them. Afterwards, you will continue the visit in the Pio-Clementino museum. It is composed of several emblematic works of the Vatican arranged in several rooms. These are quite famous works, so you will need a guide to explain and tell you the history of each of them. In fact, without the help of one, you may not understand anything. There is nothing more pleasant during a visit than to understand what you are seeing. Through the explanations, you will know what inspired the artists, the techniques and materials used for the realization. The reason why the statues were sculpted will also be explained. 

This is how a guided tour of the Vatican Museums works.