The Best Way to Visit Vatican City: A Small Group Early Entrance Tour

Last Updated on March 8, 2026 by Adrienne

On our first visit to Rome, I had a visit to Vatican City near the top of my agenda. Unfortunately, is also happens to be near the top of the agenda of everybody else visiting Rome. While I’m a planner by nature, a lot of things can be winged on vacation without any real downsides. But Vatican City is one thing that you really do need to carefully plan in advance. The good news is that with some advance planning, a visit here can be low stress and allow you to focus on enjoying the incredible art and history.

How to Visit the Vatican

“The Vatican” is a catch-all term for the Vatican Museums (which includes the famed Sistine Chapel), the Vatican Gardens, St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square. If you want to visit independently, you can purchase tickets to the Vatican Museums & Gardens online. Visiting St. Peter’s Basilica is free, but you can purchase a ticket online to go to the top of the dome, or reserve a free timed entrance ticket to minimize how much you have to wait in line. If you want to tour the Vatican Museums and go to the dome of St. Peter’s, you will need two separate tickets, but most people combine these into a single visit to Vatican City.

Many people also choose to visit the Vatican on a guided tour, particularly an “early entrance” guided tour that gets you in before the general public. If you have the budget for this and want to make the most of your visit to the Vatican, I highly recommend doing an early entrance tour, especially in peak season.

Our Vatican Museums + Sistine Chapel Small Group Early Entrance Tour with LivTours

As soon as I heard about LivTours‘ Early Entrance Semi-Private Vatican Tour, which offers entrance to the Vatican Museums an hour before the public gets in and caps tour groups at six people, I knew it would be a great fit for what I wanted out of a Vatican City tour. There’s also an option to upgrade to a private tour if you want an even more exclusive experience.

We met our tour guide outside the gates of Vatican City at 7:15 am. I’m the opposite of a morning person, so the early start time was a bit painful but I’ll do just about anything in the name of avoiding crowds. We weren’t able to go inside until 8 am, but the time wasn’t wasted just standing around. Instead, our guide Sergio briefed our group – which was just four people including us – about what we would be seeing. It was a great chance to talk without having to worry about speaking in a museum-appropriate volume, and to get our questions answered in advance so that when we were inside we could focus on the art.

After a quick stop for surprisingly tasty coffee from the vending machines inside the Vatican (which was so appreciated since the early morning meant we’d missed breakfast at our hotel) we headed into the museum. You can walk inside the Vatican Museums for seven miles without retracing your steps, so I think it’s fairly obvious why a guided tour is important to make sure you hit the highlights. We started by visiting sights like the Octagonal Courtyard, Dome of the Sala Rotonda and the Gallery of Tapestries.

Don’t forget to constantly look both up and down, as so much of what makes the museum special is its intricate floors and ceilings.

My favorite room was the Gallery of Maps, which is home to not only all sorts of ancient maps of Italy (so interesting for a nerd like me!) but also the most beautiful gold-plated ceiling.

Our tour of the Vatican Museums concluded with a visit to the Raphael Rooms of the papal apartments, just about every square inch of which are covered in Raphael’s beautiful paintings.

Then it was time for the most famous of Vatican sights – the Sistine Chapel! Even at the earlier hour, there were already quite a few people inside but there was plenty of space to sit down on the benches lining the walls and admire the view, and Sergio told us it was nothing compared to the crowds later in the day. We had as much time here as we wanted, and met at a designated point once we were ready to go.

There are no photos allowed in the Sistine Chapel, and I was actually kind of glad for that, since it forced me to put my camera down and really appreciate Michelangelo’s masterpiece. Sergio had described all the frescoes of the chapel to us in advance (in a much more engaging way than my high school history teachers, I might add) and we were given this handy laminated card to take inside with us.

From the Sistine Chapel, we exited right into the stunning St. Peter’s Basilica, skipping the long line to get inside. As noted above, St. Peter’s is free to visit even if you don’t have a Vatican museum ticket, but the lines deter many perspective guests. Sergio also gave us a quick tour of the Basilica, which is the final resting place of many popes.

I was really happy with our LivTours early entrance tour. Sergio had extensive knowledge about the art and history and it was a really efficient way to visit all the Vatican must-sees with no lines and minimal crowds.

St. Peter’s Basilica Dome Add-On

Our tour did not include a visit to the top of the dome of St. Peter’s, but it was easy to do that on our own immediately after parting ways with Sergio, and since we were already inside there was no wait. As of 2026, tickets are ‎€8 for adults (slightly more if you want to take an elevator part of the way) and although the climb is long and a bit claustrophobia-inducing, I definitely think it’s worth it. From the top you have really nice views of St. Peter’s Square and the Vatican Gardens, and you also get to see the dome up close from the outside.

St. Peter’s Square

When we were done with the dome climb we walked through St. Peter’s Square – stopping to admire the Basilica from the front of course – to the gates of Vatican City and back into Italy. It’s such a weird feeling to change countries just by walking across the street.

What to Know Before You Go to Vatican City

Other than purchasing your tour or tickets in advance, the main thing to be mindful of is dress code. Like many holy religious sites, the Vatican expects visitors to dress modestly. Both men and women should cover knees, shoulders and midriffs. Jeans are fine from a modesty perspective, although Rome is very hot in the summer months and I recommend linen pants or a long skirt/dress for comfort.

Disclosure: I was a guest of LivTours on this tour and my husband received a discount on his tour as my companion. As always, my opinions are entirely my own. This post contains affiliate links. If you book an experience through my link, I will earn a commission at no added cost to you. Thank you for your support of Destinations & Desserts.

Looking for more about our trip to Rome? Check out my itinerary for four days in Rome, our trip to ancient Roman ruins and our food tour of Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood.