Private/semi-private Vatican tour and Scavi questions
 

To continue my earlier thread from a few months back, we will be an extended family of 8 in Rome this June and I am considering the following options for the Vatican:

- either the Pristine Sistine or a similar one with Italy with Us, both at 8am.
- getting a private guide for our group of 8, but I don't think we'd be able to start at 8am
- a private tour by the Vatican

While I'd really like to take the early 8am tour its going to cost quite a bit for the 8 of us, which makes me wonder if I could get a private guide for that price. How much would a private guide cost, could you recommend anyone? Also, does the Vatican have tours for private or small groups? I know that they have an after-hours tour, but that's not what I'm looking at.

I have also emailed for the Scavi tour but haven't heard from them, not even the automated reply everyone else seems to get. Would it help to call and ask, has anyone got spots on the tour without getting the automated reply?

Look forward to your input, thanks in advance!

We used Walks of Italy last March for our Vatican Tour. It is an early start but you go to the Sistine Chapel first and you get some time there with not many other tourists. It was worth it for us. The 1st time we went you could barely see because of the wall to wall people.

We also went on the Scavi Tour. I had some problems with our regular email going through and had to use our g-mail account to get everything set up. It was highly worth getting in to see this. Good Luck!

The Scavi tour will be tough to get with a group of eight.
I would send two separate requests for groups of four and four.

Look at Context tours for private groups. They do a Vatican four hour tour for 405 euro, but I don't know how many they allow in the group.

I can highly recommend AngelToursRome to you. I have used them several times and recommended them to many others who booked their tours. They like small groups so your group of 8 would be perfect!

http://angeltours.eu/rome

They have a skip the line tour which starts at 1 pm. Check it out on the website. We did an afternoon tour and it worked out well.

Scavi tour: we booked tixs for this but don't think we waited long to hear. Give it some more time. The Angels can work around your Scavi tour time as well and coordinate Vatican tour w/ Scavi. They only take 15 people in Scavi tour so not likely your group of 8 would all go together. We had a group of 6 and had to split into 2 groups but the Angels took us for tour of St. Peter's while each group did Scavi Tour. You get to see something rather than hang around and wait for all your group.

They also offer a free Pantheon tour so check that out on the website too! I think you would be very pleased with the Angels. TA has lots of reviews of their tours too.

Good luck. Enjoy Rome, it's my favorite place!

Bookmark

Another recommendation for Context Rome tours. Our docent was amazing.

http://www.contexttravel.com/city/ro...hed-walk=80506

Thanks a lot for your suggestions. Context's private tours are for 6, you pay 40 euros for each extra person, the maximum in a group being 10. But you also pay the Vatican entrance, so maybe I'd be better off taking the Pristine Sistine tour since we get early access to the Sistine chapel before the regular crowds. This will also work slightly cheaper, though it isn't a major issue since we won't be doing this again anytime soon.

As for Scavi, will email them once again from a gmail account. I have asked for 2 lots of 4, I know it would be hard to fit the 8 of us in one group. I'd only like to know one way or the other asap since until then I'm not able to schedule/book my Vatican tour.

Thanks again, will let you know how it goes...:)

If there are children in the group, they won't be allowed on the Scavi tour. Supposed to be 15 and up, but I don't know how strict they are about it.

Kybourbon, our kids are 18 and 20, so we're good, but thanks for the tip, understand Scavi is quite strict about the 15+ rule.

Has anyone taken a tour with Roman Odyssey, they are reviewed quite well on some of the other forums and I might go with them, they will put a group together just for us.

http://www.romanodyssey.com/tours_semiprivate.htm

Any other guides you would recommend?

We used Walks of italy. Primarily because they have max group size of 12 people. No herd mentality on this tour and because we got into the Sistine chapel an hour or so before the regular opening hours. We had a max of 100 people in the chapel with us (other tour groups with the same privileges) Later on the chapel was so crowded one could hardly move. By contrast I was able to sit on a bench and study every panel with binoculars. Worth every penny.
While we were not allowed to take photos here are some images of our trip to Rome. You can see the Vatican museums in the album.
Rome http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr5...7634677664021/

Yes stanbr, that is why I wamt to do the 8am Vatican tour, to be with as few people as possible in the Sistine Chapel. Rome is one of my fav places and this trip will be extra special as we'll have a mini family reunion there, we're all looking forward to it...:)