Good tour for your second day in Rome. I hope you'll have spent the day before visiting Rome, than you'll be prepared for this. This tour can be done in the afternoon, in the morning or even in the middle of the day. If you feel tired from touring Rome the day before you can start later, around 11:00 and you'll be done at 3:00 pm so you can go shopping, unless you want to do another tour with me!

Short description of the itinerary:

The itinerary of the driven part will vary according to the location of your hotel and then, once at the Vatican, well go through the Cortile della Pigna, Pius-Clementine museum, Barberini gallery, Gallery of Geographic maps, Raphael's rooms, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's church. At the end of this we'll drive back your hotel.

Possible inclusions: Spanish Steps (stop),  Piazza Navona (stop), Pantheon and St. Mary' above Minerva (visit),

More sites and curiosities, less known than the places listed above, will be brought to your attention while driving. Remember: you'll always see more than you'll be expecting to see!

Many people think the Sistine Chapel is the most important site to see in Rome and they have to visit it first, then visit everything else if there's time. I don't fully agree with that, I recommend to dedicate a separate half day to the visit of the Vatican to have one full day for Rome and enjoy it thoroughly. But if you only have one day and you really want to see the Sistine, here's the tour for you.

Short description of the itinerary:

Via Veneto and Piazza Barberini (drive),  Via del Corso (drive), Trevi Fountain (stop), Four fountains crossing (drive), Quirinale Palace (drive), Piazza Venezia (stop), Colosseum (visit), Key Hole (curiosity), Aventine Hill and Circus Maximus (stop), Vatican (visit).

Possible inclusions: Spanish Steps (stop),  Piazza Navona (stop), Pantheon and St. Mary' above Minerva (visit),

More sites and curiosities, less known than the places listed above, will be brought to your attention while driving. Remember: you'll always see more than you'll be expecting to see!

Rates per vehicle for this full-day tour:
sedan (1/4 persons) 380 €.

minivan (5/8 persons) 480 €.

supplement full day driving guide 100 € (the driving guide will guide you through the Vatican)

supplement for private guide at the Vatican 150 €

These rates include:

4 hours of touring (including pick up and drop off) in the requested vehicle conducted by experienced English speaking driver.

Rates do not include entrance fees or meals and drinks and VAT (value added tax) 10 %.

If you stay in a hotel near the Vatican, in you toured Rome already or if you want to save some money, we can meet at the entrance of the Vatican Museums, I guide you around and then we each go our own way!

Short description of the itinerary:

Generally we go through the Cortile della Pigna, Pius-Clementine museum, Barberini gallery, Gallery of Geographic maps, Raphael's rooms, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's church.

More sites and curiosities, less known than the places listed above, will be brought to your attention while driving. Remember: you'll always see more than you'll be expecting to see!

In case you've already visited Rome and Tivoli, or if the only day that is available for you is a Monday, when Villa D'Este is closed, the alternative is to visit the Roman Castles.

Instead of Tivoli, I'll take you to the charming, little and medieval hill-top towns of Castelgandolfo and Nemi.

Each one of these two town overlooks a natural volcanic lake and they are both located in the area that produces the white wine we drink in Rome.

This tour takes to one of the most visited places in Rome, the Sistine Chapel, with an excursion to another very famous place: the Roman Castles. This is what we call the hilly area south-east of Rome where the wine that is consumed in Rome comes from, since the days of the Ancient Romans. I prefer visiting the Vatican in the morning and the Castles in the afternoon. But that's not always possible because of the lines to enter the Vatican Museums. For sure making a reservation would help, by I also rely on my acquaintances at the Vatican who make mw skip the line for a tip. When their on duty. Anyway, after visiting the Vatican we stop a restaurant on the way for lunch. If we leave the Vatican early enough to get to the Roman Castles at a decent time we can dine at one of the restaurants there overlooking the lakes, otherwise we'll stop at some other nice place on the way, which could be "Sora Rosa" on the old Appian Way. After visiting the quaint towns of Castel Gandolfo and Nemi, we return to your hotel.

More sites and curiosities, less known than the places listed above, will be brought to your attention while driving. Remember: you'll always see more than you'll be expecting to see!

Tour of Rome and the Vatican (Sistine Chapel) from Civitavecchia

The tour takes between about 10 hours, counting from when we start at the port at:8:00 am, until we return there, around 6.00 pm. This tour focuses on the Vatican, I recommend to make a Vatican entry reservation to make sure you don't waste your time standing in line to get in the Vatican. Depending on traffic conditions and on your own requests, it can include more or less sites, but for sure you'll always return to your ship satisfied of the number of places you saw and the narration.

We meet in Civitavecchia at 8:00 am (vehicle will be parked on the pier with your name on its windshield) and we drive to Rome. We should be arriving in there around 9/9.30 am and, if you want me to make a Vatican entry reservation, the Vatican will be our first stop, otherwise we'll reverse the itinerary and go there in the afternoon. Being the tour centered on the Vatican and since you'll end up using most of your limited time ashore to visit just this one place, realistically, I can only guarantee that we'll the following: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's (3 hours or more), Colosseum (about 1 hour). Trevi Fountain (20'), Piazza Venezia (drive).

It will depend on other factors, traffic and you personal interest mainly, if we'll be able to include in the tour these other sites: Capitol Hill (Roman Forum view) (30'),  Piazza Navona (20'), Pantheon St. Mary above Minerva (20/30'),

More sites and curiosities, less known than the places listed above, will be brought to your attention while driving. Remember: you'll always see more than you'll be expecting to see!

We start from Civitavecchia at  8:00 am. I'll be waiting right on the pier where the ship docks. I park the car as close as possible to the footbridge and you identify me easily because I post your name on the car's windshield.

Here below you can read how the day evolves if we don't make a Vatican entry reservation, but in case we do make a reservation, the itinerary will be reversed and we'll tour the Vatican first thing in the morning.

We should be arriving in Rome around 9/9.30 am and, if you want me to make a reservation, the Vatican will be our first stop, otherwise we'll reverse the itinerary and go there in the afternoon. This tour is obviously centered on the Vatican and, be prepared, that's a tough one. The tour, which includes obviously St. Peter's Basilica, takes about three hours. During this time you'll not have the chance to take a brake and sit down. There's no air-conditioning, except when you're in the Sistine and in the Gallery of Tapestries and so it's hot. And it's crowded, which makes it even more hot. Do I sound like I don't want to take you there? Wrong! I do, but I would love you not to go it within a tour of Rome if this is your first time here. I'm used to all this, but I know you'll be exhausted. Anyway, if you decide to pay the 30 Euros to book your entrance, we can go first thing in the morning and that's a little better. It's better because it's cooler, but also because at the end we can go and sit down and have some lunch, so you rest before you start touring again. I said the tour of the Vatican takes about three hours, but between getting there, getting in and getting out, almost four hours easily pass. Then you go for lunch which takes at least another hour. At this point there will not be much time left to see other sites. I said from the beginning that including the Vatican in a shore tour of Rome forces you to leave out of the tour other sites, but I can guarantee we can include at least the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain. For the rest, it depends mostly on how you move around and how traffic moves around the day we'll do this tour.

These places are: Palazzaccio (Old Court House), St. Andrew's, St. Mary's Above Minerva, Piazza Venezia (Monument to Victor Emmanuel II), Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps), Theatre of Marcellus, Synagogue, Mouth of Truth and Keyhole (Roman Curiosity), Circus Maximus, Palatine Hill.

Several other attractions will be pointed out just while you'll be driving by them, such as: Castle St. Angelo and its bridge, Italian Senate, The Marble Foot and Cat Street (Roman Curiosity), Trajan's Column, Imperial Fora, Trajan's Market, The Maps of the Empire, Arch of Constantine, Marcus Aurelius's Column, Parliament and Council of Ministers, St. Nicholas in Chains, temples of Apollo, Vesta and Janus, Quirinal Palace.

This is the usual itinerary, it takes you to the major highlights of the city of Rome and at the end of the day you can sure say you've seen Rome!

Please remember that basically you hire a driver/guide for 10 hours and you're free to change anything,

This is how it works with the Vatican reservations:

• You just need to tell me, and I'll take care of making the reservation for you

• Reservations must be presented minimum three days prior to the day of the tour.

• Reservations will only be accepted thirty days prior to the day of the tour.

• Reservations can be made for different time bands: A, 8:30/9:30 am; B, 9:30/10:30 am; C, 10:30/11:30 am; D, 11:30/12:30 am; E, 12:30/1:30 pm; F, 1:30/2:30 pm; G, 2:30/4:00 pm.

• Not everyone can make reservation, only travel agents with special credits who have to make a deposit in advance consisting in several thousands of Euros.

• The price of the reservation includes: admission fee, reservations fee, ear phone (compulsory for large groups), Italian and Vatican taxes.