St. Peter's Basilica and Vatican Grottoes with Audio Guide

Highlights

• St. Peter's Basilica entry
• Vatican Grottoes
• Multilingual audio guide

What's included

Itinerary

1. 1

   St. Peter's Basilica

   1h

   Once through security, step into the world’s largest church and begin your self-guided exploration. Using your interactive audio guide, navigate through grand marble naves, past soaring coffered ceilings, and amidst colossal marble columns adorned with intricate gold leaf work. As you walk through the Basilica, your audio guide will direct you to famous masterpieces, beginning with Michelangelo’s breathtaking marble Pietà near the entrance. Marvel at Bernini’s monumental bronze Baldacchino towering over the papal altar, and look up into the immense central dome designed by Michelangelo, framed by colossal mosaics of the Evangelists. Discover historic papal monuments including the Tomb of Pope Alexander VII with its dramatic bronze drapery and skeleton hour glass and stand before the famed bronze statue of St. Peter, whose right foot has been worn smooth by centuries of pilgrim touches.

2. 2

   The Vatican Grottoes

   30min

   Descend below the main church floor into the solemn Vatican Grottoes, an extraordinary subterranean network of chapels, vaulted halls, and papal tombs. Walk through quiet, softly lit stone corridors to view the final resting places of over 90 popes, including marble sarcophagi, intricate reliefs, and solemn burial niches of historical figures such as Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Paul VI, and John Paul I, alongside honored historical royals like Queen Christina of Sweden.As you explore the underground complex, your audio guide will point out surviving architectural fragments, early Christian inscriptions, and vibrant 4th-century frescoes preserved from Emperor Constantine’s original old basilica. At the subterranean heart of the grottoes, pause before the sacred Confessio niche, looking directly through protective glass toward the traditional burial site and relic shrine of Saint Peter, situated directly under Bernini’s Papal Altar above.

Before you go

Location