My companions footsteps echo as I roll down the long corridors filled with art. Art with names like Raphael, Bernini, Botticelli and Michaelangelo. Art so vast that only one word describes it. Vatican. And we were there all alone.
In the fall of 2005 Conde Nast published their “things to do before you die” issue. Many of their suggestions were either not of interest or beyond my capabilities but there was one that immediately caught my eye. A private, after hours tour of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel for which they paid $5000.
Lacking anything remotely resembling that amount of money (we spent that much for our entire 21 day stay in Rome) I contacted Helen Donegan, the editor of the e-zine Italywithus.com and asked her price. We set a date, a price point of $175 per person and a group size of 15. With Pauline's gracious assistance and several other web venues we managed to get a group together for an after hours private vatican tour.
Today was the day. We arrived at the Vatican museums where we met our group and Helen arrived. We approached the guard who informed us the museum was closed. It was so cool to hear Helen say that we had a private tour scheduled. We were escorted in through the huge (50 ft high 12 inch thick) doors, passed through security and met our guide, Rosevita. There was one guard for each member of our group. No wonder this cost $2500!!
Because I am in a wheelchair and one other member of our group walks with a cane the guards split our group. The regular tour climbs the huge staircase but we took a mahogany lined elevator with a bench with red velvet cushions.
We rejoined the group in the hallway outside the Raphael rooms. This collection of rooms was painted by Raphael at approximately the same time as Michaelangelo was painting the Sistine. While there wasn’t an actual “competition” I’m sure that the pope wasn’t above using one to spur the other on.
This part of the tour - going through the Raphael rooms was my dream. Words fail to describe how horrific it is to visit the Raphael rooms in a wheelchair during regular hours. There is a single door which is both the entrance and exit in many of the rooms. The rooms are so packed that many times people are literally standing 6 inches in front of you and regardless of how you crane your neck and peer you either see the art from 6 inches away or on the ceiling. Nothing else. You totally lose perspective. Also on our last trip I had not one but 2 people literally fall on top of me in my chair as they were stepping back. Bruised and beaten I swore never to go back.
The Raphael rooms were the papal apartments and are so dense with incredible art that it is impossible to absorb even a minuscule amount of it. Images that come to mind include the sack of Troy with Aeneas carrying his elderly father out of the burning city. You just catch a glimpse of flames in one of the windows above the ashen gray father.
One of the rooms has the cartoons for the drawings. Sometime in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s some lacky in the Vatican took a rubber seal with ink and just slammed it down wherever on these incredible drawings. Sometimes benignly in blank white spaces, other times over faces, etc.. ARRRGGGHHHH.
The time on the tour is limited and we need to hurry to make it to the Sistine. We are lead down the long corridors of art leading to the chapel. Everybody is taking pictures frantically. Helen laughingly says - my picture has more nothing in than your picture. I have a picture of the optical illusion where the vatican hallways shrink to a distant point with NO ONE in the hall. 2 hours earlier 12,000 people had walked these hallways. That was the attendance that day.
In a wheelchair you are given a unique opportunity. You enter the Sistine from nearly the same point that Michaelangelo planned for the faithful. Everyone else is lead in from the sacristy door but the electric ramp is at the back of the chapel.
It is from this point that you understand how Michaelangelo “used his brush like a chisel”. The figures are 3 dimensional. Their hands, their legs, the knees here, the elbow there jut out from the ceiling.
Our voices echo as we quietly whisper among ourselves. Without 1000 other people taking pictures, talking, listening to the taped guide you realize that this is one of the great churches in the world.
Our tour is up and we are lead out of the chapel and down the hallways toward the exit. Right at the exit is the vatican gift shop. Which is closed with the display cases shuttered. Helen says “I have got to take a picture of this - a chance to NOT buy something at Vatican”. Giggling we all scurry out to a warm Rome spring evening.
Too bad that the injunction against picture taking in Sistine is in effect even during the private tours. It would have been nice to have some visual reminders of those memories. Oh well I got some great pics of the Raphael Rooms.
Gosh, your visit does sound like a dream. How does one get ahold of Helen? We are in Rome for a week in Nov. and would love to be able to have this incredible experience. Does Helen routinely provide these tours if she has 15 people requesting such? Perhaps we could organize another through Slow Trav for Nov......
Posts: 68 | Location: Very Northern California | Registered: 27 December 2005
Thank you for the fantastic report. To see the Sistine Chapel in silence- without people breathing down your neck- even pictures wouldn't even do it justice.
Gelato 5euro Litre vino 12euro Apartment in Rome 200euro Seeing the Sistine Chapel as Michaelangelo did...Priceless
Wnat a great description, Mary. Our guide at the Vatican told us we were there at a not so busy time. Ha! We occasionally saw spaces of a meter or two between groups. I was so pooped from all the standing, waiting and crowding that I decided the St. Peter's part could wait unitl another trip. I can't imagine how you saw anything at all from a wheelchair. So glad you had the private tour to take it all in. Jeanne
Posts: 510 | Location: Pennsylvania, USA | Registered: 07 March 2003
Wow, generally speaking I'm an Anti-Tour girl, but even without a wheelchair my visit to the vatican was a total claustrophobic misery, and the idea of seeing that great art without the crowds is VERY tempting...
I emailed Helen about a vatican tour Nov. 5-10. She is checking and getting back to me. Will let you know when I find out in case there are some other takers.
Posts: 68 | Location: Very Northern California | Registered: 27 December 2005
...as I did for September 24 - October 6...would happily share with anyone else that wants to join us. This truly is such an amazing idea, and I very much hope that there are openings for us at the time we are in Rome.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us, RomeAddict! You write so hauntingly about your experience...would you think about writing a Slowtrav travel note about your tour for us, please?
"A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it." ~ Michelangelo Brenda
Thank you so much for sharing this with us, RomeAddict! You write so hauntingly about your experience...would you think about writing a Slowtrav travel note about your tour for us, please?
Sure I would be glad to but I don't know what that is or where it is on the slow trav site. Of course my story about the after hours Vatican tour will be included (with pics) in the Accessible Rome section. I don't want to be a greedy pig and post the same thing over and over again in different places.
Originally posted by Jane: Mary, thanks for sharing this and your enthusiasm. You've just added one more thing to my absolutely must find a way to do list.
Jane
Since you are going to be in Italy during at least the fall tour make a serious effort to get down to Rome for the tour. Tell Helen I sent you.
Originally posted by Erain: Wow, generally speaking I'm an Anti-Tour girl, but even without a wheelchair my visit to the vatican was a total claustrophobic misery, and the idea of seeing that great art without the crowds is VERY tempting...
The guide was there, she was extremely knowledgeable, gave a lot of information but our group was very rambunctious. We kept wandering off in different directions not paying a lot of attention. Quite frankly you can't pay attention- at least not to a guide!! You are too overwhelmed by what you are seeing and the freedom to enjoy it without a crowd.
The whole experience was so overwhelming that we each had to absorbed it in our own private ways. It was nice to have someone there to describe what we were seeing and impart some knowledge but to me the evening was more about the experience than any knowledge gained.
This is going to sound wierd and it is not meant to slight the experience one bit but I'm reminded of a Christmas we spent in Disneyland. It had snowed the day before and there literally was NO ONE in the park. For 3 glorious hours we had Disneyland to ourselves. Just about 100 people. I think the comparison is valid because both places (Vatican and Disney) now are more about battling the crowds than enjoying the experience.
Just one word of warning - after taking this tour you will never be able to go back to Vatican as a regular tourist again. You will hate the experience so badly that it will destroy any enjoyment you might get from the art.
WOW!! Wow, Wow, Wow! So glad you had this opportunity. And for sharing it with us here in such beautiful descriptive language. I will try for a tour at the end of November.
Since you are going to be in Italy during at least the fall tour make a serious effort to get down to Rome for the tour. Tell Helen I sent you.
Helen sent her notice out yesterday about the upcoming tours--I really hope to do this during our year there--and maybe it will be longer than a year! Who knows?
Rome Addict- you have totally inspired me. Your report back was so awesome that I booked with Helen for August 28. Other than no crowds, which room/experience did you find to be the "best?" Is there any place or time during this tour when you were allowed to take photos?
Dawn
Posts: 80 | Location: Anchorage, AK | Registered: 04 April 2006
Originally posted by articshark: Rome Addict- you have totally inspired me. Your report back was so awesome that I booked with Helen for August 28. Other than no crowds, which room/experience did you find to be the "best?" Is there any place or time during this tour when you were allowed to take photos?
Dawn
For me it was the Raphael Rooms. The Sistine for some reason has always been reasonable in terms of personal safety for someone in a wheelchair. The crowds just aren't as pushy, close, dangerous, whatever as they are in the Raphael rooms. Also the Sistine art is far enough away so that regardless of how crowded it gets you are still able to see the figures in perspective instead of being so close all you see is a nostril!!
We actually were allowed to take pictures throughout the tour except for the Sistine. You had to be quick because the guide pretty well marches you through the museums in fast step. No setting up tripods, no long exposures. Pretty much click and shoot!! However, you can get the guards to take pictures of your group in front of the main wall at the Sistine.
I also tried to book an after hours tour with Helen but there are no tours during the 2 weeks I'm in Rome with my 19 year old grandson. So sad ...I was hoping with all my heart that we could be a part of this amazing experience.
Are there any other after hour tours that you know about that we could book?
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I... I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." ~ Robert Frost Brenda
Suncoast, When are you looking for a tour? I have already booked a tour with Helen for Nov. 9 at 16:30. Of course the tour is dependent upon finding 14 more people to join us. Might this date and time work for you?
Posts: 68 | Location: Very Northern California | Registered: 27 December 2005
Making me jealous, Ginger and seekingtravel! I really, really want to do this...there aren't any days at all that the private tour is scheduled, during my entire stay in Rome!
“Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own.” ~ Harold Coffin Brenda
I did email Helen, we will not be in town for the one on the 9th, (darn it all). We are looking for a tour somewhere between November 19th and December 1st. She said she would get back to me. So, have you bought your plane tickets yet????
Ginger
P.S. Brenda, Helen offers a private regular tour that skips the lines. It's 175 euros for two people plus the 12 euro per person entry fee.
Thanks Ginger and RomeAddict, I've been in touch with Helen frequently this past week, and she is going to let me know if there is a tour that opens up during my stay! Does that mean if there are enough people wanting a tour that it can happen? If so, let's get together!
I also found this site, thanks to the owner of my apartment in Rome.
Any opinions or feedback on this company? The tour enters the museums at 8:00 A.M. before the regularly scheduled tours begin. I think that might be a good option, although I'm still keeping my fingers and toes crossed for the after hours tour with Helen.
There are several after hour tours that I found by googling...but, holy kamoley, they're expen$$$$ive! Like the one where you get to be in the museums and the Sistine Chapel all by yourself, except for the tour guide, BUT it costs something like 3500E! Yikey-doodles, that's a lot of dineuros!
"After four tortured years, more than 400 over life-sized figures, I felt as old and as weary as Jeremiah. I was only 37, yet friends did not recognize the old man I had become." ~ Michelangelo (I think that painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel would do that to a fella...) Brenda
Originally posted by BGE: Thanks Ginger and RomeAddict,
There are several after hour tours that I found by googling...but, holy kamoley, they're expen$$$$ive! Like the one where you get to be in the museums and the Sistine Chapel all by yourself, except for the tour guide, BUT it costs something like 3500E! Yikey-doodles, that's a lot of dineuros!
This might be an option for you. Helen does offer a totally private tour for fewer than 15 people. 1,2,3 however many. Her cost is $2500. What you might do is guarantee her the $2500 to open up a tour one day during your stay. You could then ask her to see how many people she could get to sign onto the tour defraying your cost at the rate of $150 per person.
You could offer the tour to various travel agents, anybody you know who would be in Rome during that time or who would have friends or clients in Rome during that time.
Hi Brenda and Ginger -- Helen must have had a busy few weeks! I, too, have been emailing her to see if an after-hours tour would be available when I'm in Rome in early September (Sept 5-11) with my mother. It sounds fabulous, but particularly for an 80-year old. I've been worrying how Mom will cope with the incredible crowds.
And unfortunately, our trip falls right in between two of Helen's tours but doesn't coincide with any. What a drag.
But Brenda, have you heard anything more about the company that does the early-hours tour? It looked intriguing, altho I'd suspect we'd have to hustle to stay ahead of the crowds! Still, it's tempting....
I've heard nothing more from the 'early morning hours' guided tour people...likely because I've been so swamped here that I've not been on the computer at all, lately. They also have a private guided tour, at 250E, but likely during the BUSY hours. Here's the link for that tour...1 - 2 people and 4 hours in length, plus you get to decide the initerary, what you want to see, where you want to spend your time...might be a good thing! Any feedback?
Hopefully, this weekend, I'll get busy and contact them to see what I can arrange. Wish me luck!
"To be on a quest is nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions." ~ Sam Keen Brenda
I was planning my trip on a shoestring budget BUT this tour would be my one big splurge. I would love to experience the masterpieces in relative solitude. Sounds wonderful. I am very much interested in an after-hours tour anytime from October 19 through October 22. I did send Helen an e-mail but no response yet. How long does it usually take to get a response from her?
Helen has been really prompt at replying to my e-mails...of course that might have something to do with the begging, wheedling, cajoling tone that I've been using, trying to get a after hours tour while I'm in Rome this fall...I am still hoping that there will be a miracle for me and a tour will become available between the 24th of September and the 5th of October...may the angels intervene!
Just in case you cannot get in on the after hours tour, Helen has also given me information on a private tour that begins early in the morning before the meandering hordes of those other tourists clogs the museum and the chapel! It is a private tour, with either a Vatican employee or a guide, and it is available at 8:00 A.M. or at 2:00 P.M. Both are relatively low-traffic times, so I may choose the early morning tour for me and my grandboy, if Helen cannot get an after hours tour for me.
Like you, I also think this is worth the splurge! It'll be my treat for myself and the boy!
"Let it be enough for you to have bread and live virtuously and poorly like Christ, as I do here. I live meanly and don't bother about life or honor... and I live with the greatest toil and a thousand worries. It is now about 15 years since I had a happy hour." ~ Michelangelo, in a letter to his father, after completing the Sistine Chapel ceiling Brenda
Here's an update. In a splendid example of current journalistic ethics today's Wall Street Journal in it's pursuit section has an article about "special access tours" and how to cut out the middleman. They interviewed me as well as Helen Donegan for the article. They then proceeded to take the information we provided and used to figure out how to gain direct access to the vatican.
There's only one problem - the $2300 they mention? Does not include a guide (Required - they won't let you in without one) or your museum admission. If a couple booked directly through the Vatican they would end up spending more than if they booked a private tour through Helen.
Also has anybody tried to communicate with the vatican regarding anything unique like this? As the article says - it helps if you speak Italian. I would definitely categorize that as an understatement. And don't they think that sending stuff with a Wall Street Journal imprimatur isn't going to get special treatment? Of course it is!!
Without Helen's bi-lingualism I am pretty sure that even though we thought we had everything booked we would have been turned away at the door. Helen spent several minutes in discussion with the guards and they called back and forth on the walky talky before letting us in.
The final nail in their credibility coffin to me is they didn't even begin to mention slow trav despite the fact that this is the website where they found out about the tours.
There is so much credit where credit is due that DIDN'T get given I am sitting here shaking in frustration!!! Not so much personally but for slow trav and Helen. I feel gutted.
I have started the sacred travel journal by writing my itinerary in it. We will be taking the After Hours Tour on Monday November 20th and I was wondering if Harmony & I needed to reserve another day for the Vatican and Museums or will this give us a enough for the first time?
Originally posted by suncoast: I have started the sacred travel journal by writing my itinerary in it. We will be taking the After Hours Tour on Monday November 20th and I was wondering if Harmony & I needed to reserve another day for the Vatican and Museums or will this give us a enough for the first time?
Ginger
Ooo that's a tough one. If your time is limited in Rome I'd say that this would certainly take care of the Vatican Museums but not St. Peters. Probably the best solution would be to plan on spending from 2 in the afternoon (or so) to 5pm in St Peters and then meet in front of the museums for the tour. If you are like me and go and spend a month in Rome then you could always wander back and see what you missed the first time around. The etruscan room, some of the other sculpture areas. Remember the Vatican art museums are 17 kilometers long. You literally could spend a lifetime. Not only is it Rome-one lifetime is not enough but it also could be Vatican-one lifetime is not enough.
And you'd be re-creating Dante. Heaven and hell-both in the same place just different times.
For those of us on more of a budget, the key to really seeing the Vatican Museums is to take your time. I was fortunate to have a 17 home exchange in Rome over Christmas 2004. I took a girlfriend with me and we had tons of bad weather (leading to lots of museums). We spent a solid 5 hours in the Vatican Museum. While we ended up at the Sistine Chapel, we sort of ambled there as opposed to rushing about. We wondered off into some modern religiously inspired art that most people never get to see (because it is a Sistine Chapel in and out for most of them). We also split up so we could each do our own thing. Since we kept running into each other, we finally gave up on that. We are very slow museum goers. Basically, you need to do the Vatican Museum in one day and plan nothing else (unless you are going at night on the special tour).
The only hassle for us was waiting in line for about a half an hour to get in. When you go off into the places the tour groups do not have time for, you have the place almost to yourself. Of course, we spent plenty of time with the maddening hordes--but you do that in all the world's great museums.
I have wondered why the Vatican does not extend its hours during the height of the tourist season. It would give people more options in planning their time (although the special night tours described by Rome Addict might be a casualty if the hours are extended).
However you do the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel, it is, to my mind, the most important thing to see in Rome.
Posts: 282 | Location: McLean, VA | Registered: 14 August 2006
Topic Closed
We occasionally saw spaces of a meter or two between groups. I was so pooped from all the standing, waiting and crowding that I decided the St. Peter's part could wait unitl another trip. I can't imagine how you saw anything at all from a wheelchair. So glad you had the private tour to take it all in.
...I was hoping with all my heart that we could be a part of this amazing experience.
