Rome: Visit the Main Papal Basilicas with Private Driver
Rome, Italy
- 3 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Mobile ticket
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Overview
Discover Rome’s spiritual heart with private visits to three papal basilicas: St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. John in Lateran, and St. Mary in Major. Along with round-trip transport in an air-conditioned vehicle, the tour also includes inclusion of the passage through the Holy Door at each sacred site. Get ready to explore the profound history, incredible artwork, and religious significance inside.
- Combine visits to three historic basilicas in one tour
- Pickup and drop-off from your hotel or preferred location included
- Escape the large crowds: private tour for your group only
- This tour is perfect for history buffs and architecture lovers
What's Included
- Bottled water
- Tips
Meeting and Pickup
Pickup points
Select a pickup point
Pickup details
We will pick you up in front of your hotel. Drop off can be at St Peter Church or any preferred area
Drop-off point
- Saint Peter’s BasilicaPiazza San Pietro, 00120 Città del Vaticano, Vatican City
What To Expect
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Service animals allowed
- Near public transportation
- Infant seats available
- Most travelers can participate
- This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
Krista_L
Our driver, Giulia, was fantastic! So attentive and very friendly! She arrived promptly and she was very flexible with our tour. She was also very knowledgeable about the sites we visited. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with her and would highly recommend!
Reviews
4.2
based on 25 reviews
Mukul_G, Jan 2026
This was the second time i took this tour this year, the driver we had this time was horrible. Impatient and didn’t spend time talking to us and explaining what we were about to see. Not friendly at all. I think retraining is important for that driver.
Dodie_B, Dec 2025
This was a fantastic way to visit all Holy Doors. Luca our driver and Emanuel our guide are top notch, knowledgeable and patient. We had a great time and a once in a life time experience!
Response from Host, Dec 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
Natasha_M, Nov 2025
Luca was great. He picked us up at hotel and drove us from basilica to basilica. Along the way providing some history for each stop. We walked in and around on our own. The transportation between each basilica and drop off at St. Peters, which enable us to go through the doors there via a 2pm reservation, worked very well. We made it through all four jubilee holy doors all across the city in just over 4 hours. Thank you, Luca!
Response from Host, Nov 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
rstanley1, Nov 2025
Our driver, Fabio, was friendly. However due to circumstances we were only able to see one of the Holy Doors of the tour. It was so crowded that the 20 minutes allotted per stop was not enough time to navigate the lines. He did offer us the alternative to go to Villa Borghese which was well worth it.
Response from Host, Nov 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
Silvana_M, Oct 2025
This was an amazing experience walking through the Papal Doors. Very informative and interesting to see
Response from Host, Oct 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
Mike_L, Oct 2025
The first thing to be clear about is this tour is transport between the sites being visited. You are not guided around the churches. We knew this, but reading the reviews there seems to have been some confusion. It is certainly the easiest way to get to all the locations. Our driver Fabio was friendly and helpful. His fun personality made the travel between the sites more entertaining. Fabio was knowledgeable about the basilicas we were visiting giving us good insights and dropping us off at the doorstep of each. Unlike the tour description we did not have our own allocated times for going through the holy doors, but had to queue with everyone else. That said we got through each quite quickly and for us had enough time in each church. Overall we felt it was a good tour.
Response from Host, Oct 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
joseph_S, Sep 2025
excellent trip great tour guide we did everything we wanted to do. would definitely recommend doing this tour covered all the basilicas and holy doors.
Response from Host, Sep 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
Teresita_B, Sep 2025
A very wholesome and unforgettable experience ! Visited 4 major Basilicas/ 4 Holy Doors in comfort with a very knowledgeable guide Luca! Very well done!
Response from Host, Sep 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
Anna_C, Sep 2025
While the private driver was convenient, our guide only explained information before our first two stops. Perhaps he was annoyed that we spent a little more time than we should have at the second stop. After that, the only time he spoke was when we asked a question. If I had known that our guide would be dropping us off at each stop to navigate the sites on our own, I would have booked a different tour. The private tour is strictly while being transported to the next site.
Response from Host, Sep 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
David_G, Aug 2025
Meaningful experience for those who appreciate Catholic tradition and history. Each basilica was different and beautiful.
Response from Host, Aug 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
Susan_N, Aug 2025
This tour was not what I expected. We were picked up by Luca in a Tesla. There were 4 of us in our group which, with one person in front, held the 4 of us comfortably. The a/c in the car was wonderful, and Luca spoke English fluently and was easy to understand. We went to 4 churches, however the order was the opposite of the order in the description (and the description only included 3 churches, so the 4th was a surprise). We started at St. Mary Major, then St. John in Lateran, then St. Paul Outside the Walls, and lastly St Peter’s Basilica. This would not have been an issue, except, I thought we would end at St Mary Major and made a reservation for lunch at a restaurant near this church which we had to cancel. At each church, Luca dropped us off in front, and we were met by Carlo who was our guide inside the first 3 churches. Carlo drove to each of these 3 churches separately from us (on his Vespa) and met us outside. While Carlo seemed very knowledgeable, he is a very soft talker, and he could not be heard if standing more than a few inches away. He even spoke softly outside, so it wasn’t just because we were in these basilicas. Also, his English was ok but not fluent, so he would sometimes take a minute to answer questions and seemed to have to translate the answers from Italian to English first. He did not come with us to the last church, St Peter’s, where we were given tickets for a pilgrimage. No one in my group is catholic, and we found this pilgrimage to be unexpected and a little outside our comfort zone. Overall, I was most disappointed that despite booking a round trip tour with pick up and drop from our hotel, we were dropped off at St Peter’s where we had no idea what was going on since neither our guide or driver accompanied us, and we had to pay €11 for a cab back to the hotel. Also, and this may seem petty, but the tour description also states that a bottle of water was included with the tour, and we were never offered a bottle of water. If you’re catholic and would like to see the holy doors and do a pilgrimage, this is the tour for you. However, if you are like us and are looking to check out the holy doors and see Pope Francis’ tomb, I would not recommend this tour.
Response from Host, Aug 2025
This is a pilgrimage tour focused for Catholics people, that’s why you were able to walk through all the 4 holy doors including also the Jubilee pilgrimage procession at St Peter’s Church, carrying the Jubilee cross during the walking, this is something that every catholic person in the world dream to do at least once in a life.
Marilyn_S, Jul 2025
Such a blessing to be in Rome during the Jubilee Year.
Our driver Luca picked us up at our door in an extremely comfy and well air conditioned car. Which was important on a 98 degree day.
Luca was extremely knowledgeable and informative of all 4 of the basilica’ we went to
He waited for us while we went into the basilica's.
This was a great tour and I highly recommend it to anyone who will be in Tome until Dec 27 of 2025 when the doors will be locked by Pope Leo
Response from Host, Jul 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
Bill_B, May 2025
What a great experience, our Dr. Luca was super informative and took us to the three major churches, and then ended at Saint Peters, walking through all four Jubilee Holy Doors. He gave us the code in order to do the short pilgrimage with the cross walking into Saint peters at the end of the tour, very special.
Response from Host, May 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
Moira_B, May 2025
This tour involves a personal driver/guide to drive you to each of the four Basilicas included in the holy doors of Rome pilgrimage. The driver does not escort you into the sacred places, due to the need for quiet and reflection inside. No tour guides are allowed. Our driver, Luca, was brilliant, giving us an overview of what we needed to know before arriving at each of the churches. He dropped us off close to the church then picked us up when we were finished, arranged by text messages on our phones. We definitely overrun the expected time due to the unexpected death of Pope Francis, the long lines of visitors to Rome and the length of time it took us reach the front of the queue. Luca never once hurried us or made us feel we were taking too long, he let us know he was happy for us to stay as long as we needed in each venue. He was a mine of information and guidance, and if we had done it on our own we would have struggled to complete it in the proper way. We had not been aware that there was a check in area for Pilgrims travelling to St Peters, quite a bit away from the Vatican area, and Luca explained it all as he dropped us off. We were able to join a group of other English speaking pilgrims and walk carrying a cross with a guide through the streets all the way to St Peters via a special path through the crowds. We were joined with a volunteer priest for the last part and prayed together on the way. It was a lovely spiritual experience, and Luca made it really special.
Response from Host, May 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
Kate_K, Apr 2025
Perfect way to see all the churches and the Holy Doors. The driver was very informative and timed everything just right. He even pointed out sites not listed on the tabloid.
Response from Host, Apr 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
Krista_L, Apr 2025
Our driver, Giulia, was fantastic! So attentive and very friendly! She arrived promptly and she was very flexible with our tour. She was also very knowledgeable about the sites we visited. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with her and would highly recommend!
Response from Host, Apr 2025
Thank you for your wonderful review! We’re so happy to hear that you had an amazing time exploring Rome with us. It’s always a pleasure to share the magic of this incredible city, and knowing that you enjoyed the experience makes our work even more rewarding.
We truly appreciate your kind words and your support. If you ever find yourself back in Rome, we’d love to take you on another adventure!
Zachary_F, Feb 2025
Awesome experience!! So fortunate to have been paired with Luca for the second time during our short visit to Rome! Luca was punctual, polite, attentive and efficient. We were able to see more of the sights than we would have otherwise because of Luca’s knowledge of the city and his desire to meet our needs. We’re so happy that we chose Viator and that we were paired with Luca…twice!!
Response from Host, Feb 2025
We truly appreciate your wonderful feedback! It’s always our goal to provide the best experience, and we’re so glad we could exceed your expectations. Looking forward to seeing you again soon!
Beatriz_R, Jul 2025
The best way to visit the Holy Legs. It was an unforgettable experience, we had a great guide
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Response from Host, Jul 2025
¡Gracias por tu maravillosa reseña! Nos encanta saber que disfrutaste explorando Roma con nosotros. Compartir la magia de esta increíble ciudad es nuestra pasión, y saber que tuviste una gran experiencia lo hace aún más gratificante.
Apreciamos mucho tus amables palabras y tu apoyo. Si alguna vez vuelves a Roma, ¡nos encantaría llevarte a otra aventura inolvidable!
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Rome: Visit the Main Papal Basilicas with Private Driver
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