Tour Operator Offers Exclusive Access to Vatican Sites

Visitors to the Vatican will want to check this out: For the first time ever, Dark Rome, a tour operator in the tiny city-state, is offering exclusive access to several special sites escorted by a Vatican guard who opens doors to private chambers, intimate rooms and rarely seen collections. 

The three-hour VIP Vatican and Private Sistine Chapel Tour gives a maximum of 10 people exclusive access to the Sistine Chapel. (They can see it just like the Pope does during his private visits.) Under the escort of a Vatican guard with all the keys, Dark Rome has also secured access to locked rooms of the Vatican Museums, like the Niccoline Chapel, a chapel frescoed from top to bottom by Fra Angelico and gilded with some of the first gold brought back from the New World by Christopher Columbus. Another secret room usually visited on the tour is the Bramante spiral staircase.
 
This exclusive three-hour tour is offered on Mondays and Saturdays at 3:15 p.m. For more information, visit www.darkrome.com.