Skip the line Vatican Museums & Imperial Rome Combo Tour

The tour starts with a guided tour of the Vatican Museums. As you arrive at the Vatican, admire the beautiful architecture of St. Peters Basilica and St Peters Square before meeting your guide by the entrance to the Vatican Museums. Here you are given your skip-the-line admission ticket.

Enter the Vatican Museums, taking in the beautiful Spiral staircase and accompanied by your guide, discover some of the treasures contained within the 2000 rooms and 14 kilometres of corridors. Highlights include the Gallery of the Tapestries and the Gallery of the Geographical Maps before arriving in the famous Sistine Chapel with its magnificent fresco of the Last Judgment by Michelangelo.

See the Rooms of Raphael and Ancient Roman and Greek pieces in the Belvedere Courtyard. Each guest will be given a personal headset, so you can listen to the guide's enthusiastic commentary which provides a full background on the Sistine Chapel from before it was commissioned to the finishing touches while distinguishing between truth and popular legends promulgated by Hollywood and popular books.

Afterwards, head to the magnificent St. Peters Basilica, the largest Church in the world, where you will find golden mosaics, several Tombs of Popes and Michelangelo's most important statue 'La Pietà'. Also, see the massive Baldacchino sculpted in bronze by Bernini, the Transfiguration by Raphael and other monuments of artistic importance.

Your morning tour concludes in St Peter's Square where you view Bernini's impressive colonnade and learn about the history of the Vatican State including its Swiss Guard and the design of St Peters Square.

Head to a traditional restaurant where you enjoy a typical lunch with drinks before proceeding to the Arch of Constantine, the largest and one of the best preserved triumphal arches in Rome. From here, your guide will take you past the queues and inside the Colosseum, one of the world's greatest historical treasures. This amazing amphitheatre dates to the year 72 A.D. and could easily hold over 50,000 persons.

The tour then heads to the Palatino (Palatine Hill). Sandwiched between the Roman Forum and the Circo Massimo, the Palatino is an atmospheric area of towering pine trees, majestic ruins and memorable views. According to legend, this is where Romulus killed his twin and founded Rome in 753 BC. Just the views from the Palatino over the Forums or the Circus Maximus would be worth a trip to Italy.

Continue to the amazing Roman Forum where you again skip the ticket lines. The Roman Forums were the political and social centre of the Roman Empire and the whole area is literally an open-air museum and here you will find the Temple of Julius Cesar, Basilica Emilia, the Arch of Titus and the Holy Road.