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Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel Private Tour

There are 20,000 works on display in the Vatican Museums and exploring the 54 galleries alone can be overwhelming. So why not let our guide show you exactly where the masterpieces are? See the statue of Laocoön and His Sons, which was rediscovered on Rome’s Esquiline Hill in 1506. It depicts a scene from Virgil’s Aeneid in which Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus are attacked by sea serpents. In the same section of the museum stands the Apollo Belvedere, a portrayal of the ‘perfect male form’, according to the Romans. Admire Raphael’s famous frescos, considered some of the finest works of the High Renaissance, and wander through both the Gallery of Tapestries and the 323-foot-long Gallery of Maps. Gaze at the Sistine Chapel and the most famous ceiling the world. Michelangelo spent four years painting over 5,000 square feet of frescos on the ceiling, but the central panels, which depict the Book of Genesis, are the most famous.