Rome: Visit The Main Papal Basilicas With Private Driver

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.

Stefano was wonderful! He really allowed us to customize our experience. He was wonderful in keeping in contact with us. He gave us interesting tidbits About things we saw. I highly recommend him

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!

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!

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.

This was an amazing experience walking through the Papal Doors. Very informative and interesting to see

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.

It was good or they think it may have had more explanations. The transport was excellent, and the guy is very good, but I insist the explanations were scarce.

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.

We expected a private guided tour with him accompanying us into the 3 churches, but he just gave us minimal descriptions of the churches on the way to each. He just dropped us off told us where to go & picked us up. He never offered us any bottled water dropped us off at St Peter’s with a QR code that did not work I had to go register showing passports Your description of this tour was very vague We called customer service who also advised this was a guided tour including a small group Very disappointed

A very wholesome and unforgettable experience ! Visited 4 major Basilicas/ 4 Holy Doors in comfort with a very knowledgeable guide Luca! Very well done!

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.

Luca was very informative and explained what we were going to see at every stop. He patiently waited for us when we were lost in what we were seeing. He also explained well where we were to meet him and how to communicate with him.

Meaningful experience for those who appreciate Catholic tradition and history. Each basilica was different and beautiful.

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.

Luca was very knowledgeable and polite. However, the last stop which was for the St Peter's Basilica Holy Door was quite disappointing, I was left standing in a corner, instructed to walk a couple of blocks and look for a person in a green jacket who would lead me to what I thought would be the entrance to the Basilica. Instead, the green jacket lady was never on site. Rather I found the entrance to what turned out to be Castello St Angelo which is a 20-minute walk (under horrible heat) to the Basilica. This supposedly a prayer walk which was never specified in the offering of the tour. This should be clarified when purchasing the tour.

We enjoyed our Holy door visits with Luca. He was very good with his narrative and service. We went to 4 Holy doors in one day. Every stop he gave us informative narrative and introduction. He parked at convenient location and provided directions. We texted him when we are ready to walk out, he was right there on the dot, wonderful personality,

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

A brilliant way to visit the Holy Doors. I’m not sure we would have navigated it on our own. Luca our driver met us close to our hotel. Gave us lots of information. We had plenty of time to look around the Churches. We were dropped off close to our hotel too.

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!!