Rome Papal Basilicas: Explore Historic Churches

Embark on a Christian Rome Tour and delve into the rich history, art, and religion of the Papal Basilicas. Explore the ancient sites where faith, history, and art converge, and marvel at the architectural masterpieces of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Duration: 4 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Basilica Papale San Paolo Fuori le Mura - The Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls (Italian: Basilica Papale di San Paolo fuori le Mura), commonly known as St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, is one of Rome’s four ancient, papal, major basilicas,[a] along with the basilicas of St. John in the Lateran, St. Peter’s, and St. Mary Major.
    The basilica…
What's Included
  • Local Guide
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off (if within Aurelian Walls)
What's Not Included
  • Gratuities
  • Food & Drinks
Additional Information

Embark on a journey of discovery through Rome, amid sights that mark it as the heart of Christianity. Experience the ancient history by traversing the awe-inspiring Papal Basilicas, where the worlds of history, faith, and art are woven together by popes, saints, and artists. Traverse the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, which boasts a scenic…

Location
P.za della Repubblica, 48
Piazza della Repubblica
Meeting point is in front of Palazzo Naiadi hotel.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.4
(12 Ratings)
5 stars
4 stars
3 stars
2 stars
1 star
Robert_b
Nov 1, 2025
Private tour for 2 adults... - Private tour for 2 adults with very warm and friendly driver Marianna and very interesting and knowledgeable guide Anna. Excellent historical information and tour . Unfortunately St Peter’s was too crowded with long lines even at 5 pm to see with our guide.
Review provided by Viator
Randall_w
Dec 22, 2024
Deep review of Christian Sites. - Excellent review of Christian sites in Rome. Very helpful review of the 2nd tier sites for those who have seen the 1st tier.
Review provided by Viator
Razteach
Oct 23, 2019
Christain Rome Tour Semi-Private - Our Tour Guide was excellent. She was very knowledgeable. There were only four of us on the tour and we are family members. I appreciate Viator accommodating us when I requested a shorter tour due to time constraints as to when we had to meet our Trafalgar Tour at the hotel. The three basilicas we saw were very beautiful and impressive. (We had to omit one basilicas the reason above and we were going to see St. Peter's the next day anyway.) Our driver was also excellent and very friendly. I highly recommend this tour
Review provided by Viator
Lynne
Jun 27, 2019
Great tour - We had booked the semi-private tour but it happened that we were the only two on the tour. They picked us up on time and Debra did a wonderful job explaining the Churches that we saw while Alexander drove us safely around Rome. Since we were the only ones on the tour we were able to adapt it a bit to something we really wanted to see. I would recommend this company.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
516alejandrol
May 5, 2019
Spectacularly beautiful! - Wordless for the quantity and quality of works in the famous Basilica, very good maintenance and care of the works
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Avafg
Apr 28, 2019
Must-see - Many thanks to our guide Lorène who allowed us to appreciate and understand this majestic place with a smile, simplicity and humor despite the world. Must do with a group or individual guide for rich commentary and faster access to the Basilica and Sistine Chapel. A big thank you
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Janice_n
Nov 1, 2024
Interesting and beautiful basilica visits - The tour is advertised as small group, but in fact it is private and it was just my husband and I along with our guide and Driver. The tour also doesn’t advertise well as far as pick up options. Per the guide & driver we could’ve been picked up closer to where we were staying, but given it was advertised as a small group and only four pick up locations provided when booking we wasted our time and money getting a cab to one of those locations to start the tour. Also, the tour advertises that you will visit the four major basilicas in Rome, but that is impossible to do, given the time and distance between them & lines at St Peter’s. Fortunately, we had already visited Saint Peter’s Badilica, so opted with our guide to just go to the other three. Our guide was knowledgeable and friendly, and we enjoyed the information provided, but as someone else stated it was not as much Catholic reference and information as had expected & had received in other tours. Given that it was actually a private tour and not a group, we did enjoy the flexibility and kindness of both the guide and driver to create a route that made the most sense to visit the three basilicas, which were all amazing and beautiful, and so moving to see.
Review provided by Viator
Michele
May 23, 2023
Great quick tour - Very quick tours in and out of the cathedrals, but very knowledgeable guide and great driver! Great way to see all the important Catholic basilicas.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Hemin_p
Jun 6, 2024
Expected more - I think for us we expected this to be a Christian tour as the title says, however our guide was non religious and it seemed like we learnt more about the art work or artists, than about how the church’s relate to Christianity. I would have appreciated the tour to be a little more in depth, it felt like we were in and out. Our driver was amazing, the tour guide was also amazing, only thing is we wanted more knowledge on the Christianity side of things, which is why we booked a Christian tour.
Review provided by Viator
John_e
Jun 12, 2019
Not worth the money - basically paid for the ride - Started with confusion on hotel pick up - we were waiting at front of hotel, don’t know where the guide was waiting. The guide (female, already forgot her name) seemed unorganized and did not fully plan ahead. We were grateful that we were the only ones to sign up for this tour as we had the tour to ourselves. The driver seemed nice, and did his job of dropping us off and picking us up from each location. However, both the driver and guide seemed to disagree/argue in Italian frequently during our tours which was not very professional. Overall the guide seemed to pick the churches that did not have a fee (and therefore did not need to have a schedule or much of a plan). She also seemed to lack in Catholic and historic information, but was ok with knowledge of some architecture. We tried to give her the benefit of the doubt and be polite. First stop we visited St. Peter square only. Our guide said the lines were too long and our whole trip would be wasted waiting to get in (so why didn't she purchase advance tickets for us??). Visited Saint Paul outside the walls - beautiful church with lots of history but the guide basically let us go on our own. A quick tour of St. Basilica of St. John in the Lateran. When we arrived at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore we were too late to see it since it closed at 7 & we arrived 6:40 (the guards wouldn’t allow in since they closed in 20 minutes). Maybe not entirely our guides fault but the timing should have been planned better. We did get to go across the street to St. Lawrence to see the Holy Stairs, but again we went inside without the guide. The guide wanted to find another church to tour (to make up for the ones we couldn’t see?) but by that time we were tired and just wanted to return to our hotel. Perhaps with a different guide or a more definitive plan, the tour would have been satisfactory.
Review provided by Viator
From $99
up to 15 guests
1 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).