We thoroughly enjoyed our tour with Maria. My family were
joined by one other family and Maria took us to some of the
quieter areas of the museums to tell us all about
sculptures, art work, history the children learnt a lot,
and so did I! Maria made the tour really engaging for the
children including an ongoing competition between kids and
adults which the children really loved especially since they
earned little prizes as well as points.
The idea of this tour is to keep to some of the quieter
areas because the crowds can be overwhelming and I thought
it worked really well. Just because they were quieter areas
didn't mean we missed out, in fact it was a great to have
insider knowledge of where to go. We visited the most
breathtaking New Wing and Chiaramonti museums, housing
amazing sculptures including many Gods which my childre
loved, they are really into Percy Jackson at the moment
After that we headed to the Pinacoteca Vaticana which houses
some great masterpieces including Raphaels Transformation,
an unfinished Da Vinci, Caravaggio Entombment of Christ.
This is often missed by the masses so it was very
comfortable and quiet so Maria was able to tell the children
all about the art in relative peace. They sat transfixed as
she told animated stories about Michaelangelo and the
paintings in the Sistine Chapel. Maria used an iPad with
pictures to help show them what to expect in the Sistine
Chapel and the stories behind some of the pictures, she was
so good at making everything really interesting for the
children and me asking them questions, patiently listening
to them - she had them transfixed. Someone actually came up
to me having watched Maria in action and said how wonderful
it was to see children so fascinated. We also went to see
all the different Pope mobiles, which the children also
loved. At the end of the tour Maria gave us maps and
directions on how to get to the Sistine Chapel and then the
quick way to get straight to St Peters Basilica. this was
soooo helpful
The walk to the Sistine Chapel takes you through a lot of
the rest of the museum so you still see a great deal more in
your own time. When we got to the Sistine Chapel the
children loved searching for the different people in the
paintings that Maria had told them about, it was all so much
more relevant to them having some background information as
to what they were looking at. We used Marias helpful
directions straight to St Peters Basilica and St Peters
Square also amazing!
This was a great tour, the kids loved Maria and gave her
big hugs to say goodbye. We returned to the Vatican a couple
of days later with my husband who had missed the tour due to
illness. The children loved showing him around and teaching
him everything they had learned it was lovely to listen to
them and see how much they had actually learned and
remembered. Top marks!
