Omnia Vatican Rome

A pilgrimage organization's ticket and tour site

Omnia Vatican Rome is the website of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi (ORP), which runs the Roma Cristiana and OMNIA Card services. The homepage, written in Italian with versions in English, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese, says ORP "è da sempre impegnata nel valorizzare e rendere accessibile questo patrimonio di Fede e Arte", in other words that it has always worked to promote and open up Rome's heritage of faith and art, with attention to its historical, cultural and spiritual value. Through Roma Cristiana and the OMNIA Card, it addresses both pilgrims and independent travelers, offering to combine the experience of faith with Rome's cultural, archaeological and artistic heritage.

Everything on the site is in Vatican City and Rome. The homepage names the Vatican Museums, the main Christian Rome itineraries, San Giovanni in Laterano, the Colosseum and the Imperial Forums as places visitors can see "con l'assistenza delle guide vaticane e ORP", with the help of Vatican and ORP guides. The site mixes its own guided visits and its own yellow open-top bus with passes and tickets for sites run by others, such as the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums. Prices are in euros.

St. Peter's and the Vatican

The Vatican section, Arte e Fede in Vaticano, collects guided and self-guided visits:

• Visita guidata ufficiale della Basilica di San Pietro, a visit to St. Peter's Basilica with an official guide, €26.
• Basilica di San Pietro con audioguida e salita alla Cupola, an audio-guided visit of the basilica finished by the lift up to Michelangelo's dome, €29.
• Visita guidata della Necropoli di San Pietro, a visit to the Vatican Necropolis beneath the basilica and the Vatican Grottoes, with reserved access and a multilingual guide. No price is shown on the homepage.
• Visita della Necropoli di San Pietro e della Basilica Vaticana, the Necropolis with a guide plus the basilica with an audio guide, €37.

Christian Rome itineraries

A section of Itinerari di Arte e Fede a Roma presents pilgrimage-style routes, introduced as a chance to meet art, history, culture and religious life, and above all oneself and God. Le Radici del Martirio: Basilica di San Pietro, Carcere e Gloria links the Mamertine Prison and St. Peter's Basilica as the places of St. Peter's witness in Rome, at €39. Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore: Ingresso con accompagnatore e audioguida multilingue offers entry to what the site calls the oldest Marian basilica in the world, with an escort and a multilingual audio guide, at €15.

The Lateran complex gets its own section. Il Palazzo Lateranense: La Casa del Vescovo di Roma is a guided visit of the palace the site describes as the first residence of the popes, at €18. Luoghi di fede, tempo della Chiesa adds the Basilica of San Giovanni and its cloister to the palace, at €25. The priciest itinerary, Da San Giovanni a San Pietro, la Chiesa in cammino, is a daily guided tour from the Lateran complex to the Vatican Museums at €95.

The site also presents 6 catacombs, explaining that they are underground areas dating from the end of the 2nd and start of the 3rd century AD, used for the burial and remembrance of Christian community members: Priscilla, Sant'Agnese, Santi Marcellino e Pietro with the Mausoleum of Sant'Elena, San Sebastiano, San Callisto and Domitilla.

Ancient Rome and the open bus

The ancient Rome section frames the city as an open-air museum, from the Colosseum and the Imperial Forums to the Pantheon and the Ara Pacis, to be seen with a ticket or a guided visit, on foot or from the Roma Cristiana open bus. Within it, Carcere Mamertino, Colosseo, Foro Romano, Palatino e audioguida combines the Mamertine Prison with a virtual audio guide and free exploration of the Colosseum Archaeological Park with the Roma Cristiana audio guide, at €34. Il Carcere Mamertino on its own, a visit with a virtual audio guide to the prison where, the site says, the Apostles Peter and Paul spent their last days, costs €10.

The Open Bus Vatican&Rome is ORP's own service: the site calls it "nostro inconfondibile Open Bus giallo Roma Cristiana", its unmistakable yellow open bus, with multilingual audio guides and, it says, an experience loved by adults and children. It is listed at €33, with a reduced figure of €28.05 beside it.

OMNIA city passes

The site sells 3 OMNIA passes for the Vatican and Rome, which it says can be bought online or by phone and include preferential entry to the Vatican Museums, with options to visit places such as the Colosseum and the Borghese Gallery or ride hop-on hop-off panoramic buses.

• OMNIA Card 72H, €149, which the site calls the only Rome city pass that gives access over 72 hours to all the city's services and treasures, including the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, public transport, and Roma Pass sites and museums such as the Colosseum and the Borghese Gallery.
• OMNIA Smart, €99, a digital pass that turns a smartphone into a key for the Colosseum, the Vatican Museums and other Rome experiences.
• OMNIA Card 24H, listed in the menu without a price on the homepage.

A mobile app for iPhone and Android keeps purchased tickets on the phone.

Booking and terms

Tickets are booked through the Prenota ingressi section or from each product. The menu links to an FAQ, a Proposte page with further offers, a contact page and an About page, and the footer links to the general conditions (Condizioni generali), partners and a newsletter.

What the site leaves open

The homepage does not state cancellation or refund rules; those sit in the general conditions. It gives prices but not durations, start times, meeting points or group sizes for the guided visits, and it names languages only as "multilingue" for the Necropolis guide and the audio guides. The OMNIA 24H price and the Necropolis tour price are not shown on the homepage.

Who it suits

Omnia Vatican Rome suits visitors, pilgrims especially, who want Rome's Christian sites explained: St. Peter's and its Necropolis, the Lateran, Santa Maria Maggiore, the Mamertine Prison and the catacombs, with the OMNIA passes covering the Vatican Museums and transport for a longer stay. English-speaking visitors should switch the site to ENG, since the default is Italian, and check the general conditions before paying.