Twenty-five Yonderlust Travel guests had exclusive, after-hours access to the Sistine Chapel and later dined in the Cortile della Pigna at the Vatican, Robert St. John wrote in Magnolia Tribune on Oct. 12, 2026.
St. John wrote that the group split into two with two guides and one security guard trailing them. He said he was allowed to turn an “S-shaped” knob to open the door into the Sistine Chapel and that the room was completely empty and silent; the group had the chapel for about half an hour, according to his account.
After the chapel visit, St. John wrote, Vatican staff served dinner in the open-air Cortile della Pigna. He described the food as middling but said guests treated the evening as a unique after-hours experience and did not send any plates back.
In the piece, St. John identified himself as the host of the Rome, Amalfi and Naples tour and said this was his fourth time leading that itinerary. He wrote that the 25-person size reflects the capacity of villas he used when he first began hosting trips, and he named Brittany Nicholson and Simeon Williford as members of his domestic team and Marina Mengelberg, Bill Thompson and Jesse Marinus as partners in Europe.
St. John noted historical details about the Sistine Chapel in the article, including that Michelangelo worked on the ceiling from 1508 to 1512, covering more than 5,000 square feet and more than 300 figures, and later returned to paint The Last Judgment.
St. John wrote that, at the end of the night, guards asked if he wanted to close the doors and that he opened the first door of the evening and closed the last one.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
