Vatican and train at the end of day

[mrspeaks]

We are planning on doing Ancient Rome in the morning. Our last stop will be the Vatican. I would like to see St. Peter's, view some of the art in the museum and then end with the Sistine Chapel. I have Rick Steeve's audio tours for St. Peter's and the Sistine Chapel and his guide for the museum. The times he suggests for each tour are 90 min for St. Peter's and 30 for the Sistine Chapel. For the museum it obviously depends on how much time you personally want to spend, but I'm going to budget 90 min.

 

My questions are:

1 - Is 3 1/2 hours a reasonable amount of time for my plan?

2 - Since this will be our last stop, when should we leave for the regional train back to the boat by 7 pm? I have read on cc to catch the train at San Pietro.

 

Thank you!

[CruiserBruce]

The other thing you need to consider is crowds. While the afternoon is less busy, crowds will still slow you. The intensity of the sights may overwhelm you. I would think, given your 7pm sailing, I would want to be starting the Vatican no later than 2pm. I think 3 hours would be the max you could allow for.

[Hlitner]

We have never recommended doing the Vatican in the afternoon of a port day because many folks start getting nervous and clock-watching. Also keep in mind that you need to allow for a line to get into the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapal is at the end of the museum tour. You might want to do the museum and Sistine Chapel first, and then you can see how much time you have for St Peters (we have always been able to just walk into St Peters without much delay). It is also risky to cut things too close with trains since trains can be late. We would not want to take anything later then the 4:09 train. If something were to happen to that particular train you would still have time for "Plan B" which is to grab a taxi (and mortgage your home to pay for it).

 

Hank

[scotslizzy]

I would be having kittens on the tour just thinking about the last train to get me back to the ship.

 

We have been in Rome on land tours and twice did the Vatican tour which included the Cistine Chapel.Eden Walks was the tour Co and they were excellent.

 

We started the tour at 2.15 give or take 10 mins iether way and did not finish up until well after 5.00 . You would be very uncomfortable doing this and then trying to run for your train.Rome cannot be "done" in a day but you can see lots of the places that you really want to by careful planning but it will be just a snapshot .

 

Cheers

 

Scotslizzy