Early entry Vatican tours --the pros and cons please of recent experiences

[Alaskanb]

The more I read, the more confused I become about the best way to tour the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums, and St Paul's Basilica. I am typically a DIY tourist but feel that the best way to tour the Vatican area is using a guide for an early entry tour but which one? On CC I read lots of glowing reviews but wonder about negative experiences also. We are staying near the Vatican so transport to the area is not an issue. So what advice do you have for four seniors who have knees that fatigue easily and don't do lines too well?

[CaribbeanBound]

The Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, Scavi Tour, Castel Sant'Angelo, and More...

 

We got up early and took a 6:15 am bus to The Vatican (the smallest county in the world at 109 acres) for our "First Entry: Express Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums Entrance Tickets" tour, prebooked online with Dark Rome (City Wonders) for $58.75 per person (after discount). This tour granted us pre-ticketed special entrance access to the Sistine Chapel at 7:30 am. The selling point for this tour was access "30 minutes before any other group and 90 minutes before the general public, finding this incredible room empty" along with a group size of 20 people or less. We met our group across the street from the Entrance to the Vatican Museum at 7:00 am. Our tour guide led us into the museum, through the Gallery of the Candelabra, Gallery of Tapestries, and Gallery of Maps, to the Sistine Chapel where we had a lot of room to view and enjoy Michaelangelo's work. At 8:30 am, we had the option to exit the Sistine Chapel via a special skip-the-line exit to St. Peter's Basilica, or go back into the museum, unescorted, to explore. We chose to explore.

 

 

Our tour guide was good, the museum spectacular, the 90 minute jump start on crowds and the special skip-the-line access to St. Peter's Basilica were priceless. With 20,000 visitors a day, the Vatican gets very crowded. While the tour was entirely worth it, City Wonders didn't meet their promises. Our group was over the size limit by 15% and we had around four dozen other visitors in the Sistine Chapel with us when it opened. However, contrast this with the enormous hard-to-move-around crowds we encountered after 9:00 am and we considered ourselves very fortunate to have selected an early-entry tour.

 

Our second tour for the day was "The Scavi Tour". It was scheduled for 11:15 am, with an 11:00 am meeting time about a block from St. Peter's Basilica. This gave us only about 90 minutes to explore a few key exhibits in the Vatican Museum before exiting at 10:00 am via a special skip-the-line tour group exit for a quick visit to St. Peter's Basilica. This exit allows you to enter St. Peter's Basilica without going all the way back to the museum exit, walking 10-15 minutes to the Basilica, and then waiting in a two hour line! I'm told that this line, which we saw snaking all the way across St. Peter's Square in the sun, is a fairly constant 2.5-hour line all day long. While it's actually free to get into the Basilica, it's worth booking an official vatican partner tour just to skip this line.

 

 

St. Peter's Basilica is the largest "church" in the world. The opulence is breathtaking, from the high ornate ceilings (the dome is 385 feet up) and statuary to the marble and gold that is employed throughout. If you have time, visit The Vatican Grottoes. They are in the level below the floor of St. Peter's where many popes are buried. You can access the Grottoes by taking the stairs near the papal altar.

 

Below the Grottoes is the ancient Necropolis and excavations of St. Peter's tomb. These can only be seen on The Scavi Tour. The tour features everything from papal tombs to an ancient Roman street and St. Peter’s mausoleum. This incredible 90-minute escorted tour into the Excavations of the Necropolis (City of the Dead) underneath St. Peter's Basilica, is one of the most fascinating tours we took our entire trip. It's also one of the toughest tickets to come by in the Eternal City. Only around 250 visitors per day are permitted to enter, and groups are composed of approximately 12 people. Tickets (a bargain at just €13 per person) can only be purchased in advance (typically months in advance), via their official website.

 

The Scavi office is accessed on the left (south) side of the colonnade (columns) as you're facing the Basilica, through the Sant' Uffico gate. They do not let you go through security until it is almost time for your tour. Go through security, show the Swiss Guards your reservation and say "Scavi". You then walk to the Scavi office which is a short walk up a driveway and to the right where you'll be checked in. If you are late, they will leave without you. Our tour guide was excellent and he was full of good historical information. This tour literally ends inside the main floor of St. Peter's Basilica. Had we not already explored it earlier, this would have been a good time to do so.

 

 

More of our detailed information on Mediterranean cities and ports:

http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/mediterranean-secrets.html

[GOLDENBONNY]

The more I read, the more confused I become about the best way to tour the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums, and St Paul's Basilica. I am typically a DIY tourist but feel that the best way to tour the Vatican area is using a guide for an early entry tour but which one? On CC I read lots of glowing reviews but wonder about negative experiences also. We are staying near the Vatican so transport to the area is not an issue. So what advice do you have for four seniors who have knees that fatigue easily and don't do lines too well?

 

you can be at Vatican at 7 am and go straight to St.Peters. there are no lines this time . After you can book tour Vatican Museums and Chapel with audio or real guide from Vatican web. WE booked with real guide but I did not like it. she was rushing us around , I would prefer audio guide next time. Book your tour in advance and no need to wait in lines.

[JimmyTheSaint]

If you intend to go to the roof of St Peter's Basilica there's an elevator for an extra couple of Euros but it only goes about half way up, you will still have a few hundred stairs to climb. The couple in front of us at the ticket office paid for the elevator and they exited it directly in front of us.

[Alaskanb]

you can be at Vatican at 7 am and go straight to St.Peters. there are no lines this time . After you can book tour Vatican Museums and Chapel with audio or real guide from Vatican web. WE booked with real guide but I did not like it. she was rushing us around , I would prefer audio guide next time. Book your tour in advance and no need to wait in lines.

How did you get from the Basilica to the museum entrance? Lines at that entrance? Thanks

[dogs4fun]

How did you get from the Basilica to the museum entrance? Lines at that entrance? Thanks

It is about a 10-15 minute walk from the basilica to the vatican museums. There are queues (often huge) at the vatican museum unless you have pre-booked online or are on a guided tour.

Great info here: https://www.rometoolkit.com/whattodo/vatican.htm

[Alaskanb]

It is about a 10-15 minute walk from the basilica to the vatican museums. There are queues (often huge) at the vatican museum unless you have pre-booked online or are on a guided tour.

Great info here: https://www.rometoolkit.com/whattodo/vatican.htm

Thanks. Is there a special entrance if you have pre-booked?

[dogs4fun]

Thanks. Is there a special entrance if you have pre-booked?

Yes and you will bypass the queues.

[Alaskanb]

Yes and you will bypass the queues.

Thanks so much.

[realnice46]

The more I read, the more confused I become about the best way to tour the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums, and St Paul's Basilica. I am typically a DIY tourist but feel that the best way to tour the Vatican area is using a guide for an early entry tour but which one? On CC I read lots of glowing reviews but wonder about negative experiences also. We are staying near the Vatican so transport to the area is not an issue. So what advice do you have for four seniors who have knees that fatigue easily and don't do lines too well?

If you can pre book your Vatican Museum tickets, saves a lot of time.

[GOLDENBONNY]

How did you get from the Basilica to the museum entrance? Lines at that entrance? Thanks

Its 10 min walk to Museum and there is no line if you have your ticket booked in advance . Make sure you print it out.

[Action Dave]

Thanks for the post. We are traveling to Rome pre cruise and are using Dark Rome tours. We leave Aug 28 and are we ready for a vacay.

[MeHeartCruising]

A tip on the separate entrance for pre-purchased Museum tickets... When you approach, especially if you are walking from the Basilica, you will likely see (and perhaps be amazed by) the long line of people waiting to get in. From where the line starts, you may not even be able to see the Museum entrance since the line often goes around a couple turns of the sidewalk. So keep walking alongside the long line until you get up to the entrance area. From there, you can figure out which door to use to gather your pre-purchased tickets. It's really not fully clear what to do until you get up close enough to see the doors. There may be a small line at the pre-purchased tickets door as they check paperwork and such, so allow a little time for that.

[Alaskanb]

A tip on the separate entrance for pre-purchased Museum tickets... When you approach, especially if you are walking from the Basilica, you will likely see (and perhaps be amazed by) the long line of people waiting to get in. From where the line starts, you may not even be able to see the Museum entrance since the line often goes around a couple turns of the sidewalk. So keep walking alongside the long line until you get up to the entrance area. From there, you can figure out which door to use to gather your pre-purchased tickets. It's really not fully clear what to do until you get up close enough to see the doors. There may be a small line at the pre-purchased tickets door as they check paperwork and such, so allow a little time for that.

Thanks --very helpful.

[jean87510]

The Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, Scavi Tour, Castel Sant'Angelo, and More...

 

We got up early and took a 6:15 am bus to The Vatican (the smallest county in the world at 109 acres) for our "First Entry: Express Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums Entrance Tickets" tour, prebooked online with Dark Rome (City Wonders) for $58.75 per person (after discount). This tour granted us pre-ticketed special entrance access to the Sistine Chapel at 7:30 am. The selling point for this tour was access "30 minutes before any other group and 90 minutes before the general public, finding this incredible room empty" along with a group size of 20 people or less. We met our group across the street from the Entrance to the Vatican Museum at 7:00 am. Our tour guide led us into the museum, through the Gallery of the Candelabra, Gallery of Tapestries, and Gallery of Maps, to the Sistine Chapel where we had a lot of room to view and enjoy Michaelangelo's work. At 8:30 am, we had the option to exit the Sistine Chapel via a special skip-the-line exit to St. Peter's Basilica, or go back into the museum, unescorted, to explore. We chose to explore.

 

 

Our tour guide was good, the museum spectacular, the 90 minute jump start on crowds and the special skip-the-line access to St. Peter's Basilica were priceless. With 20,000 visitors a day, the Vatican gets very crowded. While the tour was entirely worth it, City Wonders didn't meet their promises. Our group was over the size limit by 15% and we had around four dozen other visitors in the Sistine Chapel with us when it opened. However, contrast this with the enormous hard-to-move-around crowds we encountered after 9:00 am and we considered ourselves very fortunate to have selected an early-entry tour.

 

Our second tour for the day was "The Scavi Tour". It was scheduled for 11:15 am, with an 11:00 am meeting time about a block from St. Peter's Basilica. This gave us only about 90 minutes to explore a few key exhibits in the Vatican Museum before exiting at 10:00 am via a special skip-the-line tour group exit for a quick visit to St. Peter's Basilica. This exit allows you to enter St. Peter's Basilica without going all the way back to the museum exit, walking 10-15 minutes to the Basilica, and then waiting in a two hour line! I'm told that this line, which we saw snaking all the way across St. Peter's Square in the sun, is a fairly constant 2.5-hour line all day long. While it's actually free to get into the Basilica, it's worth booking an official vatican partner tour just to skip this line.

 

 

St. Peter's Basilica is the largest "church" in the world. The opulence is breathtaking, from the high ornate ceilings (the dome is 385 feet up) and statuary to the marble and gold that is employed throughout. If you have time, visit The Vatican Grottoes. They are in the level below the floor of St. Peter's where many popes are buried. You can access the Grottoes by taking the stairs near the papal altar.

 

Below the Grottoes is the ancient Necropolis and excavations of St. Peter's tomb. These can only be seen on The Scavi Tour. The tour features everything from papal tombs to an ancient Roman street and St. Peter’s mausoleum. This incredible 90-minute escorted tour into the Excavations of the Necropolis (City of the Dead) underneath St. Peter's Basilica, is one of the most fascinating tours we took our entire trip. It's also one of the toughest tickets to come by in the Eternal City. Only around 250 visitors per day are permitted to enter, and groups are composed of approximately 12 people. Tickets (a bargain at just €13 per person) can only be purchased in advance (typically months in advance), via their official website.

 

The Scavi office is accessed on the left (south) side of the colonnade (columns) as you're facing the Basilica, through the Sant' Uffico gate. They do not let you go through security until it is almost time for your tour. Go through security, show the Swiss Guards your reservation and say "Scavi". You then walk to the Scavi office which is a short walk up a driveway and to the right where you'll be checked in. If you are late, they will leave without you. Our tour guide was excellent and he was full of good historical information. This tour literally ends inside the main floor of St. Peter's Basilica. Had we not already explored it earlier, this would have been a good time to do so.

 

 

More of our detailed information on Mediterranean cities and ports:

http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/mediterranean-secrets.html

 

thanks yet again for the great info. I just sent an email to them to request scavi tour tickets for November 2018 for as late in the afternoon as we can get.

[Hawaii5oh]

thanks yet again for the great info. I just sent an email to them to request scavi tour tickets for November 2018 for as late in the afternoon as we can get.

 

 

Did you send the email via the "Contact Us" page? I do not have access to a fax, and the directions state to visit the office in person or send a written fax. Thank you!!

 

Julie

[jean87510]

Did you send the email via the "Contact Us" page? I do not have access to a fax, and the directions state to visit the office in person or send a written fax. Thank you!!

 

Julie

Yes I sent email. Unfortunately we cant do tour since we will be there on Nov 2 which is all souls day. I did get a response stating this relatively quickly (next day)

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Forums mobile app

[lilli]

The more I read, the more confused I become about the best way to tour the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums, and St Paul's Basilica. I am typically a DIY tourist but feel that the best way to tour the Vatican area is using a guide for an early entry tour but which one? On CC I read lots of glowing reviews but wonder about negative experiences also. We are staying near the Vatican so transport to the area is not an issue. So what advice do you have for four seniors who have knees that fatigue easily and don't do lines too well?

 

 

 

It may be too late but wanted to throw my two cents in...we used walks of Italy for their “pristine Sistine” tour with the early entry. We really appreciated this because it also included a guided tour through the Vatican museums as well as the basilica.

The museum is enormous and there is so much to see that it was a relief to have someone guiding us through it all. Felt like we saw the more well known pieces. The crowds are amazing once it is open to the public. We were able to see a handful of items en route to the Sistine chapel with hardly anyone in the museum.

Having the help with navigating it all was priceless!—and we are generally DIYers too!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Alaskanb]

It may be too late but wanted to throw my two cents in...we used walks of Italy for their “pristine Sistine” tour with the early entry. We really appreciated this because it also included a guided tour through the Vatican museums as well as the basilica.

The museum is enormous and there is so much to see that it was a relief to have someone guiding us through it all. Felt like we saw the more well known pieces. The crowds are amazing once it is open to the public. We were able to see a handful of items en route to the Sistine chapel with hardly anyone in the museum.

Having the help with navigating it all was priceless!—and we are generally DIYers too!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks. We will be in Rome November 2019 so lots of time to plan.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Yes I sent email. Unfortunately we cant do tour since we will be there on Nov 2 which is all souls day. I did get a response stating this relatively quickly (next day)

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Forums mobile app

 

All Saints Day is November 1.

[jean87510]

All souls day is November 2 which was the day I mentioned.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Forums mobile app