Advice on planning on port day in Rome and booking Vatican tours

[bobamelonwei]

Hi everyone

 

I've booked a RC 8 night cruise for July starting from Barcelona. I'm usually a big planner for trips, but Rome is confusing with its security checkpoints plus quota for tourist attractions. Since the tours from the cruise are extremely expensive, I'm planning to focus on the Vatican and view all the other free sites instead, including the colosseum exterior. However, there seems to be official guide for the Vatican museum & Sistine Chapel, which sounds good for the price, but I have a few questions: (if anyone has any experience with them)

 

1) My ship supposedly arrives supposedly at 7am, and I plan to get off the ship as soon as possible. We have no booked excursion from the cruise. If we take the shuttle and commuter train, is it practical to get to the official tour by 10:30?

 

2) Does the official tour give access to St. peter's basilica via the "special" entrance? I'm seeing that it was closed due to COVID, but I cannot find updated info.

 

3) Do the official Vatican tours or all tours allow you the skip-the-line?

 

4)  I assume for climbing the dome/cupola, we could buy the tickets at the basilica itself without having to re-lineup again, correct?

 

Thank You! Of course, we are open to booking non-official vatican tours as well as long as they allow us to see everything that's on our wishlist.

Edited April 2, 2022 by bobamelonwei

[euro cruiser]

What checkpoints and quotas are you referring to?

 

Right now the shortcut from the museums to the basilica is closed and there are no tours that include both.  That may be reinstated but there's no way to know if or when that will happen.  Unfortunately, that means you may have to choose one or the other due to the contraints of a port day visit.

 

Since you can't go from the museums directly to the basilica you're going to have to wait in two security lines, one at the museums and one at the basilica if you want to see both.  Even before Covid it was imperative to book your museum tickets as soon as they go on sale because they sell out quickly.  The official site is here:  

Vatican Museums – Official Website (museivaticani.va)

 

As for timing, much depends on where your ship is berthed and whether or not you can walk off or must wait for the port bus.  I would plan for the worst case and be pleasantly surprised if it works out better.

 

Also, right now the train schedules are less robust than they were pre-Covid.  That will change as demand goes up and a new train schedule will be implemented in mid-June, so everything I'm about to walk through could change for the better by July.

 

Worst case would be you must wait for the port bus.  Let's say you're physically off the ship by 7:30 and get to the port exit, via the shuttle bus, by 7:45.  You are at this point one mile from the train station.   You can walk it in twenty minutes or wait for the bus, unless the bus happens to show up the minute you need it timewise it's kind of a toss up, so let's assume you're at the train station by 8:05.  

 

I'm assuming this is not a Sunday, since the museums are not open on Sundays.   Therefore the next train is at 8:42, arriving to the Rome S. Pietro stop at 9:25.   This stop is a little over a half mile from the basilica and a mile and a quarter from the entrance to the museums.  

 

So, if your primary stop is the museums you will get to the security line just before 10 AM so the 10:30 tour should work for you.

[euro cruiser]

Regarding the basilica and the cupola, you would need to line up again for security at the basilica.  The line moves but it will be hot hot hot in July and you're standing in what amounts to a stone barrel reflecting the heat.  The basilica itself is fairly cool inside but there is no air conditioning so that cupola climb must be beastly hot, unless you are truly motivated and/or incredibly hearty, I doubt that's going to look like fun, and I don't think you'd have time for it anyway.

 

What time is your departure?  That's an important key for planning what's left of your day.  Assuming you get a 10:30 tour, it will end around 12:30 in the Sistine Chapel.  It will take a half hour to walk back to the exit of the museums, then another twenty minutes to walk to the piazza in front of the basilica to get on the security line.  In other words, you can't expect to get into the basilica until 1:45 or 2 PM at the earliest.  How much time you'll have in there will depend on what time you need to be back at the train station to get back to the ship.

[birchhook]

@bobamelonwei I'm attempting a similar thing in a couple weeks. How did your day in Rome go?