Vatican Tickets- Museums/St. Peters

[tripmomtf]

I plan to arrange tour tickets to the museums thru the Vatican website. If you start at the museums 2 hour tour, then do you go to St. Peters from there? Can you walk directly without waiting again from museum tour, to St Peters?

If my DH and kids have had enough of the tour, can we split off on our own, and see Sistine on our own, and then go to St Peters?

[Susan-M]

The guide will be with you for the Vatican museum part...once that is done, they will take you to the Sistine Chapel entrance where you go in on your own (you'll be briefed about the Sistine before the museum tour, with some final instructions just before going into the chapel).

 

From the Sistine you can go to St. Peters, bypassing the long line outside. The tour of the museums goes fairly quickly but if you've had enough, I don't think there's anything stopping you from leaving the group. You'll just need to return your headsets and find your way to the chapel.

[shemp2000]

Can you go to St Peter's without going to the Vatican museum Sistine Chapel?

 

I was thinking of doing it before the museum tour, or the the evening before

[cruisemom42]

Can you go to St Peter's without going to the Vatican museum Sistine Chapel?

 

I was thinking of doing it before the museum tour, or the the evening before

 

Yes, you definitely can do St. Peter's on its own. If you go in the evening, just make sure there's still enough daylight to see.

[Nylsor]

Can you go to St Peter's without going to the Vatican museum Sistine Chapel?

 

You can access St Peter's through the steps at the front. You can't miss the access area. You will go through an airport type security check and then be guided up the steps and into the Basilica. Entrance is free and you can stay in the Basilica for as long as you wish. Michelangelo's Pieta is to the right as you enter. It might be a good idea to buy a guide book before visiting as there is so much to see.

Ros

[sea-explorer]

I was thinking of booking the museum without the guided tour as I suspect my DH & kids may get fed up & want to move on. I believe you can book here.

 

http://www.rome-museum.com/

[DavidandPaula]

I was thinking of booking the museum without the guided tour as I suspect my DH & kids may get fed up & want to move on. I believe you can book here.

 

http://www.rome-museum.com/

 

Thats the lnk we used to book for last year. Book for just the tickets as there is an option for a guided tour.

 

On the day you meet a rep across the road from the entrance and they escort a group of you inside and to the ticket booth, where they pick up the tickets and distribute them. The they take you out to a garden area, give you a quick briefing and then let you loose. For us we met the escort at just after 8am and we were in the garden and finished with the briefing by 8:17. We then had to wait for the entrance we wanted to use to open as some of the staff were late that day and they would not open until they were in position.

 

The early entry we took is not available (may be a seasonal thing) and I think the earliest is about 9:15 now.

 

Another trick with this site is that the Vatican does not issue the tickets until 30 days out so if you book earlier than that you may not get confirmation until then. We booked about 2 months early, got an email explaining they had received our request and then at the 30 day point we got an email with a weblink to go to to print of our confirmation notice. Our credit card was not charged until the 30 day point also. Also we only got one confirmation letter for our 2 tickets.

 

We also used this site for our bookings for the Borghese Gallery and Accademia in Florence.

 

All in all we were very happy with the service they provided. To many of our friends told us about waiting in lines for several hours so we pre booked to avoid this whenever we could.

 

As you will not have a guide do plenty or pre reading to make the most of your visit. Also, if you intend to go from the Sistine Chaple direct to St Peters then do not hire an audio guide unit or you will have to go back to the main entrance to return it. Personally I found a good guide book better than any of the audio guides we used on our trip. There are some podcasts and downloads for your iPod that may also prove handy. Just google "Vatican Museums podcasts iPod" and check them out.

 

David

[Phynger]

Hi David-

Thank you for the helpful info.

We were able to get Scavi tour tix well in advance for 1:30PM on 7/12. Therefore, we need Museum tix for the morning as early as possible; but, they've responded that we can't reserve until 30 days prior. While the link you recommended is a little more $ and we're going thru middlemen (?), would you recommend going ahead and booking here, as opposed to waiting for the direct museum link and maybe not getting the morning slot we need?

thanks for your help.

Mike

[DavidandPaula]

Hi David-

Thank you for the helpful info.

We were able to get Scavi tour tix well in advance for 1:30PM on 7/12. Therefore, we need Museum tix for the morning as early as possible; but, they've responded that we can't reserve until 30 days prior. While the link you recommended is a little more $ and we're going thru middlemen (?), would you recommend going ahead and booking here, as opposed to waiting for the direct museum link and maybe not getting the morning slot we need?

thanks for your help.

Mike

 

At the time of our trip I had a problem with my heels and knew that standing in lines would ruin our trip. I started googling about six months early and settling on plans and advance booking about 3 months early.

 

I must admit that this was the first site I came to and booked with. I often find myself dissatisfied with guided tours (by the end of our holiday last year I was completely fed up with them after Olympia) so I liked the idea of the tickets only option and that was what was on offer. Also Paula is one of these people who wakes up early and seems to be on a mission to pack as much as possible into every day ( her favourite saying is that she will be a long time dead). Thus the very early time(8:15am and we even practiced the train trip the day before) was ideal although the site does not offer this time at present and I am not sure if it is seasonal thing or the Vatican is just not allowing the early entry any more. There are cheaper alternatives (direct to the Vatican) but I am not sure how far in advance they will let you register. At least with this site I got the feeling we would be on a list and the bookings would be done at the earliest opportunity by a company who were booking just about every day. So we used this site and had absolutely no problems. Other people I have recommended it to have also indicated their satisfaction although some got in a bit of a panic as the first email (that indicated they had received the request and explained the 30 day policy) did not arrive.

 

My original plan was to get in and rush through to the Sistine Chaple as I wanted to study the non Michaelangelo frescos as well as the ceiling. There was so much to see that we did not do this (the Raphaele rooms are just so good that I sat for a while in the Popes breakfast room just soaking in all the details). Having seen David in Florence 2 days earlier I was also a little dissapointed in the ceiling in the Chaple and the Last Judgment can be a little depressing unless you are ready for it.

 

The key to making the most of your visit is plenty of pre reading and a bit of planning. But we still missed so much that our next trip will be planned to stay in an apartment in Rome (shop at the markets for some of our food) for a week that is not in July (to hot). Will also be trying to get a few days in Florence and make a first visit to Venice also. No time for a cruise next time.

 

David

[Phynger]

Thanks David-

I booked the Vatican museum through them. I received a response that my "order "will be" confirmed about one month before the requested date.....actually the Vatican gives booking codes only one month before the date of the visit, not before". I hope these guys get preference over doing it ourselves. Oh well, we're in the queue.....we'll see.

Best,

Mike

[CoralReef]

I keep reading on this board and TripAdvisor Rome that they won't reserve more than a month in advance. Well, I e-mailed them 46 days in advance and immediately got a reservation time and confirmation number.

 

Anyone reserved further ahead than this?

[DavidandPaula]

Thanks David-

I booked the Vatican museum through them. I received a response that my "order "will be" confirmed about one month before the requested date.....actually the Vatican gives booking codes only one month before the date of the visit, not before". I hope these guys get preference over doing it ourselves. Oh well, we're in the queue.....we'll see.

Best,

Mike

 

Glad they are back to confirming properly.

 

We got that email last year when we booked very early. Before we had our 30 day confirmation other people had indicated they had not been receiving the first email so when we met the rep outside the museum entrance I mentioned it. When we got back from our trip the CC Member who had asked about the various emails after I recommended the site indicated they had received their confirmation so I felt back then that the system had sorted itself out again.

 

If I was asked to give a rating for the service from this site I would have to give a ten out of ten as all our bookings went absolutely according to plan and I willc ertainly use them again in the future.

 

Hope you enjoy your visit as much as we did ours. You now have plenty of time to get stuck into the books and research your visit.

 

David

[sea-explorer]

David, thank you so much for posting all that information, it is really helpful.:)

[tcocktail]

i email them about 8 weeks ahead and I received my confiirmation the next day.

[snappledrinker]

What is the email address and tour company name you contacted? Thank you both in advance.

[tcocktail]

visiteguidate.musei@scv.va

 

This is the email address for the Vatican directly.

[Susan-M]

visiteguidate.musei@scv.va

 

This is the email address for the Vatican directly.

 

And their website with tour details: http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-Info/MV_Info_Servizi_Visite.html

[CoralReef]

visiteguidate.musei@scv.va

 

This is the email address for the Vatican directly.

 

That's the one I used, too.