Vatican Museum Ticket
 

Hi.
First time going to Rome and I have booked a tour
through the vatican to see the museums and
st peters. I paid the 30 euros, but I was wondering
was this for the tour only, or does this include the ticket to
get inside also? I beleive it includes the ticket also as on my form it says
to go to the queue reserved forvisitors who have booked. I just wanna make sure. Thanks for the help

-Dave

You'll have to contact your tour operator and clarify whether or not the price includes the admission fee to the museum. There is no way someone on this board could answer this question w/any certainty.

Well my tour operator is the Vatican. I bought the tour through
www.Vatican.va the official site of the Vatican
so I do not really have a tour operator.
I thought someone else on this board would have
taken the tour through official Vatican channels and
could let me know.

-Dave

From the Vatican website at http://mv.vatican.va/2_IT/pages/z-In...zi_Visite.html I'm not sure which tour you booked.

The one of the Museum and Sistine Chapel (30 EUR) includes entrance to the museum, guided tour and audio-guide rental.

The one of the Museum and St. Peter's (35 EUR) says:

"La tariffa comprende la visita guidata ai Musei Vaticani, alla Cappella Sistina e alla Basilica di San Pietro."

So includes guided tour of Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St.Peter's. It might include the admission fee but I'm not sure since for the other two tours (Museum and Sistine Chapel; Vatican Gardens) it explicitly states that the admission fee is included.

I booked the VATICAN MUSEUMS AND SISTINE CHAPEL tour through the Vatican for a tour March 2008. From the e-mail receipt:

The guided tour lasts two hours and the rate includes the admission ticket.
Tickets must be purchased only on the day of the visit at the Vatican Museums "Guided Tours" desk.
To avoid any queue, you are allowed to enter the Vatican Museums from the entrance side, at Viale Vaticano, 30 minutes before the tour leaves.

As you can infer, I didn't pay ahead of time (apparently you did?), just made the reservation, then paid for the tickets when we arrived at the museum.

My misunderstanding. I assumed that you must have booked through an outside agency since the Vatican website clearly states (in English) that the tour includes museum admission.

Thanks for that good info. I am considering this tour also. Were you happy with it?

RLPro_Sfo

Yes, very. Guide was excellent. The museum is huge and can be overwhelming, but this tour was a good overview of the highlights of the collections.

Thanks Chapel Hill Guy. I will book this tour for sure!


RLPro_Sfo

I am also planning to book the tour by that website for my trip next week -- do you have any idea what will happen just in case you miss your schedule? I am in the middle of organizing my transport and thinking of getting HOHO Bus as my transport from one point to another ... being my first time im not sure the timeliness of these buses so I wonder what if I miss my tour sched at the Vatican? Can I still be squeezed or no more?

Appreciate your experience on this=)

DXBchix

I really have no experience of what would happen if you missed your scheduled time. I suppose if a later tour wasn't full, they might accommodate you? Then again, they might not. :) I don't really know and I wouldn't chance it.

IMHO I'd try to schedule enough time to ensure you don't miss it. Good luck.

Thanks,Io will just book it on my last day in the afternoon...just to make sure that I have time to get there =)

when you come up from the metro stop for the vatican there are hoardes of people trying to get you to buy into one of their tours. I was there this time last year and on the insistance of one group from the hostel i was at said to take the tour. So I did, it was 35 euros i think. They say they can jump the line at st peters which is ok, but everyone still has to go through security. by the time we got through security the line for non tour groups was the same length. I could have saved that money for something else. next time ill take my chances. While the guide was knowledgeable I had a guide book that told me the same thing. and yes it included the ticket to get into all of it, chapel, st peters, gardens etc etc.

I am thinking of booking the Vatican-sponsored tour in the hope of skipping the line (although it sounds like that can be hit or miss).

It looks like there is also an interesting option for Friday night visit/tour:

http://globespotters.blogs.nytimes.c...tican-you-bet/
http://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/...sita=17&step=1

Has anyone done a Friday night visit/tour? Thoughts on whether we would miss too much by visiting at night? Not sure how much we might be able to see if we made a separate daytime visit (without actually buying a second set of tickets to see the museums, etc. during the day).