Vatican tours

I wasn't aware that LP ran tours - to the Vatican or anywhere else.

But that aside, prior to booking any tour, it's worth considering just doing it by yourself. The Museums are extensive, and of course absorbing in so many ways ... I think I would probably find a guided tour too fast, too slow, or way too much information.

It's quite okay to take about four hours and just stroll around at your own pace too.

Thank you for your help. Yes, Lonely Planet lists a large number of tours to Vatican alone, enough that it's hard to distinguish the differences between each! Or to compare them to the tour the vatican itself provides through their own website. Thanks again!

It sounds more reasonable that they list Vatican tours, which is rather different to offering them, which is why the question was raised. And this is generally not a review forum, but advice of a different type ... there are many review forums out there.

Good point, it may be 3rd party vendors just listed through lonely planet. That may explain why there are so many similar options.

I have been researching the same thing - and there are many companies that offer various tour types. I was looking for a tour that started early before the official opening. We are taking my 79yr old mother and I thought it would be a good idea to get into the Sistine Chapel before the crowd builds up - the rest of the museum will not be an issue re crowds, nor will St Peters. So far the cheapest I could find was iatlywithus.com at 60 euro each.

I am still looking into this and have not yet booked - I was also looking at a night time tour of the Colosseum - the Italy with us company did not have any availability for October for this tour, but other companies do - I am not yet fully convinced that the tour will be worth the 80 euro each it will cost.

On our Museums visit, we arrived before opening time, and there was already a very long queue waiting to buy tickets. With our pre-purchased tickets we literally just strolled in as soon as it opened - it made me curious as to why all the people queuing hadn't done the same.

Anyway, we had been advised to head straight to the Sistine Chapel, which we did without stopping or dawdling. We viewed the Chapel for a long time ... it wasn't quite empty, but nearly so. We then headed out the left-side exit and backtracked maybe 300 metres, and looked at all the museums we wished to see.

By the time we reached the Sistine Chapel again (about 12:00 I guess) it was unbelievably packed - quite dangerously so we thought - almost impossible to enter, and even harder to exit, via the narrow right-side exit that is a "short-cut" entry into St Peter's Basilica.

So we were were very pleased we had visited the Sistine first off. I have no idea at what time it tapered off and calmed down. I have heard if you start after lunch (1:00 pm or so) it's not as bad as the morning peak.

I am not yet fully convinced that the tour will be worth the 80 euro each it will cost.

I'm reasonably confident that it would highly likely not be.

Our day-time ticket for the Colosseum included the Roman Forum, which we felt was by far the more interesting and overwhelming part of the combo. The Colosseum is impressive, but just DIY you have access to large parts of it ... not sure what value the tours add - even with greater access to the lower levels.

Could you guess-timate how many people were in the Sistine Chapel with you, Ian?

Several years ago, I did that exact same early bird tour. It was a bit cheaper then, I think (45 euro?), it included the price of the ticket and I thought it was well worth it to share that space with oh, 4 widely spaced clusters of about 10 people each. as opposed to hundreds and hundreds later in the day, many of whom are loud and flash photo-happy (despite the signs that say no photos and the piped in requests for respectful silence).

In short, an entirely different experience of that space and sure to be so even if the popularity of early bird tours has doubled or trebled in the intervening 5 or 6 years. Oh, this was in early May, which might also make a difference.

But, if you can have a comparable experience by buying timed tickets for first thing in the morning, I'd consider it. Though I'm not sure how much of a beeline your mum will be able to make. The Chapel is at the very end of the line, as it were.

The Colosseum also has its own guided tours during regular hours. This allows you to skip the ticket line, but not the "we already have tickets" line. A good compromise might be to check if there are any evening events--concerts, etc.--scheduled during your stay.

the Roman Forum, which we felt was by far the more interesting and overwhelming part of the combo

Interesting. The Roman Forum does nothing for me whatsoever. If they decided to turn it into a car park for Colosseum visitors, I wouldn't bat an eye. Perhaps I lack the required imagination: "See this stump of a marble column? it used to be a whole darn temple! This one too and that one and that one..."

Barbaric, I know...

Yeah ... the Forum is a bit of a mess ... and they've had 1600 years to fix the place up.

Regarding the Sistine Chapel, I would think (strictly from unreliable memory) that your figure is a bit low - let's say at a rough guess twice that (80) ... it felt quiet and sparse, and there was plenty of places to sit on that long wall bench down either side. It was more than nice.

The guards were calm and relaxed ... later that day they were in a lather of crowd-wrangling.