Advance tix for My Way sites

I enjoy a visit to Ostia Antica, the site of Rome’s ancient port city. It was abandoned as the nearby river silted up. Easy to reach from Rome by metro and train. There are Usually ongoing excavations at the site. Rick’s Rome guidebook has all the information needed for an enjoyable visit. No need to purchase tickets in advance.

Other interesting areas, the Jewish Ghetto, San Clemente church. Try and get tickets for the Vatican Museum before it opens to avoid the ridiculous crowds that it attracts. There are a number of these tours, Pristine Sistine is recommended a lot on this forum, there is also a tour that includes a breakfast.

The Borghese Gallery is a stunning museum with sculptures by Bernini and paintings by Caraveggio amongst others. They have timed entries, strictly limit the numbers at each entry so it makes for a pleasant experience. Wish the Vatican would learn from them! After the Gallery walk through the park to a great viewpoint over Rome and then descend the Spanish Steps.

You must get online Borghese Gallery tickets well in advance. Tickets for San Clemente must be purchased online as well, probably not terribly far ahead of time, but they don't sell tickets on site.

The Vatican is promising ticket changes for January, but I'm sure it will still be essential to get tickets ahead of time.

When we did this tour we waited too long to get tickets for The Secret Itineraries Tour of the Doges Palace in Venice and missed out. It’s the one offered by the Palazzo Ducale website.

I just took this tour last month, and we had a wonderful time! Some of the tours we booked included:

Boat tour of central Lake Como with included tour of Villa Balbianello. Our tour guide for the boat part was a little jaded, but the experience of our small group on a beautiful boat cruising on the lake was lovely. The stop at Villa Balbianello was really interesting and beautiful, and we had a diifferent and enthusiastic guide for that portion. https://taxiboatvarenna.com/lake-como-visit-villa-balbianello-boat-tour/

Beautiful sunset tour with aperitivo and swimming along the Cinque Terre coastline. Marco was a wonderful captain and tour guide. https://rosadeiventiboattours.com/en/

Florence tours of the Accademia, then a city walk to the Uffizi Gallery with an excellent guide: https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g187895-d16795633-Skip_the_line_Uffizi_and_Accademia_Small_Group_Hidden_Highlights_Walking_Tour-Flor.html

Awesome and fun Pizza and Gelato class in the Florence countryside…this was one of the absolute highlights of our whole trip! The food was delicious, and the chefs were funny and knowledgeable. https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g187895-d12228075-Pizza_and_Gelato_Cooking_Class_at_a_Tuscan_Farmhouse_from_Florence-Florence_Tuscan.html

The above activities made for a very long day in Florence, but both were very worthwhile. If the tour had included more time in Florence, we would have done them on different days. We had the early art tour, and then chose the 5:00 pizza tour time.

We booked an 8:00 am tour of the Vatican Museums, which was fantastic add we felt we were ahead of the masses all the way through. We booked directly with the Vatican Museum website, in advance. Our tickets did not include the Basilica. One thing we didn’t realize, though, was that the lines were incredibly long by the time we headed to St. Peter’s. It was very hot and we sadly had to give up that part of the plans. Next time, if there is a next time, we will go right to St. Peter’s when it opens, or for sure get skip the line tickets.

Golf cart tour of Rome was a splurge and so much fun! Our driver was knowledgeable and the golf cart enabled access on side streets and alleys, so it was quieter and felt safer than the busier roads. https://faciletours.com/ and our terrific guide was Marco Serpicelli. We met in the Borghese Gardens.

Galleria Borghese was spectacular! https://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/en/visita/info-biglietti/ We booked through their website and had a small group tour.

Whenever possible, we chose the first tour of the day, and that worked well for us in terms of beating the crowds and heat somewhat.

Hope this helps!

Laurie😊

There are no tickets for St. Peter's; it's the security line that is long. Some combination tours of the Vatican Museums plus St. Peter's are able to use a short-cut door from the Sistine Chapel that avoids the security line at St. Peter's. That's the only way I know of to skip the line there. It has been suggested that showing up before St. Peters opens (at 7 AM, I believe) means a relatively short wait, but I haven't tried that myself.

We thought we could perhaps do that … but in October, St. Peter’s opened at 8:00 AM which was exactly when our tour was beginning. I was willing to get there plenty early…but the timing didn’t work out. I liked the idea of being there super early…guess that will be a future goal.