Any private guided tours for vatican not ripoffs & prevent waiting in line?

They haven't released those dates yet for tours. Keep checking back to the vatican site. They only allow booking about 60 days out. Sometimes it is a few days more, most of the time it is a few days less. Keep trying and you'll get the tour you were trying for.

donna

I've actually been watching the Vatican site quite closely as we will be there on September 9th.....the tickets for the 7th should be released tomorrow (or Monday - not sure if they release them on the weekend or not)
If you decide to go with an outside tour guide, I've read lots of rave reviews about Francesca Caruso - francescainroma AT gmail.com and Katie Parla - katieparla AT yahoo.com
Good luck!

We used Katie Parla as our private guide through the Vatican and St. Peters and the Pantheon last September and she was fantastic. Her website is www.katieparla.com

I agonized over this myself. The tours I liked and could afford do not go to Pinocoteca so we opted to get the timed entry for 8 AM and I borrowed the guidebook from a friend and...if I remember to, I shall let you know how it went. I may also purchase a coomercial audio guide for the museum from B and N. We are going at end of July.

I highly recommend Through Eternity. We took the 5-hour tour and were extremely happy with Brendan, our guide. We had 7 people in our tour and maybe we lucked out with such a small group. If you don't want to pay for a semi-private tour, Rick Steves has self-guided audio tapes you can download.

We hired a guide recommended by the guide Rick Steves recommends (she wasn't available). We used Luca Capparetti (male) for a half day at the Vatican and a half day touring Ancient Rome and were very satisfied. He has young children and modified his pace to match our desire. Very informative, low key and excellent English. Paid 45 euros/hour and it was about three hours each day.

Here's his email: lucasandra.k@tiscali.it

'Through Eternity' was great! We used them for four tours in Rome, the Vatican being one of them. The guides were knowledgeable and the groups were small.

I would also recommend using Through Eternity. During our visit to Rome, we took 3 tours with this group and found each one to be wonderful. They limit the number of people in a tour(I think we had 8-10 people) and each tour guide was fantastic. They certainly made the history come alive. Enjoy.

I would also recommend using Through Eternity. During our visit to Rome, we took 3 tours with this group and found each one to be wonderful. They limit the number of people in a tour(I think we had 8-10 people) and each tour guide was fantastic. They certainly made the history come alive. Enjoy.

I would also recommend using Through Eternity. During our visit to Rome, we took 3 tours with this group and found each one to be wonderful. They limit the number of people in a tour(I think we had 8-10 people) and each tour guide was fantastic. They certainly made the history come alive. Enjoy.