Anyone bought the "lunch included" Vatican Museum ticket?

we're hoping to get the short cut to St.Peter's Square after the
Sistine so no eating on the way,

DK, that shortcut is for tours only and not for visitors who are there on general admission tickets. While some tourists have managed to sneak through, it's not a given that it'll be allowed, and not fair to visitors who've paid extra for tours to have that privilege. If you'd like to use the shortcut, I'd suggest booking tickets for the 3-hour museum/basilica tour through the Vatican's website.

Additionally, the Vatican's website states that "Visitors are allowed to leave food and drink in the cloakroom, on the condition that this is collected before closing hours.", and "Walks of Italy" - a highly respected tour company among the Steves crowd - has this on their website:

"Food and drink are not allowed into the Vatican Museums. You can, however, leave them in the cloakroom and collect them at the end of your visit. Any food or drink that goes uncollected will be disposed of at the end of each day"

I'd plan on eating at the museum cafe or outside of the Vatican between visits to the basilica and museums.

I don't think I've ever spent 18 Euros in the Vatican Museum Cafeteria for lunch, and I've been there several times.

As someone else said I don't think you'd be able to bring your own lunch into the museum, you'd likely have to leave it at the coat check or else be extremely sneaky and smuggle it in and then be even more sneaky and secretly eat it in the café or worse in a bathroom (gross imho). As far as the €18 lunch goes it sounds like a rip off to me but you likely will get something fairly extravagant if that's what you fancy. As I mentioned, there is a small café in the museum, close to the Sistine Chapel if I remember right; I got an espresso there myself as I was in need of a bit of a pick-me-up but I they also had sandwiches and probably other light fair for likely much less than €18.

Of course if you're a foodie (as I am) I would say take the opportunity for a lunch break between the museum and St. Peter's at a local place in the neighborhood. Bonci Pizzarium is a fun choice not far (short walk or one stop away on the metro)... not much more than a take out counter with a few stools inside and some benches out front but it has great creatively sliced pizza al taglio (square slices). Mondo Aracina is another interesting quick place. Much bigger inside but still basically a fast food place, it's not too far from the Vatican and specializes in arancini (Sicilian fried risotto and mozzarella balls).

This is all good, thank you..
The Sistine Chapel shortcut isn't mentioned as a tour only thing, so I'm glad you clarified that, as for the "outside" food question, that was a last resort plan, good to know the regs for that.
Thanks for the cafe suggestion, it sounds very convenient, I wasn't sure where to go nearby, and the arancini was already on my "food to try" list..
The whole day is reserved for The Museum and St Peter's only for sights, so there is lots of room for a good break in between. Thank you again!

I think you'll enjoy that in-between time to rest your feet. :O)

DK, you should also be aware that if you check anything at the entrance to the Vatican Museum, food or a backpack or anything else, then you have to go all the way back from the Sistine Chapel through the museum to the museum entry to pick it up again. Then leave the museum and take the long walk around to St. Peter's. I think that is also required if you have Vatican Museum headsets and need to return them. That would negate any hope of somehow using the "tours-only short-cut" door from near the Sistine Chapel directly into St. Peter's. Going back to the entry and walking around is the normal expectation if you are not with a tour.

They have added places to leave the audio headsets at the exit to the Vatican museums.

I'm not suggesting that anyone substitute Rick's (our host here ... ) moral judgement for their own. But he, quite clearly, doesn't believe that it's a sin or even unfair to quietly slip out the "short-cut" door in the wake of an imperialist private-tour group. We did so last month, after observing for a few minutes, and seeing that the door was vacant most of the time. (By that, I mean that we weren't making life any harder for anyone who may have had the "right" to use the door.) That doorway was, in fact, the least crowded spot in the entire Sistine Chapel.

As hinted in another post, there was indeed an unstaffed kiosk on the stairway associated with the "short cut" for depositing audio guides. (Rick specifically warns in past editions of his books that there is no place to deposit the audioguide if you leave by the short-cut.)

Regarding the OP, I presume that this prepaid lunch is in the large cafeteria. The food looks good enough, but it is, after all, a cafeteria. We went to the pizzeria, only to get barely-warm, pre-made slices, cooler than you'd get at most NYC pizza "dives." They also had hero sandwiches, which looked better. No alcohol to be seen in the pizzeria.

What I would suggest you consider is whether you want to buy some other extra that interests you and saves you some line-waiting. I don't know if it was entirely due to our Vatican Garden Tram Tour, or simply that we had online tickets. But our approach to the Vatican Museum entrance was very easy, on the quite short prepaid ticket line. As Rick notes, this is a very long walk from the front of St. Peter's Square. We had, in fact, walked all the way from our hotel near Piazza Navona, but we knew the length of the walk from Google Maps.

Final decision made: the big factor in all this was mobility, my wife has been suffering strong pain in her legs for the past 3 years, still cause unknown. Wondering where to eat and limiting the walking is for her sake. So we decided on this after all the advice here:

We WILL have to eat btw the Museum and Basilica because we will be going slowly, and we do want more inspiring food than the cafeteria. She's ok with no shortcut, we will find an eatery from the places within a couple blocks from the Museum exit, eat at our leisure, then taxi it to the front of St. Peter's Square. So we get interesting food and limited walking. Just hoping there would be wheelchair service at the Museum if we need? Thank you for all advice, everyone..

I noticed a number of wheelchairs during our Vatican Museum visit last month. You should be aware that this is a very crowded area, and the distances are quite long. I mean also that you won't be able to "skip" something, just because everything is laid out in a linear way - sort of like Disneyland designs one-way corridors to facilitate continuous movement of large groups! For example, the lackluster "modern" art collection has to be passed through to continue your visit. (We used stairs. I didn't notice the associated elevator - see next paragraph.) The museum entrance itself is quite modern, with one-floor elevators to eliminate "barriers". Note that online reservations need to be exchanged for physical tickets, but the system worked just fine for us.

It's not clear from this reference whether you can bring your own wheelchair:
http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-Info/MV_Info_Servizi.html

I would suggest that you look into possible ways to get near the Museum entrance with some kind of authorized handicapped taxi, unless you are willing to push the chair a quarter mile outdoors in the heat. You should also be aware of Vatican employees and volunteers on the way towards St. Peter's Square. They are intended to facilitate Pilgrim access and get people to the right sides of buildings. But, despite their marked pinafores, they have an air of "Tour Tout" or, to use Rick's term "Bogus Parking Wardens." Apparently they are quite official!

Edit: You said you've made your decision. But now that you have revealed the accessibility issue, I would suggest that you take the included lunch. The serving areas looked attractive enough, and it was possible to get seats at tables, despite general crowding. Your stated plan doesn't adequately account for the huge distances involved, or the sloped roads on some sides of the square. This is not the time to seek a fine Italian lunch - which might be hard to find within sight of St. Pete's ...

Oh my, I've made this sound worse than it is.. My wife's pain comes and goes - at times she can walk easily on her own, at the worst she would need to sit and be moved. I'm just scouting out as much info I can to reassure her because she's actually more worried about me, bless her heart! So, I guess, no real "decision", just knowing the options, thanks!

But he, quite clearly, doesn't believe that it's a sin or even unfair
to quietly slip out the "short-cut" door in the wake of an imperialist
private-tour group.

He may not but there are any number of independent visitors who HAVE been turned away who didn't plan for that. It's all up to the discretion of the guards on duty on any given day. Let's just say that it's not something which can be relied upon so it sort of bugs me that it's presented as a 'you should do this' insider's tip.

Kathy, I did not say that Rick wrote that anyone "should" do this, and he did not. All he wrote is that you might be able to. Since you didn't express any idea, in your immediately preceding post, that there is actually something evil about taking advantage of the option when it exists, I don't need to write any more just now.