We have early entry tickets to the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum. We (my wife) is only interested in hitting the highlights of the Museum - we have a Scavi Tour scheduled for 11am where we should be able to hit St Peter's Basilica afterwards
Just wondered if anyone has a self guided tour that till take a couple of hours?
RS does...download it from this website.
SS
The Vatican also has an audioguide that is self-directed. We just did it and were very pleased with the results. We were able to look at the things that interested us and move past the ones that did not.
How did you get early entry tickets and would the time be comparable to booking an early entry tour?
Laura
Booked the First Entry tour with Dark Rome/City Wonders which meets at 7:20am. It is a tour that lets us be one of the first in to see the Sistine Chapel and then we are free to wander the Vatican Museum
The only problem with most such, and probably Rick's too, is they start at the beginning and take you through the one way system, showing you things along the way, all the way until you get to the Sistine Chapel which is at the very far end of the somewhat linear Vatican Museums.
What you want to do is start at the end and work backwards towards the entry. That may be difficult with audio tours, or at least take plenty more work. I'd advise downloading and checking carefully if anything will work in the way you want to use it.
By booking two very major events (not cheap either) so close together I hope you aren't setting yourself up for timing difficulties. My understanding of the Scavi tour is that they don't wait for you.
That's why I had asked if anyone had a decent self guided itinerary - I didn't think any of the audio tours would work for us.
We booked the Early Entry as we wanted to see the Sistine Chapel before it was mobbed. Since my wife isn't generally a fan of museums, it wasn't a difficult decisionto book the Sistine/Vatican Museum tour but I would like to see some of the highlights before we do the Scavi Tour.
I guess I'll just have to decide what I want to see and come up with an itinerary.....
Thanks all
Did you get the early entry through the Vatican website? If you did, you can get a guide through them and they are very reasonable and good. They offered a guided tour in English, I think at 10:00 and 2:00 and we have always used the 2:00 tour. If you do the Scavi tour at 11:00, you will have time to go to the Museum afterward.
the museum is made up of 12 separate buildings and the amount of history and art is extensive to say the least. I think if you go without a guide, you will miss so much! I would go to the Basilica until its time for the Scavi tour (be there 15 minutes ahead of time), then Scavi then the Museums for a very full day!
We have an early entry tour thru Dark Rome/City Wonders that lets us in an hour and a half before the general public so we can see the Sistine Chapel crowd free........
