It was announced yesterday that Pope Francis has opened the Barberini Gardens of the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo for tours. The vatican on-line ticket office has an area to book these, but every time I try it says they are unavailable. Has anyone else tried to book these tickets? Is it just user error on my part or are they really unavailable?
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
They may need more time than you might expect if we were talking about Switzerland. Aftetr all, they wouldn't be the first country that had trouble setting up a website. :-) Think of it as part of the charm of Italy (and sovereign countries that are located in Italy).
Posted by
OP
217 posts
Great advice, as usual! I'll try to be patient!
Thanks:)
Posted by
OP
217 posts
Guess what?!?!
I finally heard back from one of the several vatican email address I contacted with my question!
When news broke of the Barberini Garden tours, in my catholic circles, there was much hullabaloo! Every website went on and on about the tours becoming available (in English) in march and directed the reader to the vatican museum ticket website. Not the case, I have been trying every day since and it always gives me an error message about "no tours available".
Well, good news. It was NOT user error (as I suspected).
As of today, they opened up one tour on April 26. ONE tour, nearly two months after they advertised tours would be available!
HOPES DASHED!!!!!!
Just thought I would post the update here in case anyone else was thinking user error was preventing them from getting on this tour.