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Best route for visiting Vatican and surrounding neighborhood

Posted by (San Jose) on

We planned to visit Vatican Museum on a Monday morning. Just checked the online reservation and found out only the 12pm appointment is available. So after reading Ron's article about Vatican prebook, it seems like there is no need since there will be less crowd around noon. Also RS suggests to visit the museum around 3pm.

How much time will visiting St. Peter's Basilica take if we start in the morning like 8am? Where else to go before heading to the museum around 1pm or 3pm? Unfortunately the Castle Sant Angelo is not open on Monday, otherwise it'll be a good place to spend 2-3 hrs.

Is there enough time to visit Santa Maria del Popolo or the Spanish Steps and then come back to visit the museum?

Posted by
158 posts

I think RS talks about this trick in his book. After going through the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel there is an exit that leads you right into the church without waiting in line. If you go at 1pm, you can spend a couple hours in the museum and then head to the church. No need to wait in two long lines in one day.

Posted by
1317 posts

I (and RS) would allow about an hour to visit the church, plus another hour-90 minutes if you wish to climb the dome. If you decide to do St. Peter's after the Vatican, we entered the museum just about 11am, and it was about 5pm when we left St. Peter's, after climbing the dome, to give you an idea of the times. Especially if you weren't planning to climb the dome, I'd take advantage of the shortcut out of the Sistine Chapel.

You would probably have enough time to reach the Spanish Steps, especially if you used the metro, but that's a fair bit of backtracking. I would suggest instead perhaps paying a visit to the Trastevere neighborhood and the lovely church there, or crossing over to tour the Piazza Navona, Campo dei Fiori, or Jewish Ghetto areas.

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