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Booking Vatican Museums Official Guided Tour under a different language?

Posted by (New York) on

Tickets were all sold out in my language, but a few slots left in Italian. Not sure how interested we are in listening to a tour guide for 2 hours anyway, but there are skip-the-line benefits to paying extra by booking the official Vatican tour. From what I read in a similar thread on Reddit, this shouldn't be a problem and it happens all the time (particularly when some visitors don't speak any of the languages offered for the tours).

However, there also are earphones included with the official tours, which I imagine support selection of any of the languages that the tours are offered in, plus some additional ones? Curious if this should work so that we can at least get an audio recording in English of the tour's main presentations?

Posted by
1565 posts

However, there also are earphones included with the official tours, which I imagine support selection of any of the languages that the tours are offered in, plus some additional ones?

When we did a Vatican Museums official tour, the headphones were to hear the live narration of the guide - so it will be in the language specified for the tour.

Posted by
17242 posts

Right, you'll hear the tour only in the language you've selected at purchase. The 'earphones' are so that the guide can speak in normal tones and everyone on the tour can hear them. It's also a (rather futile, given the crowds) attempt by the museum to keep the noise level down. Many museums mandate use of 'whisper' devices for tours over a certain size.

...but there are skip-the-line benefits to paying extra by booking the
official Vatican tour.

No one need pay extra for line-skipping. ALL advance tickets, tour or not, are timed entry - meaning you get in roughly at the time you booked when purchasing your ticket/tour - and everyone has to pass through a security check line at the entry. No one avoids that one. It moves pretty quickly, though.

If you advance purchase regular-entry tickets, there is the option of adding rental of an audio-guide in 12 different languages for € 8,00.

General-entry tickets may also be sold out for your desired date but you could check.

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