early entry vatican tours. yes? no?

I took the 7:30am tour with Through Eternity. Small group, actually entered the Sistine Chapel first so there was considerable backtracking later. There were other small group tours there, probably 100 or so people, it was very good. The tour concluded with Saint Peter's Basilica, so if you want to go back to the Museums, you can't without buying another ticket. The tour ended at about 2pm (refreshment break included), about an hour later than scheduled.

That 7:30 time usually means that's the time the group meets outside the museums, so you probably won't get into the Sistine Chapel until closer to 8am, but ours was the third group in.

Absolutely! We did the Pristine Sistine through Walks of Italy and it was great. We got in the early hour and went straight to the Chapel. We had about 20 minutes in there with just about no one else - maybe 20-50 people? We even sat down on the sides. Easy to look around and check everything out.

We then went back to tour the museum - my kids weren't having it, so my husband went with the group, and I took the kids for a snack and rest, and we were going to meet back up with them at the Sistine Chapel around 10:30 or 10:45 I think to go over to St. Peter's.

Well, just WALKING to the Chapel to meet them was like swimming in the sea.. I mean it was wall to wall people just carried along in the current. When we FINALLY got through back to the chapel it was PACKED. Again, wall to wall people, I don't know how you could even see anything really - people on top of you from all sides.

My husband also really enjoyed the tour (and I'm sure I would have as well if we were without kids - the tail end part I caught about some of Raphael's paintings was great!).

Highly recommend them!

Kim

We will be doing the Walks of Italy Pristine Sistine in September. I read another post where someone recommended taking some binoculars so you can see things closely, so we will do that. We have a nice light pair already!

Kim, Will you explain the tour if you don't mind. We've never been to Rome. So, what is actually covered by the guide besides the Sistine Chapel. When you say you went to see the museums, does that mean after the 4 hour tour? I guess I just figured museums were part of the tour. Is everything indoors?

I would definitely recommend the early entry Vatican tours. We avoided many of the crowds. If you can book as one of the first groups into the Sistine Chapel that would be well worth it.

Thanks everyone, especially you Kim. The Walks of Italy group looks like they have a great vibe--when I visited their website, they had me at "immersive and slow"-- so I'm doing the Pristine Sistine tour.

Lulu, the Walks of Italy website has some very detailed explanations of the tour. The tour will cover the Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica and some of the other sites within the Vatican museum complex. For me, the attraction is that unlike the usual route, which ends at the Chapel, the tour begins in the Chapel, further minimizing crowds.

I also found the Vatican's own museum website to be very informative. It offers a host of tours I haven't found elsewhere and all of them are bookable online. There are numerous points of interest to be found under the umbrella of the 'Vatican museums,' including a necropolis and the newly opened gardens of Castel Gandolfo. They should be lovely in September. Pope Francis opened them to the public when he chose not to take residence at Gandolfo. Oops, my historian is showing!

Ciao!
Rebecca

The Walks of Italy Pristine Sistine Tour us great, including the fact that you are finished around mid-day in time for some lunch and more adventures. By the way, at least 18 months ago, Walks of Italy offered a 10 percent "Rick Steves" discount if you asked for it, in addition to senior and child discounts, and allowed you to piggyback those. The people at their US toll-free number are very helpful.

Thanks rhartman. i will definitely go and check out the site better and the other vatican one you mentioned.

Yes..I did do the RS discount when purchasing my tickets to the Pristine Sistine and few months ago. Just purchased the VIP Colloseum last week (finally up!) and forgot to put in the RS code....argh! I've emailed them to ask if they will honor it...we'll see.

For Pristine Sistine we met at a coffee shop and all walked over together to line up. while we were waiting to get in, our guide had some pics of the Chapel and told us some things to look out for, some history, etc.... I think we went in at 8am?

We went in and pretty much went straight into the chapel (it's a bit of a walk - but it's all in the museum) - I feel like we might have very briefly looked a couple of things on the way in toward the chapel. Then we did the Chapel, and a few things on the way out of the chapel back to the main part of museum (map room? can't remember).. then we went for a bathroom and snack break (still within the museum). This is where the kids and I peeled off for a bit, this was maybe at 9:15....

Then my husband and the rest of the group went back to other parts of the museum, some of the outside gardens I think, and I'm sure all of the highlights. Then they worked their way back to the Chapel (this was the sea of people part) where we tried to sneak through the crowds and caught up to them just explaining the last couple of pieces in the Raphael Rooms, which I found fascinating.

Then maybe just before 11am we went back through the Chapel into St. Peter's and we looked at a few things in there, finishing just around 12ish. My husband who got to do the whole tour loved it, as did my kid's soccer coach and girlfriend who just went to Rome and we gave this to them as a gift.

One thing - bring your own headphones (especially if you have kids, theirs wouldn't stay well in little ears). Your own will likely be better than the provided ones.

hi Kim, would you mind sharing the ages of your kids? While my husband and I would love to do this tour I'm not sure how long our kids could hang, especially the youngest. The thought of being carried along in a sea of people is terrifying to me.. Also how long of a walk is it from the meetup place to the chapel? Is it a brisk paced walk or more leisurely. Thank you for all your details!

Anne, if you're going to be in Rome on a Friday night you might consider doing the Friday nights at the museums. They are much less crowded and a lot less hot inside. We've done it the past two summers and found it wonderful. Both times we've found room on the benches inside the chapel and enjoyed the artwork for about 30-45 minutes with only 50 or so other people. It's a much more relaxed atmosphere. You don't have the huge tour companies or cruise companies like in the day time.

Donna

They were 9 and 11 (both boys) when we went. I think had we had their own headphones where they could hear better they may have made it longer. My vote was to skip the whole thing and let them see the Chapel when older, but my husband wanted them to go. It was interesting though because the painting with Adam reaching toward God - we saw that image a few times over the next few months and they recognized it immediately, so that was cool!

From the meeting place to the museum entrance was not far -a couple blocks? We were not lollygagging or anything, but it wasn't super crazy brisk either. Then we waited in line to get in, once we got in, it's a fair distance to the chapel since the entrance is like the other side. We walked quickly, but the guide pointed stuff out on the way, but I don't think we really stopped... my husband seems to think the walk was about 5 minutes? Maybe 10?

When we broke from the group, finding them back it was a bit hard wading through all of the people. My husband was texting me where they were. How old and how many are the kids you want to take? Do they generally like "looking at things" (as mine would say)?

My kids probably could have made it fine if I forced it, and they were pretty engaged in what the guide was saying about the paintings once we caught back up - but that morning it just wasn't worth the fight to me so we hung out a bit in the snack bar. We mainly did it to go to the Chapel with them - we knew in advance that might be all we would get to.