Essential tickets to purchase: Rome, Pompeii, Assisi, Venice, Florence

In Florence 2 weeks ago we used Rick’s audio tour for the Uffizi, it was perfect, just the right amount of time.

Thanks for the tip Barbara! We were in Paris last year and Rick Steves audio tours certainly came in very handy there, too.

:-) WL

For Rome, you may want to add: Pantheon and The Forum for getting tickets. Also, I believe the Borghese Gardens is free.

I used the official website for the Uffizi and the Accademia (the David): https://www.b-ticket.com/b-Ticket/uffizi/

You’ll want to get on those Colosseum and Borghese tickets asap
Do a search here for “Colosseum” and “Borghese” to find the official websites for purchasing tickets
Look for posts by Kathy especially for Colosseum ticket info

Be sure to filter your Search by Type and Date

Thanks one and all for your input. And Marty - I greatly appreciate the reminder to purchase the Ufizzi tickets!

:-) WL

You need to get your Vatican Museum tickets immediately. They often sell out way in advance.

Hi
Just to echo the advice re looking for Vatican Museum tickets asap, when we bought our standard tickets (without a guided tour or add ons like breakfast) they were selling out online for a specific date within a minute of release. I’d done lots of reading and the view at the time (we were there October 2023) seemed to be that early afternoon, in theory whilst lots of people were at lunch, was a good time to visit, but in reality the museum was still (for me uncomfortably) busy then. Online tickets on the official Vatican site were released daily for I think it was the date 60 days in advance, the release for all timeslots for that day was at midnight Italian time (thus sitting in the UK with webpage open and fingers ready at 11pm!). There often seemed to be greater availability if you buy skip the queue/guided tour tickets from other websites but obviously they tend to cost more. On the positive front if you manage to get online tickets the separate queue to get into the museum was minimal, I spoke to a lady who didn’t have an online booking and she’d waited in the other queue for over 2.5 hours. Good luck and hope that’s of some help.

Hello All -

Thanks again for the input. We managed to secure Vatican tickets for Tuesday at noon. We had planned on picking up our Papal Audience tickets Tuesday afternoon so we decided to go ahead and visit the museum prior to picking up our tickets.

So looking forward to our Italy vacation.

In Florence, are you interested in seeing the David? If so, you'll want to book your tickets ASAP
https://webshop.b-ticket.com/webshop/webticket/eventlist

Edited to add: Also in Florence, the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo is a gem but I wouldn't think you need advance tickets. Same with the Bargello.

For the colosseum we booked a tour as I wasn’t able to get tickets online. I booked through Carpe Diem and it was a great tour.

For Pompeii, we did a bus tour. It was a LONG day (14 hours), but it was also great. I think it was through city wonders (or similar sounding name). It included lunch and a hike up Mt. Vesuvius.