Express lane without tour

Never heard of an "express lane" at the Vatican. There's a separate entrance for people who have reserved ticket time from the official Vatican Museum Website...maybe that's what you mean?

Pre-booked reservations allow you to skip the long ticket line but not the shorter security-check queue: no one can skip that one. From a previous discussion we had about this:

"Regarding tickets for the Vatican: what you will be doing is making reservations. They will send you a voucher used for picking up your tickets when you arrive at the time of your reservation. "

http://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?action=booking&codiceTipoVisita=26&step=2

"It is also possible to reserve a ticket at a reduced price for students up to 25 years of age on presentation of a student identity document or a valid International Student Card on the day of the visit.* If a reduced price ticket is reserved without the required documents the visitor will be asked to make payment of a full price ticket so as to enter. The reduced ticket will not be refunded. "

That last paragraph was regarding a reduced-price reservation for your son. You make your reservations via the link for the Vatican's website provided.

You are probably thinking of the line for people with pre-purchased tickets. I HIGHLY recommend purchasing the tickets from the official Vatican website before you go. By doing so, myself and another traveler saved about 3-4 hours by not having to stand in line!

Really interesting, I found the website, It is hard to find to believe. https://darkrome.com/

They do have an express lane with pre ticket, but I think it is tour group though. I need to make sure that if it is express lane with tour group. I wish that I do not need tour group.

There is no "express lane", this is just how companies "sell" skipping the line. Anyone who buys entry tickets or books a tour directly through the Vatican website gets to bypass the long ticket lines. You go to the front door and enter there. The security scanner is just beyond the door. Everyone goes through the scanner. There is no way to get around it and no "express lane" to it. If you don't want to book a tour just buy entry tickets through the official website and bypass the lines outside.

http://www.coopculture.it/en/heritage.cfm?id=4

Donna

I agree, purchase the Vatican Museum tickets through the Vatican website. You will have a start time and will bypass the long line. It is worth it.

Right. As said earlier, you can skip ticket lines if you pre-purchase tickets/make reservation but you cannot skip security checks anywhere at all that checks are in place (Vatican Museums, Colosseum, etc) NO one can. But if there is a line at security checkpoints - and there might be if it's very busy - they are much shorter and move fairly quickly.

Dark Rome does mostly group tours and a few very expensive private tours.