I am torn and would like some advice on when to see the Vatican museum. I am hoping to get a Scavi tour which might change things, but here are my options. I will be in Rome for 4 days and fly out Saturday morning. I would like to go to mass at some point at St. Peters (prefering the Latin mass at 1700) which I am trying to work in here as well. I usually go into art overload after about an hour (I can usually stretch that to two if I have a snack break) and have a general idea of what I want to see.
- Go to the Vatican museums in the morning or afternoon, try to get through the secret door to St. Peters, go to whatever mass time is convient
- Go to mass at 1700 on Friday, after mass look around St. Peters, grab a snack, then amble over to the Vatican museum for Friday night hours.
- Book a tour and go wherever they tell me
I know that there are some rooms that are not open on Friday nights, has anyone been there to comment on crowd size? Is it better to be able to see everything when it's crowded or less when it's less crowded? Or is there any difference? I am trying to avoid the crowd in front of the Mona Lisa effect (I did not get more than a glimpse behind all of the arms in the air with cameras).
Unrelated, does a tour group make a difference for the Colosseum/forum/palatine hill or will I be able to visualize pretty well with the audio guides and learning before I go (Sidenote: any good books for this area?)? Is the underground tour worth it? I previously saw some Roman ruins in Morocco a few years ago and was underwhelmed so would like to avoid that if at all possible
Thank you for your input