Help me plan our Vatican day?

for what its worth, we visited the museum and chapel, in 2014. we organised the tickets on line and got there early. ( not as early as you) inside the museum was packed to the point of being absurd. when we got to the chapel it was standing room only. and there would have been no way anyone could have gone 'backwards' against the crowd to re visit the museum.( other than climbing over the people, like a cattle dog- LOL) I am not sure if its possible by other means ??
my daughter visited the vatican a few weeks ago , on an organise tour, and her photos show much the same experience.
we used the RS audio tour ( which was good) on our phones and managed to get a seat along the wall of the chapel, and could sit and look at the ceiling etc. we were just lucky.

hopefully you have a more pleasant experience.

Unfortunately, audio guides don't usually qualify for use of the back passageway to the basilica but you could ask.

Only "guided" tours are allowed to use the bypass door. It is part of the extra cost you pay for the guide.

Yes, after you visit the chapel you can re-enter the museums. Just go out the normal exit and re-enter. Don't try to exit through the same door you entered the chapel through as you'll be swimming "upstream". I would still get the audio guide if you plan to re-visit the museums after the chapel. You can use it at that point for the extra information.

Donna

Just a note about the audio guides and kids. I know audioguides do make the time longer, and about half the time I don't use them either. However, my two sons, at various ages, were far more attentive to the art when they were listening on their own and could control a device. If they didn't like it, they fast forwarded to the next piece. The audioguides are not like parents hanging over you telling how important or the artists name, etc. Even now as adults, the audioguides are preferable to my commentary or my reading from Rick.

I dislike audio guides in general and would never expect a kid to use them. Read up on what you will be seeing or carry a good guidebook.

You cannot exit to the Basilica without being on a tour unless you pull a fast one -- harder to do with a family than alone. People sometimes slip through but don't count on it.

When you exit you can easily go back into the museum -- you don't go the way you came but with the flow to the exit.

I hear about how crowded the Sistine chapel is and it was both time I visited, but so what? What you came to see is straight up. There are benches where you can sit and lean back to see more clearly and again even with the crowds, it is straight up. I have seen people who have brought mirrors to see without cricking their necks. Crowded or not -- it is well worth doing and you can stay till you have seen what you want to see.

A happy moment for me was sitting on the bench with my 14 year old and having her nudge me and say with outrage 'look the serpent is painted as a WOMAN'

Thank you all!

Does this sound reasonable, given the breakfast tickets I already have and my main objective of getting to the Sistine Chapel ahead of the crowds? Eat our breakfast, then when they open the museums to us, head directly to the Sistine Chapel. After seeing it, return to the museums to look around at our leisure. Then have lunch and go to St. Peter's.

We don't have anything else on our schedule for this day and I have seen some suggestions that the line to get into St. Peter's is shorter later in the day (well, shortest early in the morning but we won't be able to make that). So potentially we could even find some gelato to eat or something else to do/see in the immediate area? And get in line to see St. Peter's mid-afternoon?

I am trying to look at the maps I can find online to see if I can figure out the route to the Sistine Chapel and then the route you all are suggesting to return to the museums.

Any suggestions for lunch in the area? I saw someplace that there is a pizzeria inside the museums with a view of St. Peter's?

Thank you!

crl. it sounds like you will be fine. at least your doing your 'homework' and know what to expect and avoid. hope you have a great time. if you have trouble finding maps etc, then perhaps just ask , when you get there for your breakfast.

There are plenty of signs inside the museums that point you towards the chapel. Just follow those and the rest of the crowds. That's where everyone else will be heading as well.

If you find the line for the basilica too long when you're finished with lunch you could always come back early the next morning. If you get there between 7-8am there are no lines to get inside.

Donna

In general, I try to go away from whatever site is closest to find meals, less pricey, more authentic food, more "normal" people around......but when we did the Vatican, we were basically spent....I was determined to find a restaurant that wasn't "touristy"......so we started our hike around the southern wall (and now looking at a map, there aren't streets around the whole wall like I thought, we actually were walking away from the Vatican), and very quickly got into a dead zone of basically NOTHING.....we were tired and hot and hungry....we kept walking, saw a handful of very touristy restaurants, and then after about 15 min of walking, we found the Osteria dei Pontefii on Via Gregorio VII......which was full of Italians and very enjoyable....and then it started to pour......and they called us a taxi and told us to sit tight until it arrived.....they were very helpful and ebullient (wow that's a word I haven't used much recently).......we would eat there again, but it is a HIKE........so maybe walk around the northern side? There are definitely more restaurants and....civilization up there haha

Thank you!

We just spent the day at the Vatican. Good thing to buy tickets online in advance. The line to purchase tickets was insane. We took the bypass door. Just fell in line with a group. No one questioned us. And we downloaded the RS app and audio guide. Listened to the Sistine chapel and St Peter's Basillica on our phones. Perfect. And free. Family of 6. Four kids, 20, 18, 14 and 11.

I have a question to add to this b/c I, too, am trying to figure out how to see the Chapel and St Peter's without tremendous headache. So it sounds from some comments that a good thing to do is return to the Basilica later in the evening or the next am early. We can do that without a ticket? I mean, how do we go see the Basilica later that evening or the next day without going through the whole museum and chapel deal?

The basilica is free (not Sistine chapel). It has a door from the grounds that you enter. We almost went there first...walk right in, but we were running late so had to quickly leave to get around the Vatican walls to enter the Vatican museums.

Lauren, the basilica has nothing to do with the museums other than they are both a part of the Vatican. The basilica is free to enter but there is a security line you must go through. This line moves quickly so even if it's sticking out into the square it usually only takes 15-20 minutes to get through.

If you get there at 7ish, when they first open, you'll find little to no line and have the basilica practically to yourself. If you don't want to take a tour of the museums and use the tour door, this is the next best option. Please, don't try to sneak in with a guided tour you haven't paid for. Those people have paid extra to use this door and it's not fair to them and it's not honest.

Donna

Eating around the Vatican is the worst. Oddly some of the most crooked restaurant scammers in the country seem to be congregated there waiting to cheat tourists and the food is lousy too. We just go ahead and eat in the cafeteria in the museum; not good, but not terrible and I hate to give a dime to the scam artists running cafes near the Vatican.

When we visited a two years ago, we had lunch at Panino Divino. It is a little sandwich shop with some counter seating at Via Dei Gracchi 11/a. As I remember it was a short walk from St. Peter's. We ate there in between seeing the cathedral and the museum. The sandwiches are amazing, and the price is very reasonable. We also really liked wandering around Castel Sant'Angelo which is nearby, if that interests you.

For something different you could apply for the Scavi tour below the Vatican where you can see the remains of the original St Peter's and the tomb of St Peter. This has to be arranged ahead of time ,but my family really enjoyed it,

Yo can have lunch in the courtyard cafe. Do not eat the pizza in the museum cafeteria - you have been warned.

Don't know if this will be helpful or not but it's the map of the museums on the Vatican's website (be sure and scroll down):

http://mv.vatican.va/1_CommonFiles/pdf/mappa_musei_vaticani.pdf

I believe the Scavi tour is open to people 15 or over and they seem to be pretty strict with that. Not sure how they check the age of teenagers. Passport?? Need to get tickets ahead.

It's best to always carry children's passports in case you're asked for proof of age.

Kathy is right. Once when traveling with my cousin, his wife and infant daughter, he was asked for the baby's passport; she didn't have one, and was not on either parent's. Lots of explaining to do.