Holy Week in Rome

The Easter crowds tend to start around Holy Thursday, and are mostly in the Vatican area, except on Good Friday, when there's a big procession at the Colosseum. If you visit the Vatican early in the week (or avoid the Vatican area entirely), and visit the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill any day but Friday, you should have no serious problems (apart from the fact that Rome is always busy).

We are in the planning stages of an April 2025 trip to Italy, and realize we are finishing up in Rome during Holy Week, arriving on April 12 (Easter Sunday is the 20th), leaving April 17. If what is said upthread is true--that it gets crazier as the week progresses, I'm kind of targeting Monday, April 14 to visit.

How to do it is the next challenge. Both my wife and I have seen the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel on one trip, and St. Peter's on another. This trip, we have my two cousins along, and neither of them have been to Rome. Although I am a devout independent traveler, I feel possibly in this instance a tour guide that can do an abbreviated version of both in one fell swoop--including a skip the line feature--might be in order, if that even exists.

Can we do that and keep it down to, say, 4 hours maximum? When it was just my wife & I (in 2010), we got through the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel OK, but we were with hundreds of others, and it seemed like a cattle call with no guidance, no information. At St. Peter's (2017), with our skip the line there was included an audio feature for our phone which worked haphazardly at best. It was very cool there but so much opulence...we had to get out of there after about seeing only about 70%--sensory overload. I'd like both my cousins to have a better experience than we did at either place, with the thought that we really don't have to see everything--there's so much.

So...before I start trolling the advertisements with Viator and TheRomeGuy and the like, are there any tips from experience? Any great tour guides that can do what I want? I know this is very anti-Rick Steves--checking off oh, I saw the Sistine, oh, I saw St. Peter's--but I don't think I could handle 8-10 hours of trying to see everything, and being in lines as well.

An important piece of information is that 2025 is a jubilee year for the Vatican. You can expect that the crowds will be much greater than usual. I’d be making reservations now. In addition, the ticketing and hours for the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel have changed recently. I ‘m not sure I would attempt it during Holy Week.

From my experience, you'll see increased crowds in all the major areas of Italy the week before and after Easter. Good luck!

Marrone! We have re-jiggered our itinerary so instead of being in Rome April 12-17, we'll be there April 6-10. (Easter is April 20.). Will probably attempt Vatican City on the 8th. I'm also finding it easier to find a suitable AirBnB.

If your kids are 6 or older, I highly recommend a visit to the Gladiator School. After a short presentation in the small museum, the participants are taught some battle activities. My grandsons, ages 6 and 16, had a blast. Google for more information and to reserve.