Italy what attractions can I book in advance and what ones have skip the line benefits

Hi, Susanyaz:

I took my 17 year old daughter to Rome on a 'before-you-go-to-college" trip in April 2016. She isn't a huge museum lover either, but told her we had to go to the Vatican museums. We did pre-book the Vatican tickets (highly recommend) and we winged the Colliseum tickets. Not to sound like an advertisement, but best thing I did was download the Rick Steves' audio Rome guides, as they were invaluable and just the right amount of history at these venues for an attention-challenged teenager. Also, get a good guidebook that lists the art work in the churches. Treasures can be found on every walk. Her favorite thing to do was a food tour of the Campo Fiore - olive oil, cheese, bread, salami, and then we made a pizza. And I researched leather handbag stores to visit and we had a blast shopping. Have fun on your trip!

Thank you .Will look into your suggestions.

One thing in Rome not mentioned that requires early booking is the Domus Aurea (weekends only). I haven't been there, but I've read positive comments on this forum. You might check it out online and see whether you might be interested.

There's also the Borghese Gallery, requiring time-specific tickets, but that's an art museum.

We did a coop culture tour at the Coliseum. No lines, access to underground and third tier, 2 hours, 11 euro. But they have a particular way to get tickets. It used to be the first or second Monday morning of the month prior to the one you want to go, at 9am rome time (so if you wanted to go end of June you would buy on the second Monday of May at 9am rome time). BUT someone just posted today that coop culture may have changed to three months advance purchase ability, so check the website maybe.

In Florence we got advance tickets for the Academia (David), Uffizi, and Duomo museums, which give you a ticket for all the sites included in the Duomo, and give you 48 hours to use them after the initial visit (so if you visited the Duomo tower at 3p Friday, the tickets are good until 3p Sunday). But you do have to schedule to time of entrance to some of them, so when we bought tickets we did have to specify when we wanted to climb the Dome, which we did the evening of arrival for the panoramic view of the city. I think we went back to the Duomo museum 44 hours later ;) All of these tickets in Florence allowed us to skip the line...

We also did a tour of the Vatican (a splurge for sure) so that we could be there without the crowds and let us skip the line... we did the shorter tour bc we had young kids ....

Thanks Jessica.We also are looking at the Vatican tour but trying to decide if we go for the splurge.Trying to keep the budget as low as possible.Thanks for your post.

Thanks acraven

Borghese Gallery, requiring time-specific tickets, but that's an art museum.

Yes, but an art museum like no other.

The Bernini sculptures are incredible to see close-up on TV (good idea to see if there is interest) but indescribably beautiful in 3-D, in person, inches away. The form, the colour, the infinite attention to detail.

You can't be in the Galleria Borghese more than 2 hours, and crowds are contained - only allowing admission together in reserved time groups and even generation instagram/snapchat kids have been known to swoon.

With your group, I'd skip the Domus Aurea - it's worthwhile if you are very interested in ancient Roman history, but it is definitely a 2nd-tier sight at best. The Vatican Museums are just that . . . museums - lots and lots of rooms of great stuff, but still, museums, except for the Sistine Chapel. An early morning tour that takes you to the Sistine Chapel and from there entrance to St Peter's is a very good idea. Consider climbing the hundreds of stairs of the dome (there's an elevator for the first hundred at minimal cost) - great views of the piazza and much of the rest of Rome.

This evening food tour is lots of fun and very tasty, and enough food even for hungry teens. You get a 10% discount using the Ricksteves discount code.

A teenager may find the Domus Aurea much more interesting than the usual museum/archaeological site for a few of reasons:

• they are still digging down there, it's open only during the week-ends because tours are given by volunteering archaeologists. They'll make you wear an hard hat.
• that's the actual place where the things she has studied happened and it is intact: you don't look at crumbling walls, you enter the rooms where Nero and Seneca and all the others spent their time.
• the virtual reality part at the end of the tour is quite short, but it's really interesting: the place comes to life the moment you wear the VR headset.

Most of us has no idea why the Sistine Chapel is more important than all the other painted ceilings scattered around Rome. We just trust the experts, the movies and what's written in our guides: so at the Uffizi we run to see Botticelli's Spring while in the Chapel we almost ignore Botticelli's frescos. In the Domus Aurea I had the impression I could really "understand" the place and learn something about absolute power and the need to show off. Just My 2 cents, of course.