Last 2 days in Italy trip #4, Vatican suggestions Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel is part of the Vatican Museums. Here's the official ticket website: https://tickets.museivaticani.va/home/calendar/visit/Biglietti-Musei. Choose the day of your visit, indicate that you need two tickets and click CONFIRM. You'll get a screen listing all the ticket options available for that day.

The early-access options (with breakfast, with tour, etc.) will give you the least-crowded experience because you'll enter the museums before they open to the general public. After the official opening time, there will be more and more fellow visitors sharing the space with you; that's just the way it is.

Another option (not as uncrowded as early morning but reportedly better than regular daytime hours) are late-afternoon and early evening hours available on Fridays and Saturdays. I don't know whether Friday would be an option for you.

Tickets purchased from the official website will be less expensive than tickets for similar access times purchased from commercial ticket brokers. Note that the Vatican Museum tickets have been selling out well in advance this year. Demand is very, very high.

It seems to be only in Italian after I show 2 people for Thursday 27 and I don’t see times available although it appears that there are some times. We fly home on Friday.

The Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel were my biggest disappointments of my recent trip in Rome. It definitely did not live up to my expectations and I felt like a member of the herd as we shuffled with the crowd through the musuem and then part of a mob in the Sistine Chapel where the security guards kept making many loud announcements about being quiet.

From my point of view, if you miss seeing these, you are going to be okay. I would focus on St Peter's instead.

I'm getting the website in English; I don't know why that link takes you to the Italian version.

If you're in Rome this week, it's probably too late to get tickets from the official agency. As I said, they've been selling out way in advance. Demand seems higher than it has ever been. Statistics indicate foreign visitors to Italy are up over 50% since 2019.

You might find a spot on a commercial tour, or you could go early and stand in line for general entry. I believe folks have mentioned on the forum that tour guides with extra tickets often unload them outside the Vatican Museums, but I don't know exactly where that happens or how it works. I'd guess you might need to pay cash in that situation.

We've been to the Vatican twice. Once with a fancy tour and the next by ourselves. We did just fine on our own with an audiotour. We could move quickly to what interested us and avoided crowds. Book your slot on the Vatican website and take whatever time you can get. We got an early afternoon entry on our last trip and it was a bit less crowded than our early morning tour. Maybe later in the day would be good. If you're not on a tour and you want to visit the Basilica, you'll need to walk around to the church and go through security again. I will be a cretin and say that the Sistine Chapel is one of my biggest travel disappointments. It's crowded; it's garish. Both times, I expected to be overwhelmed by it. Oh, well. Better luck for you but everyone should see it once.

Thanks all. I found the place to select English and got the web in English. I’ve just bought at 6 am Rome time, 2 tickets for 3pm Thursday with the official tour.
I hope that it meets my wife’s expectations.

Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums €68 for a guided tour for 2 in a group with English speaking guide.
It was very, very crowded at 3 pm. The mic & ear pieces worked well at the start but performance tailed off with static and silence at some spots, possibly because our group of over 20 possibly 30 got spread out.
For me, it was too many paintings of too many popes and not enough time to consider the stories they told. Then the Sistine chapel was jam packed, like the subway train we caught back. Sistine Chapel security was continually asking for Silence and No photographs.
We can tick it off the list but it isn’t what I like. As we fly home tomorrow, we say good bye to Rome and unless it is necessary to fly through Rome, this was our first and last time. I enjoyed a lot of it but there are other places we would rather explore. Possibly Sicily and Sardinia next? Lake Como (Varenna) again although the food in Stresa was better., at least where we ate. The food in the Monti area was quite good, both times here with my wife really approving of the Pasta.
As I plan our trips, I must say Thanks to all the people on the RS forum who have helped make our trip a success.

There is no way around it. It is magnificent, crowded, and beautiful.

Have a good meal before you go, pack a snack, and go with the flow. It will be exhausting but you will never forget the experience.

I hope you both enjoy it.

Baby boomer: it sounds like it was exactly like we warned you it would be……