Musei Vaticani sold out - how to get tickets for next week?

The advice I've read in the past about buying tickets ahead of time has been couched in terms of avoiding very long ticket lines. I haven't read that you absolutely must buy a ticket ahead of time, so I hope there will be some tickets available for walk-up purchase. I can't find a statement about that on the Vatican website, though.

In his guide to Rome, Rick says line are longest in the morning; he recommends going in the afternoon. The museums are open late on Fridays and Saturdays. Rick also says Saturdays are especially busy, so maybe try Friday afternoon?

He also says same-day tickets can sometimes by bought without standing in line if you go to the Vatican tourist information office on the south side of St. Peter's Square. It opens at 8:30 AM Monday to Saturday. However, I don't know whether that will be the case when all the online tickets are sold out. CORRECTION: Per a later post (below), this tourist information office has closed.

He further says (this is from the 2020 guidebook) that the private pilgrimage tour company, Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, sells same-day tickets at 30 euros each, which would be less expensive than any ticket currently available without standing in line, I believe. Its office is at Piazza Pio XII 9.

I hope by sometime tomorrow there will be a post from someone who has recent experience with Vatican Museum tickets. If not, what I'd do is send one of your group to the Vatican tourist information office as early in your Rome visit as possible to find out what your options are. If tickets are being sold for that day, your scout can buy them for a suitable time and let the rest of the group know. Otherwise, the scout will at least be able to find out the policy for sale of walk-up tickets on days when online tickets are sold out and perhaps get an up-to-the-minute tip on the best time for folks to show up. One thing you need to know is whether one person can buy all the tickets your group needs; in some situations there's a limit on the number of tickets one person can purchase. Unless it's required, there's no sense in having your entire group standing in a long ticket line.

(As you can see from the information I've cribbed from the "Rome" guidebook, Rick's books are very useful. The information you glean from them will easily be worth more than the cost of the books.)

GetYourGuide and Viator both sell skip the line tickets with no tour attached. There is a markup on some, but often very little, considering. It bites you most if you have children because most sites in Italy admit children free or reduced and guides on Viator and GetYourGuide are not so generous.

Many of the tickets are sold by local agencies and require you to pick up tickets at their offices, so check the fine print. (No one tried to sell us any tour either time we did this.).

Also, a guide waiting with her tour group sold us tickets to Ufizzi at list price since she had them left after everyone in her group arrived. She probably made a small profit having bought them at a group rate, but invaluable to us.

Thank you so much for all of this -- you've given me leads to chase down when we get to Rome tomorrow. (And yes, can afford a Vatican tour at 34 euros -- didn't see that option but only the more expensive ones).

Hello!
I’m in Rome now and went to the Vatican last Friday with pre-booked tickets. There are line- ups for walk-in tickets. The line ups for walk-ins were not horrendous at noon. However, the Vatican Museum was as crowded as pre-Covid. No crowd control at all. N95 masks required though!
The line-ups for St. Peter’s Basilica are huge!
Rome is very busy atm.

This is fascinating to me. We were in the Vatican Museums a month ago and had most of the rooms to ourselves!

I guess “they” are right when they say April kicks things off!

We went yesterday to the TI to the left of St. Peter's Basilica (as you're facing it) and found it is PERMANENTLY CLOSED with a message that you have to purchase tickets online.

We ended up waiting about one hour in line and got in. Vatican Museums indeed packed.

I'm glad you were at least able to get in.

I guess “they” are right when they say April kicks things off!

It's true that the holyday season for Italians begins on Easter Monday, but here the problem is trying to get a ticket for the Vatican Museums between April 25 and May 1. After 2 years of lockdowns and travel restrictions. Add that Easter Monday fell on April 18 in 2022 and you get the perfect recipe for sold out museums.

Both are National Holydays, May 1 is also observed all over EU.

Mr Steves should add a list of national holydays by country to its books.

He does have such a list in his books. The information is also right on this very website. You can find it here:

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/festivals

It looks as if the listings are purged of dates as soon they are in the past. I've never noticed that before.