Need help/advice with reservations for sights Milan,Florence,Venice,Rome

As you know, for Last Supper you have to reserve in advance. But many reporting in here have reported frustrating trouble trying to do this themselves. See Rick's description in his book of how to attempt this.
If you can't manage to do this (many have not), an alternative is booking a tour that will take you there, will cost more but some have done this after trying to do it themselves. The challenge will be trying to coordinate a tour with your itinerary of only being there a day.

Make sure your Rome hotel has AC. You'll want that for Rome in the summer.Unlike here, some hotels in Italy do not have AC, and the windows typically don't have screens.

I was unable to get a reservation to the Last Supper 2 months in advance, so I ended up taking the bus tour, which I reserved in advance on line. It was about half a day, covered the Duomo, the Victor Emmanuel Galleria, the Opera/Opera Museum, the Sforza castle and the Last Supper. It began and ended near the Duomo, so you can easily return to the sights in the area for a more leisurely look.

I didn't have reservations for anything in Venice. Lines at the Duomo are terrible first thing in the morning, but it was fine later in the day. Be sure to spring for an expensive beverage at one of the cafes in St. Mark's Square in the evening when the "dueling orchestras" are playing -- that's my favorite memory of Venice.

Many Florence hotels will make museum reservations for you, that's how I did it both times. I would ask them first, they have the most up to the minute information.

The Vatican, later in the day is better. I lingered in the quieter galleries in order to allow the tour groups to pass. There was a nice outdoor courtyard with plenty of benches I remember spending some time in. Once you get into the Chapel, there are benches where you can sit, and you can linger if you like -- you are not constrained to a particular amount of time.

Hi Michelle -
As you're going during high season, I would definitely pre-purchase skip-the-line tickets for the Accademia and Uffizi in Florence: those queues can be very, very long. You may do that for both of them at the official online ticketing website here:

http://www.b-ticket.com/b-ticket/uffizi/default.aspx

Ticket queues for the Vatican Museums in Rome are often very long as well so to be on the safe side, purchase your tickets for reserved entry time online here:

http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.html

The Sistine is at the far end of the museums so no, there's no direct entry to the chapel itself.

Reservations for the Borghese are MANDATORY, and you can do that online here:

http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/einfo.htm

You will choose a 2-hour time slot, and select the "Pickup at the venue box office " option for collecting your tickets when you arrive at the museum. They ask that you arrive 20-30 minutes or so early to check all items not allowed into the galleries. Do note that if you should purchase a Roma Pass and wish to use that for the museum, you must make your reservation by phone instead of online: +39 06 32810, Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm – Saturdays, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.

Also, the Borghese, Uffizi and Accademia do allow non-flash photography now so you're allowed to bring your camera. I see that the Borghese website still hasn't been updated to reflect that information yet. You are also allowed to take non-flash photos in the Vatican museums but not in the Sistine.

Does this help?

Michelle,

You may also want to buy your tickets in advance (to skip the lines) for the Colosseum & Forum here: http://www.coopculture.it/en/

Thanks sooo much to everyone. I am glad to have confirmed which are the most important sights to get reservations. BTW, Kathy, in your opinion, is it worth it to get the Roma pass?

For the Vatican museums, you might want to look into one of the tours that visits either before the museums open to the public or in the evening after they close. A number of companies offer such tours, and the ones in the morning are far more reasonably priced than the night Tours. I can't recommend any specific vendor, and the company I usually use for walking tours, context Rome, is very expensive for the evening tour.

These tours can get you to the Sistine Chapel when the museum is not open to the public. They will then loop back to other areas of the museums (and the morning tours also visit the Basilica).

Michelle,

You may want to read this article on tripadvisor to decide if the Roma
Pass is worth it for you:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187791-c149376/Rome:Italy:Roma.Pass.Is.It.Worth.It.html

This is part of the last paragraph on above article:

"Some people buy the Roma Pass just to "skip the lines". This makes no
sense. The only places that have long lines are the Vatican Museums,
which is not covered by the pass, and the Colosseum. You can skip the
lines at both of these sites by buying your tickets online.

Don't let the pass decide what you want to see and when you want to
see it. Decide first what you want to see, and whether you really want
to squeeze it all into three days, and then figure out whether the
Roma Pass will save you money"

Happy Planning!

There is another, less expensive way to get tickets for Leonardo's Last Supper in Milano: use a ticket broker online. I have used Select Italy, received the voucher within seconds. I think the cost was about $20 or so, worth it because I didn't want the city tour and no tickets were available on the official website. I also was able to buy the ticket about four months in advance (official website doesn't release tickets that far ahead).

Michelle, Priscilla answered your question the way that I would have.

We haven't ever purchased that pass because we enjoy a greater amount of flexibility regarding what we see and what days we do that. Granted, the Borghese requires advance reservations so a prior commitment is necessary for that one but aside from the Vatican Museums - not covered under the pass anyway - queues are either not a problem or can be gotten around other ways. We also tend to use the transport system very little in Rome as we prefer to walk so we haven't needed that piece of it either.

But it's a personal preference largely dependent on how the math works for you, your style of travel and interests: value for one does not necessarily provide value for another. For instance, I would have been willing to pay more than the 13 euro online price for 2 hours at the Borghese - pass or no pass - because I dearly love art and architecture. If those aren't someone else's cuppa tea, expending both the time and the $$ might not be worthwhile for them.

Make sense?

Again, thanks for all the great suggestions. I'm probably leaning towards not getting the Roma pass. It is so nice to talk on this forum & trust the information you are getting. I plan all of our vacations but this one has definitely been the most challenging with all the logistics!

I also used Select Italy to get one admission ticket for the Last Supper for April 8th. Easy to do and price was comparable to buying direct. However, the fast train ticket prices on Select Italy were more expensive than on ItaliaRail's website.