Planning my time in Rome

Our first trip was similar to yours. After you arrive I would walk around and see what is nearby.... plenty to look at no matter where you stay. We spent about 1/2 day at the Vatican but didn't climb the dome. I think you have to exit after the Sistine Chapel. we really benefitted by reading about what we would be seeing and then the tour guide was also wonderful... explained things before we entered so we knew what to expect. Villa Borghese... it is timed so you are limited to 2 hours (I think). This was plenty of time. For the Caesar portion... we went in July that visit and it was SOOO hot we had to frequently rest and drink more water plus we did it upon arrival since we arrived mid morning. Everyone will suggest a different amount of days... I really like Rome and make a point to visit on each trip. Venice has been my family's least favorite but we spent 3 days on our first trip there. Hope you have a great trip.

Day 2 is Wednesday, right? If the Pope is giving an audience and you want to be there, then yes, that's a good time to go. The Vatican museums won't generally be crowded in the morning, because of the crowds to see the Pope, but as soon as that's over, they'll all go into St. Peter's and into the museums, so more crowded than Thursday. If you take a guided tour of the Vatican museums, the tour groups exit right after the Sistine Chapel and then it's just a few meters walk to St. Peter's and no security check. If you are not with a group, then you will have a rather long walk back through other rooms of the museums to get out, then a 10-15 minute walk to St. Peter's to get in line for the security check before entering the church or climbing the dome. Although there is a flow of one-way traffic through the museums, there is no physical barrier to backtracking, or even starting over and doing it all again. Also there are 2-3 museums that are in separate buildings, so not part of the "one-way route." St. Peter's opens at 7 a.m. you can go very early, before the crowds and enjoy the church, then climb the dome, then go to the museums. There is limited space in the dome, so the lines (wait time) get longer during the morning and early afternoon. I don't know what happens later in the day.

At the Borghese, visits have timed entries and are limited to exactly 2 hours - that's 2 hours from opening the doors to the first visitors in line (of 200) until shooing the last visitors out of the galleries. You should be at the Borghese an hour before your reservation to line up (with the other 198) to pick up your tickets, then to line up to check all bags, cameras, cell phones, etc., then line up (optional) to rent an audio guide, then line up to enter the galleries.

We did the underground tour at the Vatican and a cooking class in Trastevere, both of which we plan to repeat next year. Reservations are needed for both. One day we took the train to Ostia Antica, and that was easily half a day. We had an American guide for the Shuffle, and her Italian husband took the two of us on an evening wine tour that was fun.

Thank you both for the helpful tips. Wow, this shows you how naïve I am. I just assumed if I had a reservation at the Borghese I would just show up and go in at that time, @Chani, thank you for the heads up about arriving an hour early. Would you perhaps suggest doing the Vatican Museum on Wednesday morning while everyone is seeing the Pope and assuming we have a guide go directly to St. Peters? Or if we do not have a guide would it be better to do the Vatican early Wednesday morning then do St. Peters' early Thursday morning followed by the Borghese perhaps after lunch?

One idea you might consider to maximize your use of time is the "Pristine Sistine" tour of Walks of Italy, or something similar by another tour company. I did this in October 2013, and it was well worth the expense and early morning hour. It begins at about 7:30 am near the Vatican, goes relatively quickly through some of the Vatican Museum highlights before it is open to the public, then goes to the Sistine Chapel for about 15-20 minutes with very few people in it (able to sit on the benches, see the floor, etc), then back through more of the Museum as it fills with people, then directly into St. Peter's for a walk through with the guide. Then the tour ends inside, and you can stay for more time if you like, and then time on your own outside, in the book shops, etc. I thought the guide was excellent, the group not very large, and the time of day missed the major heat and crowds. I left the Vatican area about noon and had the rest of the day in front of me. Of course it did involve getting up early and catching a Metro (no crowd) unless you are staying very near the Vatican. Walks of Italy is a great company, has a US toll-free number if you want to talk to them. Last year they offered an RS discount, probably still do, also a senior discount, and allowed people to use both. You can get more info on this and their other tours at www.walksofitaly.com.

It makes the most sense to do the Vatican museums and Sistine chapel, THEN go directly to St. Peter's since the exit from the Sistine chapel is very close to St. Peter's. The crowds are supposedly less in the afternoons and you should be able to do it all in 3-4 hours, perhaps more if you climb the dome.

If you want to add another day to Rome and are looking for ideas for day trips there is Ostia Attica, Orvieto, Pompeii, and Tivoli.

Thank you all very much for the advice and tips. I think we will do the Vatican and St. Peters' as mentioned above and possible look into taking a tour.

To clarify, there are two exits from the Sistine Chapel. One goes outside the building through an alleyway that abuts St. Peter's. The other goes to more rooms of the main building complex of the museums. The first is reserved for tour groups. The second is for everyone else. Sometimes, the guards are lenient and let other people out the "reserved" door. Sometimes if there's a big group, you can "sneak" your way out in their midst. Sometimes you can't. Also, if you have rented an audio guide or left anything in the cloakroom (large bags and most backpacks are not allowed in the museums) you will have to go back through the "other" door to return/retrieve.

The Vatican museums are huge and filled with treasures. You can go through them in 15-20 minutes to get to the Sistine Chapel if you don't stop to look at anything else and there are no big tour groups blocking your way. Or you can spend a whole day in the museums. It depends on your interests and your stamina. There are cafes and toilets along the way and you can pick up souvenirs, books, etc., at several places in the galleries.

An hour for the dome sounds about right if you start when it opens. Most of the climb is fairly narrow, so if there are a lot of people, you'll only be able to go as fast as the slowest person ahead of you (up and down).

It's about a 10 minute walk from St. Peter's to the museum entrance. If you want to be sure to save time, then book in advance and pay the extra amount (maybe €4 per person?). Take the printout of the reservations with you. There are two lines go through security to enter, one for the general public, the other for groups and reservations. The one for reservations is usually either short or non-existent.

Thank you again for all the information and help. I truly wish I had started posting here weeks ago. I think I may see why there is a confusion with the Vatican/Sistine chapel. Perhaps those that have taken a tour had to exit after the Sistine chapel but those who did not take a tour simple went back into the Museum? I do have RS book and plan on using his insight to plan the trip. I may be mistaken but I thought the entrance to St. Peters' was free and you only had to pay to climb the dome and see special exhibits? I will re read that again. All that being said I think my plan (at least until I hear from someone else more tips) will be to do the Caesar Shuffle the first day there. On Wednesday (hopefully if the Pope is giving a blessing the Vatican museum will be a little less crowded) I will devout my time to the Vatican Museum. I will order my tickets ahead of time, get there as early as possible, see the Sistine chapel first and then go back and spend as much time in the museum as we would like. The third day if we have not seen St. Peters' yet we will plan on arriving there very early and possible climbing the dome. We will also make reservations at the Borghese Gallery and visit the Gallery. To fill in gaps we will do RS two walks that he talks about (probably late afternoon or evening) and visit other areas that we do not need reservations for. I know we will not see everything and we hope to return one day but on the chance we do not return I want to hit the highlights this trip. Any thoughts on that plan?

In addition to the RS guide, I'd suggest checking other resources for the Vatican museums; the RS guides tend to be very selective and somewhat idiosyncratic in what they mention. There are a number of museums that many never visit... an Egyptian museum, a paleo-Christian museum, the Greek and Roman collections, etc. The Blue Guides are great for art.

Regarding your plan to zip through the museums to the Sistine Chapel, and then circle back: Just be aware that it is a very long walk through large part of museums to get to the Sistine Chapel. I seem to remember that the Vatican museums had some good floor plans on their website; you may want to take a look at that to get an understanding of the magnitude of the complex.

To answer your question about St. Peter's, the basilica is free. You will need to go through security to get in. You need to pay to climb the dome. And before you climb the dome, you may want to wander around the base of the dome and on the roof at the basilica (i.e., right before you start climbing the dome itself). The views are great.

Thank you again for the advice. I quickly looked at the map of the vatican museum and I see what you mean about making a dash for the sistine and then trying to back track. RS mentions that the crowds subside after 2:00pm. If we go on a wednesday would it be better to arrive after 2pm or go as soon as it opens while the pope is giving his blessing?

It looks like all your questions were answered and everyone cleared up any confusion. I would add that Pope Francis is extremely popular and loved. Lots of people will be there for the blessing. If you are Catholic I would suggest going or if you would just like to experience seeing the Pope. It might be a one time thing. I saw Pope John Paul once and never regret doing that.

Just a few comments to add. I have been to Rome twice and love it. The last time was just a few weeks ago. I know 'likes' are subjective. This time around we went to the top of the Victor Emanuel monument and loved the view. It really is the best view in Rome. I am surprised more people don't like it and talk it up. It is not far from the colleseum. It does have an elevator and they do charge but the view is great. It over looks the forum too, so you get a birds eye view of that. It is a better view than the top of St. Peters. If you go all the way to the top of the St Peter's dome be prepared for a pretty tough ciimb. elevator only brings you part of the way and it does take a while. Even if are fit it is tough. By the way, I think once inside an hour is sufficient to see St Peters unless you visit the museum ( not the vatican museum) in the back and side of the church. We did it this time and liked it if you see it leave another hour. Afternoon is the best time to visit the Vatican museum because the lines should be shorter. We visited the museum in off season in the springtime and walked right in at three o'clock. The museum is huge and will take some time to see. When we visited it we scoped it out in advance and kind of flew by the rooms that didn't interest us and spent more time in the rooms that did interest us.

Next, I agree with other poster to give Borghese at least an extra hour. Also because the park is really nice and worth at least a small walk through it. The Borghese gallery itself is great. After you can visit Via Venuto which is close by and popular and then head down to the spanish steps and Trevi Fountain. Lots of good places to eat around the Trevi Fountain and it wouldn't be too hard to add the Pantheon to that walk. If you like to walk this would be a good walk and get you to see alot. We are walkers so it works for us. Also, another nice Piazza near Borghese is the Piazza de Popolo. Nice place to have an early lunch before you visit the Borghese. Another great place with atmosphere to have dinner is the Piazza Navona. Great Bernini four rivers fountain there also.

I really like the way you allocated the time on your trip. Just know you will have less time in each than you think because of travel time. If you add another day to your trip I might just add things to room in Rome and stay there because there is so much to do or add an extra day to Venice.

One thing no one has mentioned is the Scavi tour that goes underneath St. Peters. My husband and I went a few years ago and really enjoyed it. That tour is restricted as to numbers of people, so you must reserve in advance. They assign you a time for the tour, so we did that in the morning and when the tour ended we were able to go directly into the Basilica without waiting in any additional lines. I am not sure how this would be impacted by going on a day with a Papal blessing or audience.

After lunch we went back and did the Vatican museum/Sistine Chapel with a guided tour that explained some of the art highlights.

Here is a link for the Scavi Tour:
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/institutions_connected/uffscavi/documents/rc_ic_uffscavi_doc_gen-information_20090216_en.html