Questions about Vatican Museums

I see references to a skip the line ticket for the Vatican Museums, I
believe it is only through GetYourGuide,

Get Your Guide is a reseller- doesn't actually run any tours, just resells them.
If you want an early entry tour book with the official Vatican site or any other recommended tour companies like Walks of Italy.

The only line you will skip if you have ticket in hand is the line to purchase tickets. Nobody skips the security line

Friday night - I keep looking at the Vatican website for booking a
Friday Night visit but I don't see an option coming up with the
available choices. Is entry only starting at 7pm? Is it full ticket
price?

For what date? It might just be too early to book this ticket.

The vatican website allows you to book into the summer when the late nights happen, but nothing shows up at this time.

In regards to food and drink the website says no alcohol and no drinking or eating in the galleries and you can store food and drinks in the coatroom.

Do they not allow you to carry a water bottle with you? Will they make you put that in the cloak room?

Sorry Mike but Christine is right, the only line re-sellers can make you skip is the line to buy the tickets. And you can easily do it by yourself buying the entrance tickets on the official sites.

In fact, if you think about it, do resellers ever explain what line you would be skipping paying more for the entrance tickets?

There isn't a third line at Italian Museums that Americans can skip paying more. Believe me, if any reseller could make its customers skip the security line, they would plainly tell it. Plainly and loudly!

The vatican website allows you to book into the summer when the late nights happen, but nothing shows up at this time.

I guess you have to wait till the next spring. Nobody else can get those tickets.

Yes, you are only skipping the ticket purchase line, which is the same as pre-buying your ticket with the Vatican, that's why I'm asking, what is the value of a skip the line ticket in reality? They are about double in price. It says you have a separate entrance, but once inside everybody goes through security. So it just seems like the only line you skip is if there is a line to show your ticket at the main entrance?

In regard to the Friday and Saturday late opening tickets, the website says
From 14 April to 28 October 2023
On Fridays and Saturdays extended opening hours until 10.30 p.m. (final entry 08.30 p.m.)

Is there a different opening time for this ticket? A different price? or do you buy this ticket and you could in theory enter at 9am and stay until 10:30pm? I thought I had seen somewhere it was a 7pm-10:30pm ticket but I can't find it again.

On the Vatican official site the on-line reservation fee is 5 Euro. I don't understand what you mean with "double in price", sorry.
As we have explained above, there are only two lines at the Vatican Museums.

If you select April 14, a Friday, on the official site, the system shows an Evening tab and you can pick 20:00 as the last entrance time. If you pick April 13, there is no Evening tab and the last entrance time is 15:30.

Is all the access to the Vatican Gardens by a tour? No self-guided.

No, you can only see it on a tour. The Vatican website says that the "Guided Tours for Individuals - Vatican Gardens and Sistine Chapel" starts in the gardens and then moves into the museums, Total tour time is 3 hours. No idea if the gardens is a big deal as they weren't of interest to us so haven't done it.

"The tour follows an itinerary which includes: the Vatican Gardens, the Gallery of the Candelabras, the Gallery of the Geographical Maps, the Gallery of the Tapestries (Renaissance art) and the Sistine Chapel"

https://tickets.museivaticani.va/home/fromtag/1/1679547600000/Giardini-Vaticani

No need to buy from "Get Your Guide": buy from the Vatican's site itself (linked above).
Friday night visits start in the spring: it's too early for them to be bookable through the Vatican's site yet.

Thanks it appears my suspiciouns of the resellers skip the line is a waste of money as the prebook with the Vatican website is really not much different.

What about water bottles are you allowed to carry one or will security at the xrays make you leave it in the cloak room?

Interesting, I tried again today, this is the first time I have been given the option of the Evening ticket to show up on the Vatican Website. I see now you have to pre-book your entry time with the earliest entry is 6pm, so that answers my question for a Fri or Sat night evening the earliest entry is 6pm

One last question an easy one - After you enter the Sistine Chapel and leave, do you have to exit the Vatican Museums or can you go back and see more of the museums?

I have some news. Things have changed at the Vatican Museums. I'm sorry I can't provide a more precise and complete report, but I was still severely sleep-deprived and jetlagged when I went to the Museums yesterday (Day 3 of my trip).

I observed at least two points at which there was a separate area for Get Your Guide clients. I think the first was in the large hall where you swap your voucher for an entry ticket. I guess that means the GYG folks didn't have to queue at the regular windows. If the GYG counter was adequately staffed (I didn't notice), that would save quite a few minutes. The best I could tell, the regular windows served folks from the don't-have-a-ticket line as well as those of us who had paid for entry but needed to convert the voucher into a ticket. There were some people from that other line let into the building just as I got in, and we all seemed to be headed in the same direction; the difference is that I had essentially no wait to get into the building, whereas the no-ticket line was long and moving very slowly.

When I walked in there was a line of perhaps 8 to 12 people at each regular ticket window. There was no way of knowing how many of the people in each line were conducting the more complex transaction of buying a ticket or otherwise were going to need more time. So choosing a fast-moving line was pretty much blind luck. I definitely got hung up in the ticket pick-up line for at least ten minutes.

Philosophical question: Can we say buying a ticket (which turns out to be just a voucher) online in advance means you skip the ticket line when you still have to line up to convert said voucher into a ticket? You don't get to skip the line; you just reach the back of that line a lot faster.

After picking up a physical ticket you go upstairs toward the museum entry point, first passing the area where audioguides are distributed. There was a separate Get Your Guide counter there as well. It only took a couple of minutes for me to pick up my pre-purchased audioguide at the regular counter, so I don't think being a Get Your Guide customer would make much difference there.

I vaguely wondered at the time why the Vatican had made a special deal with Get Your Guide. All credit to the GYG person who negotiated that arrangement.

No one cared about my full water bottle, and no one cared that I was very early--originally by 50 minutes or so. I was still probably 25 minutes early at the point of picking up my audio guide. I don't know whether there's a limit to how early they'll let you in; the person converting vouchers into tickets can definitely see the reserved time slot on the voucher.

I don't really recommend the audio guide except for someone with vision so compromised that reading the posted descriptions is impossible. When I sought info on exhibits flagged as being covered by the audioguide, I got brief explanations that appeared to be taken from the material posted nearby. To make matters worse, my guide stopped working about halfway through. The Museums are so large, it's totally impractical to return to the pick-up point for a replacement.

I didn't take any of fhe posted shortcuts. My total time inside the Museums was between 4-1/2 and 5 hours. I was very selective in what I really looked at, and two of the exhibitions I was especially interested in were at least partially closed off. And I have very little interest in classical sculpture. Sculpture lovers would benefit from having the entire day.

I got the impression they had fiddled with the route through the Museums, though I could be mistaken about that. I'd recommend not assuming Rick's description of the route matches current reality. The final turn up (or maybe down?) the stairs to the Pinacoteca wasn't well marked. Stay on your toes if you want to see it.

You can see other parts of the Museums after the Chapel, but good luck finding your way, and some areas may be inaccessible.
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Mike, we did the Vatican at Night several years ago. It was not crowded compared to the wall to wall daytime entrance. Another plus is it frees up a day to add another site. After the Sistine, you’re able to visit other rooms of the Museum.

I asked this question last year and got no response, so I'm still not sure of the situation:

On late-closing days, is there anything to stop a visitor with an early entry time from staying until the late-night closing? I suspect and hope the answer is "no", but I'm not suggesting anyone count on it.

Edited to add, concerning my experience with the crowds yesterday (Monday, February 11, when most of the other museums in Rome were closed):

The Museums were quite crowded, but not every minute or every room. There were surges, and then it would get better for a minute or two. It seemed the surges were often driven by tour groups; they tend to stick tightly together so they don't lose contact. One tour group makes a room feel packed.

Among the least crowded areas were the sections one could bypass on the way to the Sistine Chapel (duh). Only a few of us were interested in the modern-art section. Ditto the Pinscoteca, which is at the end of the route through the building when everyone is pooped.

The Sistine Chapel was very crowded, but I was able to move through it. Frankly, I was expecting worse. It certainly wasn't worse than the Picasso Museum in Barcelona back in 2016.

Hi acraven,

Thanks for the wealth of explaining your experience.

GetYourGuide says they have a separate entrance, did you see it? I am not sure what advantage that really is other than something for them to talk about for marketing?

How long did it take you from the time you walked in, bypassing the non-ticket holders outside to when you started up the escalator? Sounds like maybe 10 minutes or so? Seems like arriving early makes any time saved by GYG double the price ticket hardly worth it.

Glad to hear about the water bottle and being able to return to the exhibits after the Sistine Chapel.

Hi gerri,

I think the night visit on Fri or Sat sounds like a lot of fun. It wouldn't give me enough time to see as much as I want but I can see it as a nice additional visit.

I visited the Vatican Museums probably 10 years ago and we were in at opening and really enjoyed the beginning of the experience, but it didn't take long to be swallowed by the crowds as the morning went on. I remember the Gallery of Maps just being a wall to wall shoulder to shoulder experience.

I think maybe a good strategy for me mibht be to arrive first thing and head to the Sistine Chapel early and then work backwards toward the front and enjoy more of the museum with less crowds and then leave once the place gets jammed, and coming back later in the week for a late-night visit to see the front parts of the museum.

One other question, has the no photography rule in the Sistine Chapel now been lifted? I understand it was put in place due to the media rights the doner had for the last restoration but it was only a 10 year media rights so that should be over with.