Sorry if this topic has been covered previously. My wife & I will be arriving in Rome on a Friday night in October for the weekend. We are leaving Monday morning for Venice to board our cruise. Our plan is to visit the Vatican on Saturday, possibly in the afternoon. We have heard that the crowds are a lot less in the afternoons and we were considering not buying our tickets to visit the museum & Sistine Chapel until the afternoon. We wanted to save the reservation charges to have a nice dinner (we are on a pretty tight budget). What are the opinions of the seasoned travelers? This is our first visit to Rome & Italy, so we are looking for advice. Thanks for your suggestions.
Posted by
Pa and Italy
4152 posts
You should be fine going in the afternoon. The longest lines are in the morning but the museums are always crowded. Get there around 1 and you should be able to just walk in. Donna
Posted by
The Hague, NL (AMS)
2207 posts
Donna's correct - go in the afternoon. Saturdays are the 2nd busiest day of the week so you may encounter lines up until 2 PM, but the wait should not be more than 10-15 minutes (If that). If it's raining, the lines will be longer! These tips may help you in your Vatican visit **** http://tinyurl.com/vatican-tips ****
Posted by
Austin, TX, USA
492 posts
The reservation fee is only 4 euros per person so if you want to make sure you don't wait in line, that's not much difference toward a dinner but if you have more time than money, sometimes that can be enough. You don't say when you will be there, some months are definitely busier than others. How long the lines might be partly just depends on luck, our last trip the line at 10:00 am was only 10-15 minutes but when we left around 2:00 it was over an hour, this was on a Friday in mid-May, so the trends do vary. What else do you plan on doing on that Saturday? It might be worth swinging by the museums and seeing how long the lines are earlier in the day if you will be in that area.
Posted by
Eldersburg, Maryland, USA
7 posts
In October you should be fine! There might be a slight line, but it will not be anything that will prevent you from seeing the entire museum!