We'll be in Rome and want to see St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican Museum including Sistine Chapel. I'm just so confused about the queues (that of course I would like to avoid).
I do not want to do vatican.va because we will not be home when they respond and have no way to retrieve their email confirmation (if it comes at all).
We will gladly book a tour - but have no way of knowing which ones avoid queing (?sp).
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thank you.
Sue
Finding a queue at the Vatican is a way of life. Just go as early as you can. Maybe tours would avoid the lines, but I'm not sure that's even going to help.
be careful because some SAY they avoid queuing, but you don't actually. If you want to take a vatican official tour by fax, give them your hotel's fax # in Rome, so you won't miss their reply.
Some operators do say they avoid the queues but I can't see how that is possible. I did Angel tours tour and what they do is the poor guide stands in the queue while you go off for a gelati or coffee and then you meet up with him/her at a prearranged time. Worked well for me.
I'm just afraid that if my hotel doesn't get the positive fax reply, we won't know til the last minute and then will have NO tour set up.
I understand, and that was a concern I had too, but unless you are with one of the few "sanctioned" tour companies (the ones who are actually approved by the Vatican and so they go early in the morning and do completely avoid the queues), no matter what "company" you go with, you will queue. If the only reason to do a tour is to queue (i.e. you don't care that much about the information the tour guide will provide), you might as well just save your money for gelato and pizza and go yourself, in the afternoon, and do it on your own (like with RS's guided tour in his book) or with the audio guide. Queue around 1, everyone says you won't have to wait nearly as long, stay in the museum/Sistene Chapel til it closes at 4:45pm, then go to St. Peter's for a couple hours since it is open later. You'll get to see it all, will have minimal queues, will not spend extra money on a tour, and you can do something else in the morning! :)
I could not use vatican.va for reservations either so I spent 23E and booked with Tuscany All to get in at 8:15AM. We assembled at 8AM at a pre-arranged spot (easy to find) and entered the museum with no queues. There is no guided tour involved, just early entry with a sanctioned group. For me it was money well spent as I just hate wasting time in lines.
