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St. Peter's Basilica Crowds after Wed. Papal Address

Posted by on

Hello! I am planning our Vatican excursions for a Wed and Thursday in August. Unfortunately, we are there the exact two days that "Pristine Sistene" is booked out!

We aren't interested in the Papal address, so thought that we would visit the Vatican Museums before/during the address, then be at St. Peter's Basilica when it reopens after the address, around 1. Is this a good plan, or a terrible plan...I imagine that LOTS of people go straight to the Basilica after the address? Does it help if we queue while the address is wrapping up?

Or, would we be better off to go and have a long lunch somewhere, then return to the Basilica maybe at 3 or 4?

Thank you!

Posted by
11 posts

Wow I just learned some heartbreaking info...the tours aren't sold out, the Vatican museums are CLOSED the two days that we are there! It's on the Museum Vatican web site. So my above question is irrelevant.

So...does anyone know if this means St. Peter's will be closed as well? That website is all in Italian.

I guess we will see what we can on the Tuesday we come into Rome from Venice, at 3:30pm. :(

Posted by
1653 posts

I guess the Thursday is Aug. 15th. It is a major civil and religious festivity in Italy.

Posted by
11294 posts

To translate a website, you can use Google Translate. It's far from exact, but it's usually good enough to get the job done, particularly for question like yours.

It's built into the Chrome browser. For others, go to htis page and put in the URL you want to translate. It's supposed to auto-detect the languages, but I find it often does better if I choose (in this case, Italian to English): https://translate.google.com/

Posted by
11748 posts

Aug 15 is the Feast of The Assumption, a major Catholic Feast day.

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