I have a Vatican museum tour on a Saturday that starts at 2. After that is over around 5pm I was thinking of entering St. Peter's church via the Sistine Chapel. Will there be a line? Will an audio guide work well instead of a guided tour? My husband is HOH and would want an audio guide in any case. I'm trying to fit in the National Museum/Baths of Diocletian in the morning and the Vatican in the afternoon.
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Colorado Mountains, USA
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The door at the “back” of the Sistine Chapel that leads down the corridor towards St. Peter’s is only accessible with a guide. Will your tour get you as far as St. Peter’s, then leave you on your own? Is that where they’ll collect the audio device from your Museums tour? If the guide is finished at the Sistine Chapel, and doesn’t escort you thru the tours-only back door, you’ll have to return to the Museums entrance, and take the long way around to St. Peter’s.
If your tour has left you in your own for St. Peter’s, Rick Steves has a downloadable audio tour of the Basilica on this Website, which you could play over your Smartphone, with headphones. You wouldn’t need a tour guide.
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The door at the “back” of the Sistine Chapel that leads down the
corridor towards St. Peter’s is only accessible with a guide.
This no longer seems to be the case. We did the Vatican's early morning tour with breakfast. When we left the Sistine Chapel to go to breakfast our guide said we could use the door to get to St. Peter's to avoid security. After breakfast, and a tour of the paintings, we headed back to the Sistine Chapel (through a nightmare of people this time) and EVERYONE was leaving through that door. With the number of people in the museum there is no way you could go back, the door is the only safe way to get people out.
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Colorado Mountains, USA
7995 posts
Wow, that’s a big change. Ten years ago (unguided), we were able to discretely slip through that “secret back door,” using Rick Steve’s’ guidebook suggestion, even though back then, the door was technically just for guided visitors.
Then this past September, that door was being closely monitored, and only visitors with a guide could get through. Now it sounds like it’s no longer secret or exclusive. It’s sure a good shortcut to the Basilica.
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One other detail I forgot to mention. Our tour guide said that the no longer secret door closes at 17:00.