St. Peter's Basilica & Vatican Gardens

You don't need a tour to go to the Basilica or the Dome. The Basilica Entrance line forms out front of the Basilica in St. Peters Square. The line to the Dome begins to the right of the Basilica (as you face the entrance). You pay your admission to ride the elevator or you can climb the entire way. It's interesting, but you definitely don't need a tour.

I would suggest touring the Basilica first, you may be able to find a guide at the entrance to give you a tour for a fee, otherwise there is no cost. If you are fit, consider the cupola climb. You will appreciate the immensity of St. Peters when you view the inside from the edge of the dome, at the top of the dome you'll get great views of Rome plus a birdseye view of the Gardens. We did not visit the gardens, but from what we saw, they were nice but not spectacular.

Use Rick Steves' tour of Vatican, St. Peter's and museum; both are excellent and now on MP3 (free). The only advantage to a tour in July is avoiding long entry lines. But often they do not give you adequate time inside; there's much to see and absorb!

Used a tour guide for the Vatican (gardens not included) and she advised us that you can exit the Sistine Chapel to go into the basilica. This helps you skip another security check outside the basilica. As you go into the chapel, the exit is at the far right back corner. However, we were not able to use this shortcut as security was tighter due to the upcoming mass that weekend.

I live in Rome and take visitors to the Vatican Museum (VM) & Basilica often. This year there is a new director of the VM and there are many changes- All GOOD!

To avoid the AM lines you will have to join a tour group. These companies pay the VM 4€ a head to "avoid the que." That's on top of the 14€ fee to get in.

I avoid the lines & the cost by going in the afternoon. The VM is open until 6 PM this summer and the last entrance time will probably be 4 PM (It's 3:30 PM now.) I would go to the Basilica abot 1:30 PM then head over to the VM - it's about a 10 minute walk from the Basilica. Then you can enjoy the 3.5 miles of VM hallways in realitive calm - w/o all the tour groups.

I would not go to the Vatican Gardens... they're okay. I'd rather go to Tivoli or Villa Borghese for gardens!

Last, you CAN exit from the Sistine Chapel directly to the Basilica through a side door BUT ONLY if you are in a "legal" Tour Group - otherwise you exit through the library exit. Good Luck!

I have been twice and the first time I exited the the Chapel the legal way and did the long hike around to St. Peter's. The second time I "joined" a Japanese tour group and used the group exit which pops you right out into St. Peter's. As I am a middle aged ,white female thank goodness they didn't stop for a group photo! Give it a shot. It saves lots of time!

We did the basilica on our own, in the morning, and then met up with a tour for the VM in the afternoon. We arrived at St. Peter's very first thing in the morning and there was almost no line through security. When we left several hours later, the line was all the way around the piazza so seems like the earlier, the better!
It was nice to have a break before the VM tour, and you can use Rick's tour of the basilica another printed source. Maybe this has changed since Oct. but even with a booked tour of the VM, we still had a bit of a wait in line.

Eli, per your request - here's the Vatican website with a calendar for the Vatican Museum and Sistene Chapel

http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-Info/MV_Info_Orario.html

The last Sunday in each month the Museum is free and as you can see the Museum opens at 8:30 and last entry is currenly 4 PM on regular days (not free Sundays!)

The Basilica opens at 9 AM, but I believe the dome opens at 8 AM. (That's a climb but a great view... take the elevator option for 7 Euros... but you still will have 230+ stairs to climb!) If you CLIMB you see the dome from inside & out, and you walk on the roof of the Basilica - Great pictures but you have to work for them!

We're going in June and we booked a tour for the Vatican Museum for the 1:00 p.m. and then we'll tour St. Peter's and stay for the 5:00 p.m. Mass. For experienced Vatican visitors - is this a good plan?

Ron, you are simply amazing! Thank you so much for your kindness. I am saving your response in a document to carry :-).

Sally you don't need a guided tour of the Basilica but I would suggest you take a tour that does include it. I have been once on a tour and once by myself and I found I got so much more out of being on the tour. I was really glad I did it.

Linda - you idea sounds fine. I did the same thing last year and timing wise worked out really well. Don't leave going into mass until the last minute unless you don't mind standing at the back or side. I actually stumbled upon it and when I realised why everyone was there stayed for the service - it's quite short.