The Vatican

If you are coming in on a cruise you may not have time to visit the vatican museums. If you find you do have the time you can easily take the 2 hour tour offered by the vatican. It goes to all the most popular rooms and ends at the Sistine chapel. From there you must exit but it's only about 15 minutes to get to St. Peter's basilica. I don't think I'd do the museums on my own for the first time. They are very large with lots of rooms. You can easily spend days there and not see everything you wish to. There is an audio guide you can rent if you prefer not to take tours. Donna

I just did a Romearound tour with Jill, she was excellent. The tour was a bit costly, I think 60 euros tho. But I did it on my own the first time, and I got much more out of it this time.

When I was there (my first and, so far, only time), I was all about saving money and doing things myself. However, the Vatican museums are enormous, and I was very quickly overwhelmed, not knowing where to go, what to see, what to do. We meandered around aimlessly, almost. We did have our Rick Steves Italy guidebook with us, but there just is SO much there to figure out. Next time I go, I'm using a guide!

I would recommend either hiring a guide or using the audio guide that is available to rent. We found the Vatican to be very expansive and almost overwhelming without one. If we choose to do the Vatican again it will be with a guide. Enjoy!

The Forum/Palatine Hill and the Vatican are two places I suggest to get a guide. There is so much to see in these spots. The Audioguides may be a good suggestion if you don't feel comfortable using a guide. These 20 tips on visiting the Vatican may also help if you're going solo.

I suggest a tour group. We used Presto Tours and booked a 3-hour tour. Our tour guide was fantastic and we visited the Vatican museums, St. Peter's & The Sistine Chapel. Three hours was just right for us though I have seen longer tours with other tour companies (I think Through Eternity offers a 5-hr tour). The Vatican is enormous and I would have been overwhelmed trying to navigate it on my own and figure out where to concentrate my time. Our guide told us that if you looked at every piece of art in the Vatican for 15 seconds, it would take 3 years to see it all! Our guide focused on the highlights which was helpful and after 3 hours, I was on overload.

We just got back from Rome and ABSOLUTELY recommend getting a tour guide. It is an amazing place and a good tour guide will help make sense of it and point out the high points (and the interesting tidbits you might miss). You can always go back to poke around more. We used Through Eternity Tours they were amazing. Only 13 in the group and Rob paced us well. http://www.througheternity.com/ We also used a private tour guide for the Colusseum and Forum she was wonderful as well and we know she would be great for The Vatican. Federica D'Orazio she was amazing. [email protected] You are going to love your trip!