The Vatican official tour

Mike, if you want to retrieve a bag from coat-check, you can do that after the tour (but not if your tour includes the Badilica). Once you leave the Museums, you cannot re-enter on the same ticket.

As for people knowing that you have a ticket, you will go to the short line for people with reservations; if someone without a ticket goes to the short line, they will be turned away.

Is there any chance that at the end of the tour, they would let me
collect a bag I gave to the coat check person, step outside for a few
minutes to eat, and then go back inside the museum?

Mike, once you leave the museums you are not allowed to re-enter so no, you can't leave to eat and come back without buying another ticket.

Not all posters have the R.S. guide so you need to state which tour it is you're seeing on page 869? The tour you can purchase from the Vatican website?

HOW you deal with your ticket depends on which tour, with which company, you purchase from. The companies/websites you bought your tickets from should have instructions on how to print them out and where to go to redeem them. If you purchased a tour from a private company, they tell you what to bring and where to meet your guide.

Near the bottom of page 869 of Rick Steves Italy 2017, the official Vatican website is given. No tour is listed. On the website, it looks like right now you can only reserve a ticket through June but not for July. The official website lets you buy just a ticket, or a guided tour.

Near the bottom of page 869 of Rick Steves Italy 2017, the official
Vatican website is given. No tour is listed. On the website, it looks
like right now you can only reserve a ticket through June but not for
July.

Multiple types of tours are available through the website (http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html) as are just entry tickets, and yes, you can only book them 2 months in advance.

The most popular are the 2-hour tours of the Museums/Sistine, and the 3-hour of the Museums/Sistine/Basilica. If you choose the combo museums/basilica tour, it ends in the church and you cannot return to the museums. If you choose the museums/Sistine only, you can remain and continue to tour independently but fighting your way "upstream" can be a challenge given the very heavy crowds.

From the website's FAQs:

Q. At the end of the Guided Tour is it possible to remain inside the Museums with my ticket?
A. Yes. The ticket enables admission to the Museums after the tour. If your tour includes Saint Peter's Basilica, your tour ends in the Basilica, and therefore it is not possible to return to the Museums with the same ticket.

The Vatican museums offers tickets "about" 60 days in advance, sometimes more-sometimes less.

The official site will have categories for you to choose from ranging from night tours, day tours, specialty tours and entry tickets. You can choose the one you want to buy. If you choose a tour you can use the bypass door into the basilica. All tours and entry tickets allow you to bypass the long ticket lines outside. You simply walk to the door, show the guard your reservation and he lets you in at the proper time. If you purchase entry tickets be sure to be on time as they can make you wait in the regular line if you're late.

https://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?action=booking

I suggest leaving all large bags in your hotel for the day. The lines at the bag check can get long. You can go back to the front of the museums after the tour in order to collect your things but you cannot leave the museums for lunch. There is a good cafeteria in the museums that you can visit.

Donna

I probably would be satisfied with the tour found by going onto the official website, clicking "individual tours" and then "guided tour of the vatican museum and sistine chapel". The next question is, can I enter St. peters basilica sometime after the tour, but would I really care if I just skip it; is it just a church? Perhaps it wouldn't be spiritually meaningful to me. Is this like asking you whether you would care if you were going to visit south east Asia and you skipped some major temple? I was raised Jewish - I am secular or reformed now - normally I like art museums.

Mike, non-Catholics visit St Peters for the architecture, history and, yes, art. It is not "just a church". It is the largest in the world (by interior measurements), the tallest structure in Rome, and was designed by Michelangelo, Bernini and Bramante, among others. If nothing else, the sheer immensity of the thing is reason enough to take a look inside, and others go to see Michelangelo's "Pieta", Bernini's massive, elaborate baldacchino and cathedra, etc.

It would be beneficial to do some reading? I wouldn't use this for visiting information - like hours and whatnot - but this site has an interior map and tons of info on the basilica:

http://stpetersbasilica.info/index.htm

I'm not a Catholic but the faith - for 1,600 - 1,700 years - is the reason a vast amount of Italy's priceless art and architecture exists at all!

It seems like, on my entire trip, it will be hard to carry food around. Do they sell fruit or something I would judge to be not so unhealthy, inside or outside the Vatican/ basilica complex? Roman natives who live in the area don't get all their food from restaurants.

The courtyard restaurant as well as some of the indoor cafeterias sell salads which include fruits. Also the cafeterias sell fruit cups, with or without yogurt. I don't recall seeing whole fruits but I wasn't paying attention to that.

If you eat dried fruits, you can buy them from local markets. Take a small container or Baggie with you (if you buy a large wuantity) and you can take a snack-size serving or two with you in a pocket.