If we sign up for one of those guided tours through the museum and ending in the Sistine Chapel, after visiting the Chapel, can you go back into the museum and walk around by yourself? Do you have to be part of a tour?
Many years ago I visited the Vatican Museum and I think there were markers on the doors in different colors. You would pick the length you wanted and follow the markers, no guide needed. Do they still have that option?
I was ahle to do that in March 2023, but going backwards required swimming upstream against a large crowd--larger than you can imagine. And that was in March. But the tours skip a lot of things, probably both the Pinacoteca (art gallery) and the Museum of Modern Religious Art, so if you want to see them you may have no choice.
I don't recall colored routes through the Museums, but I was given a map. It didn't help a lot. There are places where you're forced by stanchions and ropes to go a specific way. And on any given day some parts of the Museums are likely to be closed, so they could conceivbaly adjust the route.
The security guards in the Vatican Museum are not the easiest to get along with. They will strongly suggest you move through the museum--and time in the Sistine Chapel will be limited. No going backwards either. They have a large crowd most hours, and it is just how they are.
As long as your tour doesn't include St. Peter's Basilica, your guide will typically leave you at the door to the Sistine Chapel. Once you're done with the chapel, you're free to go back through any of the other galleries. I wouldn't try to literally go backwards from the Sistine Chapel, but you can go back out to the main entry area and get back in the loop to the Sistine Chapel (or into the many other galleries not on the main route to the Sistine).
The only real shortcut to get to the Sistine Chapel is to skip the Rafael Rooms, otherwise the galleries on the main loop are all a cleverly hidden queue to get into the Sistine Chapel.
