Vatican and Sistine Chapel Tickets

I’m not sure where you are looking if you’re indeed on the official website.
I just looked and there are tickets available in the afternoons in October, though I don’t know the exact day you want to go.

Personally I would want more than 2 hours. I don’t know how long Rick allots for the audio tour. But the museums are enormous and there is so much to see. And you will need time to walk around to St Peter’s.

Thank you! The date we are looking at is October 27. The last slot is 14:00 (2 pm), and when I check other days, it's the same. We were hoping for 4 pm or 5 pm. Are you seeing later slots? I am pretty sure I'm on the official website:
https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html

You have the correct website.

When you get to the 'choose your time' page- you must click the "AFTERNOON" button- large gold
Plenty of times up til 5:30
(for some reason the MORNING button actually goes up til 2 pm)

I assume you are planning on St. Peter's before the Vatican?
A very rushed visit there would be about an hour I guess, provided you have an entry time (nobody skips security line)
You can book a timed entry there. Just a few euros, includes audioguide
https://www.basilicasanpietro.va/en/

Vatican museum needs as much time as you can give it- at least 2-3 hours if you only want to see Sistine Chapel- the walk thru museum to the chapel will take a while.
You will be walking upstream to exit from the Chapel
Then it's 15-20 min walk to St. Peter's.

Thank you Christine, I can’t believe I didn’t notice that toggle! Sorry for that - I guess because 2 pm was a morning option, it didn’t occur to me that there was a separate listing for afternoon.

I appreciate your timing suggestions. I was also trying to book the Scavi tour, but when I emailed them, they sent me an email with a link to the Necropolis tour, so I’m guessing this is the same thing?? I filled out that form, but the response I received says that I’ll hear back much closer to the date with my exact time. This makes it difficult to plan the other two pieces of the puzzle. Also, if the tour is indeed the “Scavi” tour, does that mean I don’t need to book Peter’s Basilica since the tour ends inside the bascilica?

Hey Melanie,
Glad you figured out the tickets. I recall the website being a bit confusing.
Yes the scavi tour is the same as the necropolis. And yes after the tour you are in St Peter’s (so you skip having to walk around and going through security again).
If you have more time then you initially suggested, the scavi tour is pretty interesting. But personally I’d suggest skipping the scavi tour if your time is as limited as there are so many other amazing things to see. The museums are super crowded so be prepared for that.

When we did the scavi tour their machine was broken the day of the tour and we got bumped to the next tour. I imagine this doesn’t happen often (!) but you want to give yourself time.
Romewise you tube channel has lots of videos on navigating your visit which you might find helpful and naturally there are loads of other videos that explain the process.

Thank you! I will check out those YouTube videos before I book anything for that day then. Thanks to you both for the help! :)

Considering that you are not on a tour, 2 hours is not enough time from entry to the Vatican Museums to St. Peter's. I would give yourself another hour at very minimum, or more if you wish to see the Raphael Rooms which are at least another 45 minutes and an absolute "do not miss" for me personally. I was on an early morning Vatican tour recently and the guide wanted to head straight to St. Peter's Basilica because the tour was only 3 hours long, but two of us talked her into going through the Raphael rooms instead (and letting us tour St. Peter's Basilica on our own) and it was absolutely worth it.

If you are self-guiding, you will need significant extra time, not only to walk to St. Peter's Basilica which is a good 15 minutes' walk away, but also to enter the security queue for it which is separate to the Vatican Museums. Whilst St. Peter's is free to enter, you only get the "shortcut entrance" from the Sistene Chapel if you are on a certain guided tour

I would have to disagree with the previous poster who suggested you skip the Scavi Tour due to limited time. It was the highlight of our time at the Vatican. When you sent in the request for Scavi, it should have asked for both the date and time that you wanted to visit. Do you remember what time you put in the request form? Immediately after sending in the request for tickets, I received an email that the Vatican had received that. It took a few months before they sent a second email that we had been given tickets. Payment is due at that time. Our tickets were for the time and date that I had requested. Scavi was important to us, so I had planned the rest of the Vatican around the hope that we would be given tickets. Fortunately, it worked out for us, but it is indeed a very frustrating process.

This is all very helpful information. Thank you all! I’m going to hope I get the Scavi time I requested then (they tell you it could be a different time which is what concerned me, but glad to hear others have received their requested time). My time was midday, so I’ll continue with my plan to book the Vatican tour late afternoon, but with enough time to navigate my way through without too much rushing. Thanks again everyone!

Your mileage may vary, but be aware that Saint Peter's is vast and it is a long walk from the entrance of the Basilica to the Vatican Museum, a fair amount of it uphill. We spent hours walking around inside Saint Peter's and were quite tired by the time we got to the museum for our early afternoon tickets. I usually discount how much time guidebooks say to spend in a museum, but I could easily have spent five or six hours in the Vatican museum. If I were to do it again, I would have better split up my time between the two -- gone to the Basilica earlier in the morning and taken a break for a leisurely lunch before setting out for the museum.

A couple of tips, as you approach the line for the museum entrance, there will be two lines with a chain down the middle - the right side is for ticket holders. Also, our experience was it took nearly a half an hour to get from the door of the museum to the actual exhibits. There's a large entry area and multiple escalators up, then through a large gift store before you are actually at the beginning of the museum.

One last thing, it may be different if you are going with a tour guide, but the Sistine Chapel is accessed through the Vatican Museum -- it's the very end of your visit there. The Saint Peter's Basilica is completely separate, and as I mentioned it is quite a long walk between the two.