Vatican Bag Check

Carson:
You might want to email the Ufficio Scavi and ask. I think it may open as early as 07:00, but maybe not until 08:00, and it can take a llooonnngggg time to get through the line to check a bag. FWIW, I was able to carry my cross-body handbag thru the Scavi, but my husband had to check his daypack. at 14:30 in the afternoon on an October weekday, that took about an hour. If you can manage for the day without a large bag/daypack, you'll save time and hassle.

I took this tour a couple days ago and, just to clarify, it doesn't usually take long to check a bag, but rather to get through security and into the area where you are able to check your bag, go up to the dome, into St. Peter's, etc. When I checked my bag, I got the impression that they didn't want to check the bag unless I was going on the Scavi tour. At 8:30 a.m., I waited about 15 minutes to get through security--that beat the 50 minutes I had to wait on Sunday morning to enter St. Peter's for mass, but that's to be expected.