Vatican Early Entrance and skip the line for Colosseum in October??

Are those the most crowded sites???

Yes.

Should we need to get an early entrance tour to the Vatican and Skip
the line for the Colosseum???

Definitely get skip-the-ticket-line tickets for both the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums. You can't skip the security queues. Early entrance is probably advised for the Vatican Museums.

We used "Walks of Italy" tours for both the Vatican early entry and the VIP Colosseum tour. The Pristine Sistine tour allowed us to experience the Sistine Chapel with fewer people and the VIP Colosseum tour allowed us to go beneath the Colosseum.

I was there Oct 28-30 in 2015 and it was still crowded. Can't imagine what it is like in summer.
Used Walks of Italy for the underground tour and have booked Walks of Italy's Pristine Sistine
for Oct 2017. Am always on a budget; but will pay extra to avoid standing in line.

October is actually VERY high season in Rome. You've picked the two most visited sites in Rome, going during the busiest time of year.

I strongly suggest pre-booking entry tickets to both. This will allow you to bypass the very long ticket lines. Another thing to consider is the Friday night Vatican visit. This is always less crowded than going during the day. It will also be cooler.

https://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?weblang=en&do

Another advantage is that you'll be able to do other things during the day and visit the museums while most other sites are closed. You can book this visit about 60 days in advance.

Donna

Is the Vatican all doing Friday nights in October? If so that's the way to go!

Yes, the Vatican museums have the Friday night visits through the end of October.

Donna

Book the Friday night Vatican Tour on their site and you will receive a voucher. Arrive 15-30 minutes early, get on the line for those with vouchers and exchange for tickets in minutes once you get inside. If the Sistine Chapel is one of your main goals, do as I did . Bypass everything and go directly to the Sistine Chapel. We spent about 45 minutes in the Chapel with maybe 20 other people in the room. It was great. Then we back tracked to see what we were interested in with no crowds. As for the Colosseum I was one of the crazies that got up at 3 AM (9AM Rome time) to book the Underground Tour the morning tickets went on sale for the month. If you don't want to do that book a tour on their site for early in the morning or after 4. Trevi Fountain was not crowded after 10 PM. Piazza Navonna was empty at 8 AM. We stayed at an apt. near there and went to a bar and got coffee and pastries porta via (their expression for take out) and enjoyed the square. As a general rule, all the main sites in Rome, Florence, and Venice were virtually empty at that hour. The tours come in around 10 and leave at about 4 so let that be your guide if you want to avoid crowds. We were there in May and that is considered in season as well so my guess that would apply to October. Hopefully the experts on this site will comment on that.

We were in Rome last fall during your exact dates. There were crowds everywhere and it was warm. Get any kind of pre purchased ticket or tour to access these sites faster and more easily. Those are the two most visited sites in Rome.

As someone else said - just book the Pristine Sistine tour through Walks of Italy. You'll be glad you did. The Vatican is a zoo - and this tour gets you into the Sistine Chapel before just about everybody else. That in and of itself makes it worth it. But you'll also have a guide who will navigate the maze of the Vatican and point out highlights. The tour finishes in St. Peter's Basilica. I'm not one who normally enjoys tours - but I can't recommend this one enough.

As for the Colosseum - I'd book Walks of Italy's night time tour. You'll be there when basically nobody else is - and you get to go 'underground' into the 'bowels' of the arena.

Not shilling for Walks of Italy - but for these two attractions - for me - this is the way to go.

FYI we used the Rick Steves audio guide app for the Vatican Basilica, Museums and Sistine Chapel and they were fantastic. And free.
Went first thing in the morning to the Colosseum (with tickets purchased the previous day at the Forum) and walked straight in.

Again, Vatican Friday night tour was just as easy. I can't say enough about it! DM me if you want more info about it.

You don't need to book expensive private tours in order to get in early or with few other people. The Vatican offers early entry as well as Friday night visits. For the colosseum, you can book the night time tour of the underground from the official site and save a ton of money for the same tour other companies are charging.

Donna

How much in advance those tickets go on sale???

First, Thank You for all the help!!!!

I just went to the Colisseum Official page and saw when the tickets will be available (September 18 for the October ones). But I have a question I went ahead just to see the options and got this. For the night one recommended here, I just book the last tour or is a different one?

What's the difference between the first option and the other guides that are for specific languages? It just that for the first could be on any of the 3 languages?

Choose your personal solution:
1. ticket on-line guided entrance
2. Buy NOW groups and schools
3. Buy NOW guided tours in italian language
4. Buy NOW guided tours in english
5. Buy NOW guided tours in spanish

Then I get two options:
I will only need to choose the first one?
1. UNDERGROUND AND THIRD RING ENGLISH TOUR+RESERVATION FEE - 11 EUR
2. FREE UNDERGROUND AND THIRD RING ENGLISH TOUR+RESERVATION FEE 2 EUR

I hope this helps. We have just come back from four and a half weeks in Italy. I had a lot of help in this forum. Because my husband do not like to be tied down with pre booked tours etc... We winged everything, trains and entrances etc. For the Sistine Chapel we queued up for one and a quarter hours getting to the ticket line no later than 8.30am. Cooler and we chatted to people in the queue and the time passes quickly. It costs 16 euros. Once in we head straight into the Sistine chapel very quite, very little people and you can admire the paintings. You have to go through the museums on the way there but we did the chapel first, hence less people. When we finish, we did the museums.
The Basilica is free. We got there almost 5pm VERY little queue and when we walked out around 7 they were still letting people in. And this is peak season
We bought a 48hour Roma pass. I forgot but think it's 36.50. Worth the money and it let you skip the line at the colosseum and entry to the Roman Forum. That alone is worth it as well as the numerous metro rides we took with the pass. But go early to the colosseum even if you've got a skip the line pass. Be there for when it opens and you avoid a lot of people. Travelling is about getting to places early. Good luck. And thank you to all who,helped me with my travels.
If anyone is interested, we queued at 4.20pm for the Academia museum in Florence. In twenty minutes we were in. Of course there are always people trying to sell you the skip the lines ticket we ignored them but then, they are just trying to do a job. Happy travels....

arelis, if you want an English tour choose option 4. Option 1 isn't an option but an old link that doesn't do anything. For the second set of options you'll choose the full priced adult tickets unless you are under 12 years of age. You will also need to purchase entry tickets because they are not included in the price of the tour.

Donna

If you're willing to give up the Third Ring in the Colosseum, I highly recommend the night tour, booked through Coopculture, as mentioned above by Donna. They run the tours in groups of 25, and the Colosseum is empty except for a couple of other tour groups ahead of or behind you. It's much cheaper than booking through one of the tour companies, our guide was excellent, and touring when it's cooler was wonderful (I was there in June). It's also much easier to book; I believe you can book it now for the rest of the year, and in fact I think they were even selling some same-day tickets. It doesn't visit the Third Ring like the daytime underground tours do, but it goes to the underground and levels 1 and 2.

Also, adding to others' recommendations for the Pristine Sistine tour (or going Friday night and making a beeline for the chapel). The chapel won't be empty by any means, but you can legitimately study the ceiling (probably from a seat on a bench) and you won't feel like a sardine in a can, which is pretty much what it's like during regular opening hours. As mentioned, after the chapel, our guide took us to other highlights of the Vatican Museums. Unfortunately, by then it was regular visiting hours, and the Raphael Rooms were ridiculously crowded by the time we got there - to the point where our guide warned us before we went in that if anyone started feeling claustrophobic, they could go on ahead to the next room and we'd meet them there.

Another advantage to the Pristine Sistine (and similar tours) is that you can use the "tour group only" exit from the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter's Basilica and so don't have to wait in line for that. I've read differing reports on individual visitors' success in sneaking through that exit; I have to say, the day I was there, I don't see how the guards could have told who was with a group and who wasn't.

For those who went the Friday Night, how is the transportation at 11:00 pm. We will be staying y Piazza Venezia.