Vatican Museum and Eating

There's a cafe in the Musei Vaticani (follow the signs) with an outdoor seating area fronting onto a large green space. Its a lovely inner courtyard. You shouldn't have any problem bringing your packed lunch there, as long as it's in a handbag or daypack small enough not to have to be checked.

There are a couple other places. Outside the Pinacoteca, before the entrance to the main building.
In the large courtyard.

Hilda and Chani -

A little detail to clear up but a BIG THANK YOU for both of your helps....Shelly

You will be so glad you're bringing your own food -- Musei Vaticani are endless and exhausting (and wonderful!) -- but the cafes nearby are an incredible rip-off. We stumbled into the nearest one, starving, after 3 or 4 hours, and paid something outrageous like $50 for 2 panini, 1 bottle of water, a cup of fruit salad, and a cannoli! Could've had the same amount, better quality, at a snack truck for about $20... ;)

Good call, Shelly!

If you were to bring your own food, how do you get it "in" without carrying a bag which has to be checked? Thanks for the tips on "crumby" food. Do you have "in and out" privileges to eat outside the Vatican and then return to the museums on the same day?

Thanks for your help

You can take moderately-sized bags in with you. A couple of sandwiches, some fruit, bottle of water, shouldn't be a problem. You can always refill the water bottle (hope Jo's not listening) with tap water inside. I only bought a couple of bottled drinks, and I don't recall their being exorbitant. The food options looked pricey and unappetizing.

The Vatican cafeteria (which has 3 sections - 1) hot entrees 2) paninis 3) pizza) is extremely reasonable for food. We brought in our own sandwiches because we had heard horrible things about tours (we were with Through Eternity) dropping you off at those expensive cafes. However, our tour - Through Eternity turned out to be fabulous and budget minded - dropped us off at the Vatican cafeteria and we could have purchased paninis there for the same price as we bought them in the grocery store (about $3E). So we sat right in the cafeteria and ate out of our backpack. There are, however, some outdoor seating areas where you could eat without problem.

We had carried a backpack and some packed food into the museum. It was no problem carrying it in. We had taken a guided tour of the vatican museum. At the end of the tour of the museums , before you go into the Sistine chapel there is a cafeteria. We just sat at the cafeteria table ( one level below) and ate our sandwiches.