vatican museum last sunday of the month

For an international flight you should be at the airport three hours prior to your flight. The security and check in lines can be horrendous and you don't want to miss your flight.

I don't think it will be possible to visit the Vatican museums on your Sunday. The last entry time is 12:30 and the museums close at 2pm. You also don't have enough time the next day because you need to be at the airport by 11am in order to get through security. I would save it for another trip.

I would just concentrate on the other sites in Rome that you wish to see. There are hundreds of things to see in Rome so missing one of them won't be a huge deal.

donna

Donna has you on the right track.

Would it be possible if I book a guided tour around rome including the museums?

There is no way to skip the lines on Free Sunday. They don't allow tours because it's so crowded. If you plan on visiting the museums you will need to wait in the line along with everyone else. There is no way around this.

Donna

I do understand the frustration you feel at wanting to see the Vatican Museums and being told, in essence, you can't (not without a lot of grief). But I vividly remember, years afterward, the human crush in those museums on a non-free day. It was a miserable experience, and I couldn't enjoy the art through the mobs (all tense, and all trying to race through to get to and from the Sistine Chapel as quickly as possible). And that was in September, about 20 years ago. You'd have to pay ME - a lot - to go on a free day. So, please follow Donna's advice to skip it on this trip, or you'll be sorry.

However, you can turn this lemon into lemonade. Read up on the many other things to see in Rome, and get excited about them instead. Pick some that you can actually see in your time frame, accept that you will miss everything else, and start planning your return.

The Vatican Museum can be done on the Free day if you don't mind waiting in line and enjoying the "atmosphere". We got in line at 9 AM--I think the doors opened at 9. The line was almost back to the Piazza of St Peter- maybe 100 yds from it. We got in the museum about 11 AM. Our main problem was the persistent young men badgering us to go on their tour. They said we could go to the front of the line if we paid for their tour. I don't know if this was a scam or not. Maybe somebody else knows about this. We did wait until Monday to go in the Basilica due to the long line to get in it.