Vatican Museum on May 1st

Are you sure St. Peter’s is closed on May 1? Normally they don’t close churches like they do the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel on May 1.

No, there's no indication that the basilica will be closed on May 1, although the museums will be as will other areas of the Vatican normally open to the public, the square excepted. May 1 is a National Holiday so a number of attractions will be shuttered that day. The Colosseum/Forum/Palatine will be open (MUST have advance, timed-entry tickets!) and some of the churches, and it's possible they'll have special openings of some other attractions normally closed on Labour Day.

Ah, it is national holiday there! Does it mean many museums will close during the national holiday?
My cruise will land at 7:00am and depart at 7pm. Do you think it is better to book an excursion to Rome or take the train to Rome and tour on my own?

I guess you'd have to research the museums you wish to and have time to see. As stated, the Vatican Museums will be closed, and the Capitoline Museum as well. However Galleria Borghese ( MUST have advance, timed-entry tickets) Baths of Caracalla and Castel Sant'Angelo are showing as open so some other attractions may be as well. It's not as if there isn't plenty to see; just wanted to note a couple of the biggies. At a glance, museum closures appear to affect those in Florence more than those in Rome.

Closure of the Vatican Museums will, of course, mean a large number of tourists will be flocking to other open attractions.

Your port is Civitavecchia, which is some distance from the historic center of Rome. Would it be better to book an excursion to Rome or take the train and tour on your own? Opinions may vary but given that you're a first-timer, it IS a big holiday, the city will be very busy, and local transport schedules will be affected (if you intend to use them; see comment from Roberto in linked thread below) I'd book the ship's excursion. That way you'll be sure of getting back to your ship by boarding time. It has also been mentioned that how crazy the port/trains will be may depend on how many ships it's serving on that day. Right now I'm seeing just 2 but very large ones (over 6,000+ capacity). You are on Allure Of The Seas?

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/may-1-italy-holiday-effect-on-public-transportation

Thank you so much for the reminder of holiday public transit schedule. Yes my cruise is Allure of the sea. I will try to book an excursion for Rome if it is not too late to find one. Is there a link for searching which museums will be open or close on May 1st holiday?

With your limited time, you'll only be able to squeeze in a couple of the bigger attractions so the best way to start is with the things you know you want to see/are most interested in. I've already listed Colosseum/Forum/Palatine (I highly recommend a tour which includes all 3). Galleria Borghese and Castel Sant'Angelo. As you're are also wanting to see St Peter's Basilica, Castel Sant'Angelo close to the church. Really, I don't think you could do all of these in a single day, and I'd skip Baths of Caracalla anyway as it's just a tad off the grid.

But to narrow down to other options, what else might you be interested in? Art? Ancient History? Atchitecture? Religious sites?

I looked at some of the "Rome in a Day" tours offered by 3 of the more-recommended tour companies on this forum but none of them are offering it on May 1. I haven't checked yet for a combo Colosseum/Forum/Palatine tour, and maybe you're not interested in those anyway?

Thank you so much for the excursion recommendation. This is my first ever Italy trip, so every place is a first time. Colosseum/Forum and Palatine is on my must see list. If I can add St Peter’s Basilica, and couple of Museums, it would make my first Rome visit memorable. Any recommendations on the tour company or links?

Ok, for Colosseum/Palatine/Forum, look at a tour from The Roman Guy (Walks of Italy and Through Eternity isn't offering their similar tours on May 1).

https://theromanguy.com/tours/italy/rome/complete-colosseum-tour
https://theromanguy.com/tours/italy/rome/semi-private-arena-floor

If you enjoy art, then Galleria Borghese is a must-do. This is an in-demand museum that limits visits to 2-hour time slots (they clear the museum between slots) for a limited number of people so getting hands on tickets can mean grabbing them the minute they become available, especially for high season, and especially for a holiday:
https://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/en/

Another must-do for many is the Pantheon:
https://www.pantheonroma.com/home-eng/

These 3 things plus a rest in between and travel by foot (Colosseum + Pantheon) and taxi (to Galleria Borghese) might be all you could reasonably do with the time you have. Otherwise, you could try to do the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine and then St Peter's (which will involve standing in a long line) and Castel Sant'Angelo:

https://castelsantangelorome.com

The Bernini-designed angels on the bridge (Ponte Sant'Angelo) in front of the castel are wonderful. :O)
There are any number of great churches too but which ones to see depends on what's close to some of the attractions you're going to end up having tour or timed-entry tickets for or will involve long queues.

May 1 is the biggest holiday in Europe outside of Christmas and New Year's Day and you should assume everything is closed unless you have information to the contrary.

Thanks for all the recommendation on the Rome excursion! I checked the excursion offered by Royal Caribbean for Rome, one of them is "A Taste of Rome: Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain & St. Peter's Basilica", a guided tour that only cover Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain and St Peter's Basilica, not include the inside of Colosseum. But I really want to see the colosseum. If I take this one, will I miss the Colosseum? Then I saw another excursion "**Rome in a Day with Colosseum, People's Square & St. Peter's Square", which only offer the drop off the guests at Colosseum for 1.5hrs, then Trevi Fountain for 1.5hrs, then St Peter's square for 1hr. I am thinking to book this excursion with coach drop off at colosseum, and buy the timed ticket for Colosseum/Forum/Palatine Hill which is 2.5hrs of guided tour. Does anyone know if I can take the 2.5hrs of guided tour, then wait for coach driver to pick me up and go to the St Peter's square? or I have to cut the guided tour short in order to keep the pace with drop off coach schedule? Thanks for any advice!

Hi, I would also like to purchase entry tickets for colosseum/Forum/Palatine hills for May 1st. I found the official ticket website from another forum topic "Colosseum ticket" in 2024. But when I went to the ticket website, and it is only available up to Feb 26, 2025. Is the colosseum ticket only available 1 month in advance? is it sold out very quickly for the spring/summer month?

...a guided tour that only cover Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain and St
Peter's Basilica, not include the inside of Colosseum. But I really
want to see the colosseum. If I take this one, will I miss the
Colosseum?

If it's not included in the tour description, no, you will not be seeing the interior of the Colosseum (although you can see the exterior from pretty much any point in that area.)

Colosseum Tickets: yes, they only sell them a month in advance, and they sell quickly for high season; I would expect VERY quickly for May 1 holiday, and I wouldn't personally even try to land one that includes the underground. The Colosseum is the #1 tourist attraction in Italy, and a ticket/tour which includes the underground s the most in-demand ticket in Rome. You can see down into it from above so if you do decide to buy tickets yourself, you stand a better change of getting a time slot that works with the limited time you have if you go with just the general-entry ticket.

The official site does not have a tour which includes the Palatine and Forum; you have to go to an indy company like one I'd suggested earlier, to do that, and I'd expect it to fill quickly given other tour companies I looked at are not doing that one on May 1. To answer the ? you sent via message, yes tour companies book their tours before they actually have tickets and have sometimes cancelled them last minute. This is much more apt to happen with tours that include the underground, although I haven't personally seen a report of that happening very recently.

As far as that other tour you're looking at goes, you'd have to follow its set schedule, meaning if you took a 2.5 hour tour of the Colosseum independently, you would have to cut it short to catch the coach onward after 1.5 hours or walk/take public transit/take a taxi onward to whichever thing(s) you want to visit next. THEN you'd have to do the same to be at St Peter's Square in time to catch the coach back to the port. As well, on the tour's schedule that only includes an hour for the basilica, you may not even get inside - or barely so - in that amount of time if the queue is very long.

That's the thing with a tour: you trade some flexibility for convenience....and there's no flexibility where your boarding time for the ship is concerned.

All-in-all, your challenge is having to do Rome in a matter of hours, from a remote port, on a Jubilee year, and on possibly the busiest public holiday of the year. There's only so much ground you'll be able cover so you're unfortunately going to have to give on some of your like-to-sees and hopefully return to the Eternal City another time when you can stay for a few days. Best thing you can do is make whatever you CAN see as convenient as possible and make it back to Civitavecchia on time.

Have you thought of posting on the CruiseCritic site to see if others on your cruise are wanting to book a specific, private group tour independent of the ship's excursions, and are looking for more bodies to help reduce the PP cost? Those are usually quite expensive but worth it to get the job done, assuming they're even offered on May 1 (I just looked at one that isn't due to Vatican Museum closure.)