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Vatican Museum's latest visiting days/hours

Posted by (Minnesota 🎒) on

Saw this mention on another website and thought I'd pass it along....

The museum's latest calendar indicates that they'll be open into the evenings on BOTH Fridays and Saturdays from April 22 through the end of October. It also looks like they're bringing back free-last-Sundays-of-the-month starting at the end of this month through the rest of the year. This is, BTW, NOT a day I'd recommend going anywhere near the place. There are some other random closure days and still others with altered hours noted. The calendar is here:

https://m.museivaticani.va/content/dam/museivaticani/pdf/utilities/calendario_musei.pdf

"D" is Sunday (Domenica) "V" and "S" are Friday (Venerdi) and Saturday (Sabato) respectively. The calendar reads vertically versus the usual horizontal format.

Posted by
81 posts

Thank you for this. Question: On Oct. 4th, we have a Scavi tour booked at 9am and intend to then proceed into the Basilica. Then a light lunch. We figure that this take us to a 2 or 2:30pm entry into the Vatican museum - but, of course, we want to see the Sistine. Is it enough time to go through? We've been twice but my sister and her husband have not. We'd definitely make it our business to have 45 min in the Sistine at the end. Will they clear the room at 6pm (18:00) closing time? or is it a slower process than that?

Thanks for your help.

bean

Posted by
82 posts

Kathy, we will hopefully be in Rome in march during the fourth Sunday when the museums are free. I have heard others say to avoid that day due to crowds and that would be especially true in Covid time as we will be leaving on Tuesday and don't want to have a positive test.

My question is are the crowds still bad for this free day in March and during Covid?

Posted by
15809 posts

Bean, it would be best to hear from someone who has been there at the very end of the day (I haven't) but reports in the past were that they started clearing visitors from the chapel at 5:30 on the days the museums close at 6:00. It's a bit of a walk from the chapel to the exit, thus the hustle to get folks on their way.

The usual recommended minimum for the museums is 3 hours, and you'll have to skip a lot of sections. Anyway, hopefully some recent, end-of-day visitors will chime in!

Posted by
15809 posts

My question is are the crowds still bad for this free day in March and
during Covid?

Wish I had a definitive answer for you but as the museums haven't had any free Sundays at all the past couple of years, I can't guess how busy they might be this spring. Personally? If concerned about distancing and/or standing in a potentially long security queue, I'd go on a different day.

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