Vatican museums

When is your trip?

Online tickets are selling out far in advance these days, and there's no reason to think June is going to be better than May. Tickets are on sale for June 1. I suppose that means the rest of the month will become available soon (gradually? one day at a time? one week at a time? I don't know). If you want basic entry tickets without a tour for June, I can only suggest that you check the Vatican Museum website daily, preferably multiple times a day, so you don't miss your chance.

It's also possible to go over to the Museums and wait in the ticket-purchase line, but it is usually long and doesn't move very fast. It's not a great way to spend your limited time in Rome.

Thanks for the advice. I’ll try that. Does anybody else have any other input as to whether this is simply a software glitch??

I don't think there's much chance at all that it's a software glitch. Days were selling out some time in advance back at the beginning of February, a time when the number of tourists in Rome must be much lower than it will be in May and June. Tickets are selling out a lot earlier as the months wear on.

How important is it for you to get into the museum and chapel? I just looked for June 1 at 5:55 pm Pacific time on 4/1 - there was limited availability for one remaining time slot at the general admission price. There were tix available for the various meal packages, and for the guided tour for individuals. More expensive than the general tix, but that may be the game you'll need to play.

I'll admit, I am not the biggest fan of the Vatican Museums. If they are important to you, I would splurge and do one of the early morning tours, before opening, when you might stand a chance of enjoying them without feeling like you are a cow in a cattle chute being driven forward by the herd.

I’ll probably take all the advice offered above- thanks. Anybody know exactly what time the website releases their tickets ( ie midnight or 6 am or some other time Italy time)

I have no personal knowledge about this subject, but a poster in this August 2022 TripAdvisor thread says tickets are usually released at midnight Rome time. Two people seem to have had been successful making purchases based on that timing.

Someone else reported a previous experience of finding ticket available some time after the official release date for days previously shown as sold out. There was no explanation as to why that might happen. It's not something one wants to count on, but it's worth some follow-up checking if you somehow can't snag tickets on their first release.

We did a Walks of Italy Pristine Sistine last month, and part of the fun of the tour was our guide showing us pics on her phone of how insanely crammed it is in the summer. The only climate-controlled rooms are the tapestries, too. It looked awful. It's so awful, in fact, that when I asked her if she grew up going to the Vatican and/or its museums as a Roman school child, she said there was absolutely no way in the world because it's a madhouse and no teacher could handle that chaos, nor could they keep track of children in such a sea of people. That was all I needed to hear.

While the Vatican wasn't my favorite tour (I wish we had seen less but studied it for longer), I felt like my money was well spent skipping the insane lines, and seeing School of Athens in person (nearly in private) was special. I was also surprised at all of the rules about stopping. There are so many places you cannot even stop walking/moving to take a picture, so keep that camera ready. Maybe take a good high-def video of everything.

Does anybody else have any other input as to whether this is simply a software glitch??

IDK for sure but I think that ticket resellers have bots that snatch up the tickets before they can be bought by individual humans.

That's what often happens with concert tickets - it's a huge problem in the music industry