My husband and I will be in Rome in early Oct and plan to tour St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums, ideally on Fri, Oct 2. I am trying to decide between Option 1: Official Guided 1 hr Tour of the Basilica in the morning (30 Max — time slots not yet published) and Official Vatican Museums 2 hr Tour at 1:30 PM (20 Max)(all of the morning time slots are sold out); Option 2: Walks of Italy “Complete Vatican Tour with Museums, Sistine Chapel and Basilica” 3 1/2 hours (18 Max). (There are no early morning Walks of Italy “Pristine Sistine” 4 hour tours available); or Option 3: Europe Odyssey “Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s” 3 hr tour (10 Max). I am especially interested in opinions of the Official Basilica and Official Vatican Museums tour guides and the quality of those tours. Thank you!
Posted by
13 posts
Hi Francine,
I am also wondering about Vatican tours and have almost similar questions. Unfortunately I do not have an answer for you because I am traveling end of September to Italy for the very first time! I just took the ticket to the Vatican Museum on the official site, for a 9am slot on Monday Sept 28th, but I am wondering, if I should add a tour of the Vatican Gardens and Observatory or would that be an overkill considering we have to see the St Peter's Basilica as well. Any suggestions would be so appreciated! Thank you.
Posted by
Los Angeles
1996 posts
I am especially interested in opinions of the Official Basilica and Official Vatican Museums tour guides and the quality of those tours.
Our Museum tour guide was excellent - she had excellent English and a charming accent. She was quite knowledgeable and it appeared that she tried to steer us away from overly crowded areas. Going through the Raphael Rooms was a highlight for me - seeing School of Athens close up - and I had an interesting discussion with her regarding forced perspective.
Posted by
Atlanta, Georgia
360 posts
I've been twice. The first time my husband and I just went to the Museum and Basilica on our own (as we always do) and enjoyed the experience.
The second time I went with my sister who is a "tour" person - so I went along with her. I HATED it. I hated standing still in front of what seemed like each and every stinking painting in the entire museum while the guide droned on and on about it. I want to move at my own pace - I can buy a guide in which I can read what I want to know about any individual work of art (and museums have plaques with that information already.) I finally ditched the tour when I couldn't stand it one more minute.
Now of course that is my personal preference, but I am not a "guided tour" type person, and if not for my sister I never would have done it and will never do it again! Clearly many people enjoy guided tours or it wouldn't be a thing, but not me.