I'm looking at the route Rick recommends in his Rome guide and wondering if it can be done in reverse? IOW - can we start with the Sistine Chapel and then work our way back to Ancient Egypt?
Posted by
Reading, PA, USA
1626 posts
You would be fighting the main stream of visitors. It would be difficult.
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
7777 posts
I think that’s basically what all the tours (like Pristine Sistine) that get into the museums entrance before it’s opened to the general public, and make a beeline to the Chapel do. Literally running to the Sistine Chapel, to get into it before the masses can fill it is the aim. People on a guided tour are entitled to go thru the “back door” of the Chapel, and down the stairs and the hallways, directly to St. Peter’s Basilica. Those not at on a tour have to backtrack to the main entrance anyway, although usually taking a route that’s not swimming against the current of other people.
And you can’t get in thru the “back door” of the Chapel. Everybody (unless you’re a Cardinal or the Pope) enters at the main Museums entrance. To get to the Chapel from there, you go all the way to the Sistine Chapel, passing thru all of the Museums to get there.
If you were to hightail it to the Chapel, whether first thing in the morning, or later in the day, when the Museums have more visitors, follow Rick’s return route (the way he suggests people head back to the entrance), and you’d have fewer people to go against. Once you’ve gotten back near the entrance, go up the stairs, do a U-turn and head for the Egyptian part.
Really, though, would you go to a restaurant, let them serve you all your courses (if that’s the only way they’d do it), let those all sit on the table getting cold (or warm), then have dessert first, once it finally gets served? Would you then start on all those other courses you’d skipped? It’s conceivable, but probably not ideal.