Vatican Museums - first tour or later in the day

We enjoyed our walk from Piazza Navona to the Vatican for our midmorning Garden-Museum tour. (years ago) You need to accept that you are going to a crowded place at the peak of both European and American summer tourism. We took an ordinary tour booking, but some posters (Search box top center) have expressed pleasure with super-premium crack-of-dawn tours. You also need to consider the tropical heat for an hour in the security line, as well as possible hot parts of the touring.

Apparently it is unlikely today that you can find an express entry (legal or illegal) to St. Peter's from the Sistine Chapel. Again, check other threads on this common question for more variety of answers.

Haha, yes of course it will be crowded no matter what. I am aware. I was having trouble searching the forum as it kept returning discussions from five or six years ago. Though I’m having better luck going back out to google and searching that way for more recent posts.

Two years ago, in September, we met our private guide for the first tour time, and was it ever crowded. We were admitted to the Cabinet of Secrets mosaic room, where almost no one else went, and I understood that this was open only in the morning.

Rick’s book says that mid afternoons are much less busy, and maybe that continues for the rest of the day. I wonder if it’s hotter, though?

I did the 8am admission in late April. I was through security at 8:05 and took the direct route to the Sistine Chapel. I was the only person at times in the hall of the tapestries and the maps. I was able to spend some time in the Raphael rooms with only a couple other people at most. I got to the Sistine Chapel at 8:30 and spent about a half hour. It was not crowded at all and I was able to sit down in a few different places for different vantage points. I left the chapel at 9am and then I went back to the entrance and walked through other parts of the museum. By that time it was so crowded that you could barely move in spots. When I got back to the hallway that went back to the Sistine Chapel, I had to tell a guard that I wanted to exit the museum, and he let me go down a blocked off staircase. It was about 11am when I left.

I cannot say what it is like in the evening, but I really loved the 8am time. I would also think that it would be much cooler in the morning for a summer visit as well.

Thank you, Jane! I think I have settled on the 8am time hoping to have a similar experience as yourself and avoid the heat of the day as well. If I was visiting during a cooler time of the year, I think I would try for the late afternoon.

We just got back. We had an official tour of the museums for 11am and it was soooo crowded, like shoulder to shoulder. I think RS’s ‘Best of Italy’ book recommends early morning. You also have to take into account how hot these places get so even if the evening has fewer people it will still be hot.

We went on a Semi-Private Early Morning Vatican Tour via LivTours and thought it was totally worth it. Our guide, Carlotta, was fantastic and the crowds had not yet appeared so the experience was amazing. We had time with Van Gogh’s Pieta painting with literally no one else around. Quite special.

Someone else posted that they went straight to the Sistine Chapel when entering at 8am and I would say that would be a way to see the chapel without a lot of people. By the time we got to the Sistine Chapel with our tour most of the other groups had arrived too so it was a bummer compared to the museum which was not crowded.