Vatican Museums /Sistine chapel experience

Tamara, our very favorite of Rome's art museums is Galleria Borghese. It's much smaller, it has a wonderful collection in a fascinating setting, and their crowd control is excellent: only a set amount of reservations sold for each 2-hour time slot so you can actually SEE the works without being stepped all over. The galleries are cleared at the end of those 2 hours for the next group. This may be a much saner choice with 2 very small children! :O)

Google about for pictures that may help you make the decision? This site is in Italian only but has some nice snaps:

http://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/it

Reservations are mandatory and sell out quickly during high season. This is the website you should order from should you decide to do this; I see booking are now available for September.

http://www.galleriaborghese.it/en/home_en/borghese-gallery-and-museum

Agree with Borghese, it is a great museum with major work piece.
I also enjoyed the Capitolini museum very much.
But the Vatican museum is still a not miss. The Raphael Rooms, the Sisitine chapel are unreal.

An early-entry small group tour is well worthwhile for the adults. I recommend Walks of Italy's "Pristine Sistine" tour. But for kids 1 and 3? Get a sitter. Seriously, if you are at a hotel they can probably arrange child care for you. Otherwise, I agree the Borghese is more accessible. Still, will your kids put up with two hours of looking at paintings and statues?

As you look at the paintings in the Vatican, pick one you like best, gase as for a few minutes. It must have taken hours to paint. See if you can figure out the theme. Then you will know why you spent all the time and money traveling to Italy. I have never been to Italy. I will be there in July.

Last October we to the early entry Pristine Sistine from Walks of Italy. Enjoyed ourselves immensely until we had to circle around back to the Chapel to leave. The exit door was closed due to a dignitary on their way to see the Pope (the exit is the same entrance they use to see Pope) and the regular exit was jammed with them bringing in handicapped visitors. There was no way to get out of the Chapel and still more people streamed in. We were stuck in there like sardines in a can. I would not wish that on any child. The Borghese on the other hand was a very calm experience and the sculptures amazing. Plus a park for the kids to play in before and after.

The Vatican Museums contain much more than just Renaissance art but the collection is so vast - 4 total miles of it - that it's simply not possible to see it ALL in one visit. The majority of tours usually concentrate on a handful of popular highlights. Individuals with very specific interests - say, Egyptian or Etruscan craft - more likely choose to do their visits independently or with tours which specialize in those subjects. There's also the benefit of some of those areas being less crowded than what's covered in the 'highlights' tours.

The early-entrance tours are said to be good choices for seeing at least some of those highlights, the Sistine most specifically, before the insanity reaches a peak. Still, I think the bigger concern is for your tots: it's just not an easy or fun place for very small children. The suggestion to hire a sitter, if you decide to choose the Vatican over another option, is a very good one, IMHO.

Another suggestion might be to split your group up? Without knowing how many days you'll have in Rome, could part of the group do the Vatican one morning while another group - with the children- does something else? Switch groups the next morning.

My parents took me to Europe in 1952, when I was 1. I don't remember a single thing.

Wow it is great to get so many opinions. Thank you very much everyone!! I will definitely research babysitting options or splitting up the group. I had heard that Borghese is a good option for a more relaxed art experience-- and unlike the Vatican no dignitaries create the chaos of having an exit close :( . I was to the Vatican museums in the year 2000. I would love to see the Sistine chapel again. But even in 2000 it was not a relaxing and spiritual experience because of the crowds and guards yelling to be quiet.

Can anyone comment on getting into St. Peter's Basilica to see just the pieta?
In 2000 one could simply walk in the entrance and see the Pieta, and from there you could continue into see the rest of the Basilica, or you could just leave out the same entrance near the Pieta.

TO CLARIFY--- oops...I should have said Michelangelo's Pietà statue ----so people know what I'm referring to.

Just a heads up, if you do go to St Peters, DON'T try it on a Wednesday.

one can still walk into St.Peters for free, you'll just have to pass through a security check first

Can anyone comment on getting into St. Peter's Basilica to see just
the pieta? In 2000 one could simply walk in the entrance and see the
Pieta, and from there you could continue into see the rest of the
Basilica, or you could just leave out the same entrance near the
Pieta.

Not much has changed there EXCEPT now everyone has to go through a security check before entering the basilica so that slows things down a bit. Depending on what time of day you arrive, that line can look very long but it generally moves right along. For the people in your group who haven't been there before, it would be good to allow them some time to look around?

I won't swear to this 100% but unless things have changed, I don't believe baby strollers are allowed in the basilica, although they are in the Vatican Museums. Rome isn't what I'd call a stroller-friendly city to begin with so some prefer to take their infants in back carriers.

To Tim, while you may not remember your visit to Europe when you were just one year old, no doubt that early experience still helped mold you into the fine man you are today, don't you think?

Well, my mother has told me, innumerable times, about the Italian moms who pinched my cheek and said, "Bellino bambino!". They leased a car for at least two months. Think how close to the end of WWII this trip was. I guess they thought it was their "last chance" to see Europe, before they had a total of 4 children. But families make such decisions differently today.

Well, my mother has told me, innumerable times, about the Italian moms
who pinched my cheek and said, "Bellino bambino!".

Well THAT hasn't changed! Little folks are still rock stars in Italy! :O)

Hi Tamera,

I was in Rome for two weeks earlier this month and made three trips to the Vatican. The first trip was an "Early Entry" tour with The Roman Guy. Our group of 12 or so entered the premises 1 hour before the general opening and we made a dash for the Sistine Chapel, "before the crowds show up". We had approximately 25 wonderful minutes there with maybe a hundred other people and plenty of seating available to just sit and marvel. We then toured a PORTION of the Vatican Museum as the tour has a limited amount of time (3 1/2 hours) to see everything. From there it was on to St Peter's Basilica. Once you leave the museum for St Peter's you cannot return. The guide made this clear and noted that if you needed more time for the museum you could leave the tour at that point and stay in the museum seeing St Peter's later on your own. I had been on a prior tour several years ago so that is what I did.

The second trip I went on Wednesday morning (8:00 AM) to see the Pope (not Catholic just a bucket list item). I had previously obtained a free "Papal Audience Ticket” which allowed me to view things from the seating area in St Peter's Square. From my earlier tour, I learned you want seats along the outside edges of the seating area, next to the barricades. If you do not have Papal Audience Tickets, you can stand outside the seating area on the edges and if you get there early enough you can be right on the barricades. They do have big screen monitors setup so everyone can "see" the Pope up close as he speaks. After about three hours of waiting through group introductions, other clergy speeches, and finally the Pope speaking, he got into a vehicle and rode twice around the seating area in a barricaded "race track". I had followed instructions, finding a seat next to the barricades, and he passed by me, unobstructed, about 10 feet away.

The third trip was to climb St Peter's Basilica dome to the very top. I again showed up around 8:00 am.

Every visit required a trip through the metal detectors and x-ray machines. No taking off shoes and belts, etc., just a quick check and I did not wait for than 15 minutes before I was though. They must have 40+ (or so it seemed) metal detector/x-ray machines stations setup just before entering St Peter's Square. They had a couple of stations open normally and on Wednesday they were all in operation.

I thought it was very worth it. I have found that when there is a lot to see you have to return a few times to REALLY see things because you can't see everything the first time adequately. I have found myself on more than one occasion in a museum saying "What? Another 2000 year-old sculpture? Another 400 year old painting by a master?" :)

thank you so much everyone!!