Vatican Museums—the tour they offer

For which date?

Sept 30 (or Oct 1 or 2 or 3)

Referencing this line from your earlier post:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/vatican-museums-on-a-wed

"There are only guided tours available. No tickets without the tour all that week."

So that tells me that you checked the museum's website, right?

Welp- it appears they are sold out. First available I see is October 23.

The tour is 2 hours- I am sure you can stay past that time. I would stick with the tour for the 2 hours.

Honestly if you really want to visit then this tour at 40 € is a pretty good deal. (Tickets are 20€ and any tour offered thru an outside vendor will be a lot more than 40€)

Given the crowds in the place, you might be ready to throw in the towel after 2 hours!

And I see that they even seem have some tickets still open on Sept 30 for the 8:00 or 8:30 tours as well, which is a good way to minimize crowds. (I tested it for 2 people.) If you can get up that early...

I don't see how they can MAKE you stay with the tour. And there is no time limit (that I know of) for visiting the museum. How would they know, either way?

I've visited the Vatican Museum twice and last time we did a "Vatican Breakfast" tour with City Wonders which means you get early entry (8:00 am) and beat the crowds. I stuck with the tour for a little while, then struck off on my own. I hate following tours, that's just me.

The first time we also did a Breakfast at the Vatican - but I can't remember which company, it was a while back - and it didn't include a tour, just the breakfast and early entry which is way more my speed.

Either way, I loved the early entry option and the breakfast wasn't bad, either.

Although technically you can do whatever you want after you get through the doors, I would like to add that it might be more respectful to stick with the guide...unless it becomes brutally bad (as has happened to me on a tour where I could NOT leave! But everyone did complain afterwards to the tour leader; the guide was a last minute fill-in). I mean, think how the guide feels if people start bailing out midway through. They might lose heart. Unless time is a huge factor I prefer to suck it up. And maybe even clap, if briefly.

I mean, think how the guide feels if people start bailing out midway
through. They might lose heart.

Yes, I get it. But at the end of the day it is MY time and MY experience and I want to maximize both. I wouldn't want to be overtly rude and just walk off in the middle of their presentation, but I'd let myself get "left behind" as they moved on. If a lot of people bail on their tours, rather than lose heart they might consider how they can better serve the clients. Maybe they are dragging too much, and spending too much time talking while people stand there shifting from foot to foot (that is where they lose me!). Or maybe there are other factors - they don't have an interesting presentation style, they can't be heard, are hard to understand, etc.

Tour guiding is a business and the business exists to serve the clients, not the other way around. And I kind of suspect that as long as they get paid, they aren't super worried about a few people in the group falling off along the way.

Thank you everyone for your comments and yes I agree with Stella that it is our precious time and possibly the only time we will get to experience something and that we don’t have to be overtly rude about it, but could be “left behind” or move quietly away if the tour is really not meeting our needs and that that can be helpful feedback to a tour guide if their tour is not working for a lot of people.