Vatican Online Booking

That is odd. VISA should take the transaction and verify it at the time you reserve. It could be that if you are trying from China that they think your card might have been stolen. I would call my card provider immediately. You can call the Vatican Museum at
+ 39 06 6988 3332 to ask.

"Verified by Visa" is a special procedure you do with Visa prior to using it. Sort of a special registration with Visa to help prevent fraud. It is not an online verification.

I would call your credit card company and let them know you're trying to make a purchase. Explain what the issue has been and have them aurthorize the transaction. There is no way to purchase with an email. If you dont use the online booking system you'll need to wait in the line along with eveyone else who didn't prepurchase.

Donna

Eventually we resolved this by making several phone calls to Bank of America. The Vatican Museums online reservation system only accepts Master and Visa cards -verified. You'll see this when you reach the final payment page. If verified by visa is not activated on your card, 2 things will happen: the transaction will be rejected and the reservation spot will remain filled for 30 minutes. When I was trying to book for my wife and I, this happened twice and I accidentally took up 4 spots....sorry.
So to resolve this, for anyone with a Bank of America Visa debit or credit card, phone up the BofA Verified by Visa section at 800-887-5749 (8am and 8pm ET). It takes an hour for the Verified by Visa to activate on the card. Once activated, I managed to successfully book my Vatican Museum tour. One more thing, Verified by Visa, apparently, is a "one-off" thing. Meaning that I exhausted by Verified by Visa on the Vatican online booking site. If I see it again, I need to call the bank and request Verified by Visa.
Hope this information helps many.