Vatican Scavi Tour

I wrote to this email [email protected] - given on the Vatican website
setting out the names of the people and the dates we were going to be in Rome. They answered me in 5 days. Unfortunately there were no ticckets available.

This forum thread has some information about how they respond to requests but does not say anything about emails or the form. I think I sent an email in 2010 but it did take a few days to get a response. This website looks newer than what was available when I booked.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/scavi-tour

That whole process is a bit hit or miss. You follow the instructions as required and hear nothing. Fearing your request might lost in internet traffic you resend it only to finally receive a response from the first request. Now you've got a 2nd request on top of the 1st one. They should really devise a better system of reservations.

I just scheduled a Scavi tour for my trip to Italy next year. I received a response back within 48 hours and was able to secure a tour. A few years ago I tried to schedule a tour, but was told that there was no room available that day. Both responses were received within 24-48 hours. I would try to call or fax a request, usually they are good at replying.

I've done this tour several times - sometimes they answer straight away, sometimes a few days and sometimes never...

We just got home from Italy and took this tour on Monday of this week. I booked it in December of last year and heard back within 48 hours. Just a few items of suggestion.....we arrived on Monday 45 minutes before our appointed tour time and found out exactly where we were to check in and told to come back 10 minutes before the tour began to go through security. We foolishly left and walked around St. Peter's Square and returned to a huge crowd all lined up for one security scanner check point for multiple tours, not just the Scavi Tour. Since our information had strictly said if we missed our timed entry we forfeited our entry I went to the front of the line hoping for more information and was told to come to the front of the line and, as you can imagine, that caused a great deal of hostility with others waiting which I can understand. We barely made our tour and got a frown from our tour guide at our tardiness. So, arrive early and stay in place for security since it is a wonderful tour but the logistics leave a lot to be desired...

One additional word of advice for this tour, read the dress code. They are very strict about the dress code, even in the hot summer months. In August a few years ago, I witnessed 2 locals who were turned away because they were wearing shorts and sandals.

Sandals are fine. (After all, their founder wore them.) It's exposed knees and shoulders that are a problem.

Thank you all for your answers!
jennakalkwarf, Tim and stmurray2, I would like to know how did you make your request, via mail, phone, fax??
Fira1959 and Michael, thank you for the advice, but I'm travelling in winter so I'll probably have my shoulders and knees pretty covered! haha
I'm thinking of sending an email to the address Joni used and see if I get lucky...

I e-mailed them at: [email protected]

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/institutions_connected/uffscavi/documents/rc_ic_uffscavi_doc_gen-information_20090216_en.html

I also used the email given. However, they state on the paperwork that they will confirm your reservation 48 hours prior to the actual time and date which they did not do. I contacted them and was told we were confirmed and good to go. I guess we need to remember this is a tour directly booked through the Vatican offices and not a tour company per se, so it is not their primary focus.

I emailed for the tour in May and did not hear until the second week in September. We received our tour for February. Be patient. We used the email on the Vatican website.

So, I sent an email and got a response the day after! I added that I had already made a request via website to avoid any inconvenience or confusion. The email address doesn't appear in the newer version of the website and that's why I tried first with the form. Well then, thank you all for your help, I now need help planning my day in Rome, but I'm creating a new topic for that.