Vatican Sites and strategy

Late last July we were in Rome and arrived early in the morning to St. Peter's. We had 10:30 reservation for the Vatican Museum tour. We were able to see inside St. Peters and climb the dome before 10:00. There was no line for the dome at that time. After our museum tour we went back and walked through the crypt; we did not do the Scavi tour, and even without we were at the Vatican until after 2:00. When we walked around to the Vatican Museum about 10:00, the line was very long, but apparently hours will be longer this coming summer, which should help. I'm not sure what you mean about buying early museum tickets.

There are sites that will sell you early entry tickets for the vatican museum, so you don't have to wait inline, but they are only good (to skip the line) at 9:15 entry. I was thinking about purchasing these, but know if we will have enought time depending on when we get down from the dome and to our tour time at 10:30 for the necropolis.

The line to enter the Vatican Museum is for people buying tickets, not people entering the museum. You can't buy your ticket in advance.

Keep your schedule but after the Scavi Tour head over to the Vatican Museum to purchase your ticket & enter. The line shouldn't be too long by the time your Scavi Tour is done. That time of year Rome shouldn't be very crowded - most college students & families are back home and the Italians are at the beaches.

I don't think you would have time for St. Peter's, including the dome climb, and the Vatican Museum, all before 10:30. It takes a little while to get to the top of the dome, and you want to have some time up there to look around. Also, it takes probably 10 minutes at least to walk from St. Peter's to the entrance of the Vatican Museum, and the museum itself is very large. Even if all you want to see is the Sistine Chapel, you still have to walk the length of the museum to get to it. The tour the Vatican offers of the museum is two hours,and you hit just the museum highlights.