Vatican tour - St Peter's Basilica timing question

I can address some of your questions. There is no skip-the-line tour when it comes to the security line. Everyone goes through it, and it can wind around the entire piazza, which is enormous. Not to discourage you, as it can also move quickly. If you plan to do the dome climb, I suggest you allocate two hours for it. This is because even if you buy elevator tickets, there are about 200 steps or so once you get off the elevator, and it is a single file line that moves only as fast as the person ahead of you. And then when you're done seeing the dome, you have 200 steps down to the level the elevator is on. Many people also spend some time on that level either on the way up or the way down, as it's a big flat roof that you can walk around on. If you plan to see the Vatican museums, St. Peter's, and climb the dome, that will take up most of a day, so I wouldn't add anything else. For lunch, just go between your morning tour and your afternoon visit to the dome and basilica. Eating in line is just not something that is done, and you will need a break. The crowds in the museums can be exhausting. Hope this helps.

I haven't been inside St. Peter's since the 1990s, but I have seen the line. It was most definitely not short in early March 2023. I decided not to wait in that line; I'll have to plan better on my next trip to Rome--by which I mean I'll stay in a hotel near the Vatican and drag myself out of bed at the crack of dawn to try to beat the other tourists.. If you're early risers, you might consider seeing St. Peter's first thing in the morning on one of your other days in Rome. I think the church opens at 7 AM (except on Wednesdays? Not sure). I am guessing the line is not terribly long if you show up at something like 6:45 AM.

I've seen comments here that the line is not as bad later in the afternoon, but if you want to include the dome, you obviously have to allow a bunch of extra time for that, and the time needed to get through the security line isn't really predictable.

Being in the land of independent travelers on this forum, previously I have backed off from guided tours, calling them expensive and only for those who don't want to do the advance legwork & research themselves. The folks on these threads would know better, and most times they do.

But...we are traveling to Rome next April with my cousins who've never been there. My wife & I have been to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel in 2010, and St. Peter's in 2017, the latter with a simple skip-the-line pass for like 18 bucks if memory serves. It came with an informational earbud that was staticky and didn't work well at all. You get what you pay for.

And with it being 2 weeks before Easter, and with heightened interest with their Jubilee 2025 celebration, I made the call to employ The Tour Guy for an 8:30 AM guided skip-the-line tour that includes Vatican, Sistine & St. Peter's. 3 hours long in total, at a cost of $117/per. If they do what they say they're going to do, I think it's money well spent. Time is money here unless you have a month. Reviews are good, and it was recommended by folks on this very forum.

I did not hear until this thread that there is no skip-the-line after the Vatican to get into St. Peter's. But hopefully, since we're taking the first tour of the day for The Tour Guy, we can see most everything, and the normal line for St. Peter's won't be too bad. A lot of if's...

Thanks for the tips, super helpful and I think we’ll plan for the whole day and if the line ends up moving quicker we can always add a place that we can get tickets on site or just walk around a neighborhood.

Jay - I think you may be ok if you’ve booked a tour for all three places together. From what I’ve read online, there is this corridor leading to the basilica from Sistine chapel that lets you skip the security line. There’s varying reviews on this as I think they have changed the rules over time, but if you look at recent reviews it seems if you have a tour guide that does the combined tour you can get access to that special passage and skip the security line. Otherwise, the staff will not let you use that door and you will need to exit and line up for security through the main entrance to the basilica. There may be days where the door is unavailable or not all guides have access to it, so always good to double check and have some flexibility. There are some other posts on this forum from people that have recently went that probably describe it more accurately than me. Good luck!

The most reliable ways to skip lines in Rome are to wake up early (which the Romans don't do) and travel with a pregnant woman (for whom Italian laws have all kinds of special solicitation).

At least, that was my experience.

Why don’t you go there before your Vatican entry. The earlier in the morning, the shorter the line. The dome opens at 7:30 so you’d have to do it quickly.

We were in Rome this past xmas/new year.

Does anyone have recommendations for St Peter's only tour, with skip the line entry? -we went with TheTourGuy, private morning tour including the backdoor access to St. peter's. St. Peter's is a public place, I did not find any company offer skip the line for St. Peter's only.

We want to go to the dome, with the elevator option.-we bought the elevator tickets because we were tired. I would skip it unless you truly need it, it only goes half way up, after that, there are still 300 more steps to go. It is a small, extremely slow elevator, the line was not long but moved slooow. We waited for 45 minutes for the ride. Our kids were tired of waiting so they went up by stairs and got to the top before us.

I didn't find any that seemed to reliably guarantee skip the line without doing the vatican museum + Sistine Chapel tour together, which we already have tickets to.-only private Vatican tour offers skip the line

Should we anticipate a 2-3 hour wait?-don't know
We were thinking we'd finish up around noon seeing the museum and Sistine Chapel since our tickets there are for 8:30am. -you would be tired and hungry by noon and ready to leave the museum.

Is there a separate line after the security line to get dome elevator tickets?-yes
How is that wait? -30 minutes wait when we were there.
Trying to figure out what's a reasonable time to budget for St. Peter's Basilica in total as we really want to see the views from the dome.-about 2 hours

Is it reasonable to grab a sandwich or takeout from nearby restaurants after our morning tour of the Vatican and then have lunch while we wait in line for St Peter's Basilica? We're willing to split up and one person stay in line for a spot while the other buys lunch - is this possible to then go through the line to find your party, or you really need to stick together?--I would visit Vatican in the morning, leave at noon, walk about 10 minutes south of Vatican(pass immediate touristy spots) for some amazing food. We went to Mama Eats and a sandwich place across from it, we ate our lunch sitting on the curb. With a full belly and recharged, head back to St. Peters and take your time there. This might seems like a detour, but consider the walk from Vatican to St. Peter is 20 minutes long, this would only add maybe 10 minutes in total travel time.

Some itineraries recommended also doing Castle Sant'Angelo after St. Peter's. Is this too ambitious especially if we factor in wait times? -- The walk from St. Peters to Castle Sant'Angleo is not short, yes it is too ambitious.
Seems more reasonable if we got the combined tour and was able to skip the line but I am wary of the long wait. We would prefer to see St Peter's over this, so if it's too much to fit in a day I would be ok skipping, or perhaps walking past it on the way back?-We did not go inside Sant'Angelo, walked by it, it's OK. We were in Rome for 6 full days, there were soooo much to see, didn't get to see San'tAngelo.

Enjoy your trip.

I don't see how there could be a skip-the-line tour to St. Peter's since everyone has to go through the security line. Folks who had been in line for an hour or more wouldn't be pleased if a tour guide walked straight up to the front of that line and tried to waltz in with a tour group. Since St. Peter's doesn't require tickets at all, the Vatican can't very well sell special tickets to people who want to jump the line.

Just leaving Rome today... Typing this on train to Milano and points north... Pleased to report experience yesterday with 0626 arrival to St Peter's square.We were 3rd and 4th people in line at the blocked entrance at the end of the right side columns. Policia were there in car, let a few other workers through but otherwise all entry between columns into square was blocked. Promptly at 0645 they pulled back blockade and had straight shot in through security, into basilica, with bonus of looking back and seeing sunrise over empty square.
Saw all we wanted to ,even just dawdled listening to 730 mass and cooling down a bit on pews,, not rushed, and were out at 0800 . Thinking if you have to be at Vatican museum entrance 0830, might be doable.
Popped by here 3 days ago on golf cart tour with Daria(LovingRome tour group HIGHLY RECOMMEND) at around 11am , and square was full, line to entrance looping around to left side columns.Not sure length of wait but guess several hours.

Fyi for anyone going soon... Incredibly hot....much harder to appreciate the sites than previous October and April trips, so hopefully lately September will be good for you . What has really helped us was some of the neck fan/ac c gizmos, a cheap misting fan water bottle from Walmart, and carrying frozen ice bottles through the day. Trying to find air conditioned buses and restaurants was also key and doing more walking in the evening and early morning as we did for St Peters. Also had a nice day out of Rome, easy day trip to Orvieto where we had an hour of air conditioning each way and most of the town was shaded.
Even with brutal heat, still enjoying the travel experience! Hope you do too!