We fly out of Rome on the Tuesday following Easter, after taking a Rick Steves' tour that ends in Florence on Saturday. Would we be better to go to another city, such as Sienna, following the tour, or going directly to Rome and dealing with the crowds and pageantry of Easter?
Rome is more than just the Vatican and St. Peters. If it's too busy, then find another church to go to services in. Rome's got churches all over town.
On Easter Sunday, we hiked 1,500' down a 3000 year old walking paths (outside of Zagarolo) to the pagan temple, Palestrina.. I entered a small church in the middle of Easter services not realizing it was a privately owned by a very wealthy family.