Of all the specific places you can visit in Italy, more people ask us about the Vatican than anywhere else. In particular, people are concerned about getting into the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel. And they should be concerned, because the lines for entrance to the Museums -- which you must enter to see the Sistine Chapel -- are becoming legendary.
First you should know that there are two major areas to visit at the Vatican. One is St. Peter's Basilica. There is no particular difficulty associated with visiting St. Peter's. However, you will probably encounter lines at the security checkpoint. During high season, those lines can be daunting.
Do avoid Wednesday morning, when the Basilica is usually closed due to the Papal Audience in the adjoining St. Peter's Square.
The other major area of the Vatican is the Vatican Museums, with the Sistine Chapel. The entrance to the Vatican Museums is about half a mile away from the entrance to St. Peter's Basilica, so it is possible to visit the Basilica and not go anywhere near the Museums. But you would then not see the Sistine Chapel.
During high season, between April and October, we don't like to see our clients going to the Vatican Museums without a plan to avoid standing in the big line.
Anything you have read or heard or even experienced yourself about getting into the Vatican Museums is obsolete if it is based on the situation prior to January 8, 2007, when a new entrance policy was inaugurated by the Vatican. So be careful about all the old information in books and on the internet.
Under the Vatican's new policy, the period between 8 am and 10 am is now reserved for tour companies, which are providing group tours. The doors do not open for general admittance by the public until 10 am. If you wish to stand in line, we recommend that you not go at or before 10 am, because the period between 10 am and noon is usually mobbed. We suggest that you wait until 12 noon or 1 pm. However, you should be aware of when the last admittance can occur, which is 3:30 pm on most days, so you want to be in line early enough to be sure to get to the entrance by then.
How can you get in without standing in line? You must either deal with the Vatican itself, taking one of the Vatican's own small-group tours, or with one of the tour companies which has arranged with the Vatican to use the period from 8 am to 10 am.
The Vatican's own tour is 2 hours in duration, and on most days, it runs at 10:30 am, 12 noon, and 2 pm. Our experience has been that the Vatican limits this tour to 20 people in any one tour group, so it qualifies as a "small-group" tour. The cost is 29.5 euros, paid directly to the Vatican in cash. You can request this tour yourself from the Vatican, or you can ask us to request it for you. There were difficulties with this arrangement during much of 2007, because the Vatican would not confirm the reservation until shortly before the requested date. But by October of 2007, the Vatican seemed to have worked out a better system, so we are more optimistic about using this tour for 2008.
What can you get from the tour companies that will avoid the big line? There are traditional group tours, meaning that you will be with a busload of 40 or 50 people. We tried using them, but the experience was not good. Some people spent half their scheduled touring time just waiting for the tour company to get everyone rounded up and into the Vatican.
So now we are only recommending group tours that are small, no more than 20 or 25 people. And for somewhat higher cost, there are the "semi--private" tours, limited to 10 people.
Then there are the private tours. Under the Vatican's new policy, it finally became possible for individuals to have a reserved entrance time, in the period between 8 am and 10 pm. But you could not go in alone. The Vatican required that you go in with a licensed guide of Rome, and you could only do this under an arrangement with one of the tour companies that had made the deal with the Vatican.
But in retrospect, 2007 was a questionable year for the private tours, because the Vatican did not make its policy clear. First there was the discovery that the Vatican planned to limit the number of reservations it gave, so that some people failed to get their reservations for the private tours. Then the Vatican announced that the minimum number of people required for a reservation would be five. Various companies are still offering tours for two people or even one person, based on buying reservations for five people.
The latest is the offer for "VIP" admission to the Vatican Museums by at least two companies prominently advertising on the internet. This is promoted as a way for individuals to gain a reserved entrance time WITHOUT buying a tour or having a guide. But there is nothing we know in Vatican policy to permit this offer. It appears to be a thinly veiled abuse of the Vatican's intent to restrict visits during the period of 8 am to 10 pm to groups. The only way this VIP admission can work, as we see it, is that the tour companies gather individuals at the entrance, have them troop in under the pretense of a group, only to be disbanded inside to roam about alone. Whether and for how long the Vatican will tolerate this will be interesting to observe.
There's no telling what policy changes will be made in 2008. Current Vatican policies have fostered growth of a mini-industry of companies that make questionable claims about their special deals with the Vatican. We continue to be skeptical and on guard about the veracity of some internet offers.
For information directly from the Vatican regarding opening times at the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, please use the following link to the Vatican's own website....
Vatican Museums Information |
