Vatican City: Tours & Tickets

Our guide did an excellent job both in setting expectations about crowds and waits and rules, and also in sharing his extensive knowledge in an interesting way. He was terrific!! The tour meeting experience was also great — the tour company had a clear place to meet, clear check in process, etc. No stress trying to find the guide. Excellent. We did feel a little jammed and rushed in the Vatican but that was clearly out of everyone’s control.,.. so many people in small spaces ... but Arnaldo helped us thru that as well as possible !

I loved my visit to the Vatican museum. I thought it as going to be all about the Renaissance, and it was, but it was much more. The teasing way they presented contemporary art on the last leg of the trek through history and archaeology to the Sistine Chapel was a surprise. The signs kept saying Capella Sistina but there was hall after hall of 20th and 21st-century art that was surprising and beautiful. There was art from many of the greats and it was inspiring to see them take on traditional religious subjects in new and exciting ways. Of course, when you enter the Sistine everything else in your life seems small and insignificant, including the art you've just been looking at for half an hour or more. But when I looked back I was impressed because this is the art I can and do myself.

Thoroughly enjoyed the show. Was excellent how immersed in the story the performance makes you feel. Was brilliant to see close up all the elements of the chapel and to have them explained. I felt I could appreciate visiting the Sistine Chapel so much more after having the benefit of all I had learned as part of the performance. You need to exchange your voucher for a ticket at the box office which the security guard kindly explained as this wasn't very clear on the booking. You also need to leave a deposit for the headsets but this was easy enough. All in all the show was very well organised. Would highly recommend going to see this show and I'd happily watch it again.

We booked a time slot and were running about 5 mins late, in our panic of not being sure we’re we were going we met a very helpful guide at the gates of the St Peters....we thought. She told us because we were 5 mins late they wouldn’t let us in and she brought us to her office within the Vatican City tours to purchase more tickets, she kept saying look you can try but in 11yrs I’ve worked here I’ve never seen them let late comers in even if it’s only 5 mins. Thankfully my husband was more wary than me and we decided to proceed to the entrance by this stage we were now 35mins late, but there were no issues at all, we were granted entry without any diffficulty. Can you please post this to prevent people being duped into spending almost €90 on tickets they don’t need.

We visited on a very hot day so skipping the long ticket queue was a big bonus. The museums are very interesting but also very busy. We took a picnic and plenty of water and ate outside in the gardens. There are some long galleries with amazing ceilings but as we approached the Sistene Chapel the crowd got very congested. The Chapel ceiling is a wonder to behold. Overall An enjoyable visit.