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St. Peter's Basilica


DreneeH
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We want to see the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. We are not so interested in the entire Vatican museum and therefore, we could "speed" through it to get to the chapel. I'm assuming that would mean we should avoid a formal tour, however, tickets for St. Peter's basilica on the same day now seem to be for only 1 time slot (13:00) and we are committed to another tour at that time. Do I look elsewhere for tickets to St. Peter's? the tour we have booked is at 1:15 for the colosseum.

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We want to see the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. We are not so interested in the entire Vatican museum and therefore, we could "speed" through it to get to the chapel. I'm assuming that would mean we should avoid a formal tour, however, tickets for St. Peter's basilica on the same day now seem to be for only 1 time slot (13:00) and we are committed to another tour at that time. Do I look elsewhere for tickets to St. Peter's? the tour we have booked is at 1:15 for the colosseum.

I don't understand - are you looking for a tour of the Basilica? No ticket/specific time slot is required to visit St. Peter's Basilica on your own.

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No ticket required but you may have to queue for a while to get inside. Remember to have your shoulders covered.

Right - you must queue to go through the metal detectors. Shoulders must be covered - also no shorts allowed.

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You will be lucky if you can manage to get through the Vatican Museum quickly. When we were there it was packed as were all the corridors leading up to it. You should also buy a timed entry ticket for the museum online beforehand. We did and were delighted that we had done so, as the queue to get tickets and get in was over half a mile long.

The Vatican Museum is separate from St Peters Basilica and has its own queue to go through security. It took us about half an hour to get to security. We were going to see a friend of ours sing in a choir from the U.K. in a service and luckily gave ourselves plenty of time.

 

 

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If you want to avoid the security line for St Peter's Basilica, book a tour of the Vatican Museum that includes St Peter's. At the end of the Vatican tour you will exit through the right hand door of the Sistine Chapel for tour groups and end up past the security screening area for St Peter's. If you are not on a tour you can try to exit through that door but may not be allowed through.

 

If you exit the regular door on the left from the Sistine Chapel you go back to the front of the Vatican Museum and have to walk a fairly long distance to St Peter's and then go through security again.

 

In October our schedule didn't allow us to combine the two so we had to do St Peter's Basilica separately on our own. We spent 2 1/2 hours waiting to get through security into St Peter's, so avoiding that is a big plus.

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I paid about $15 (prebooked) to skip the line for St. Peter’s basilica. We bypassed the line that went all the way across the square towards the basilica exit. The security line was about 10 minutes and the cupola line was another 10. I figured the regular line would have been 3 hours.

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I paid about $15 (prebooked) to skip the line for St. Peter’s basilica. We bypassed the line that went all the way across the square towards the basilica exit. The security line was about 10 minutes and the cupola line was another 10. I figured the regular line would have been 3 hours.

 

I'm curious where you purchased this ticket? There is no admissions ticket for St. Peter's because entrance is free. Is it some kind of secondary agency that has someone stand in line for you? :confused:

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This site advertises a skip the line ticket with audio guide. https://www.rometoolkit.com/whattodo/vatican_stpeters.htm

 

 

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Thanks Grandma, sounds like an interesting option for quicker entry.

 

Just a side note for anyone considering this -- usually when you rent an audioguide in Rome they will ask you to leave some kind of ID with them as security that you'll return it. I use my driver's license as I wouldn't want to leave my passport. So far it has worked for me (e.g., at the Borghese gallery, at the Altemps museum, etc.)

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We have benn in St Peters multiple times. There is so much to take in that we always spseem to see or notice something that we had previously missed.

 

On one trip we stayed nearby. Our experience was that the lineups thinned out or disappeared entirely by mid/late afternoon. We would occasionally stop by about 3pm or a bit later without any wait. Conversely, the line up would be much longer in AM.

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Can I also ask for more info here???

I am not wanting to see 'The Vatican' so to speak. But would love to see the Sistine Chapel.

How would we go about just seeing the chapel?

All of this seems to be The Vatican Museum, with entry fees, etc.

 

 

We are looking into booking a tour of Rome, the colosseum, etc... Assuming that we could also see the Sistine Chapel at that time?

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Can I also ask for more info here???

I am not wanting to see 'The Vatican' so to speak. But would love to see the Sistine Chapel.

How would we go about just seeing the chapel?

All of this seems to be The Vatican Museum, with entry fees, etc.

 

 

We are looking into booking a tour of Rome, the colosseum, etc... Assuming that we could also see the Sistine Chapel at that time?

 

The Sistine chapel can only be visited as part of a visit to the Vatican museums. As such, you have to make reservations for admission (or a tour) of the Vatican museums + Sistine chapel -- and it is about a 30 minute walk, at the normal museum shuffle, to reach the Sistine chapel from the museum entrance.

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Can I also ask for more info here???

I am not wanting to see 'The Vatican' so to speak. But would love to see the Sistine Chapel.

How would we go about just seeing the chapel?

All of this seems to be The Vatican Museum, with entry fees, etc.

 

You can only see the Sistine Chapel by walking first through the Vatican Museum. No other options unless you are a very high-ranking visiting clergy or dignitary. ;) The only interior parts of the Vatican that can be visited are the museums and the Sistine chapel. So when you say visiting the Vatican, it is the Vatican museum you will see. (And St Peter's, of course, but you don't have to go through the museum to get there.) BTW - the gardens can be visited.

 

You can buy the museum ticket and follow the signs for "Sistine Chapel" and "Short Itinerary" or "Percorso Breve." It is a hike to get there, so you might as well look at the marvelous art along the way.

Edited by marazul
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Just make sure you buy a timed ticket beforehand. When we were there the queues to buy tickets were about half a mile long.

The Vatican is not near the Colisseum, but you may be able to buy a tour to do both. It would be cheaper tho’ to but tickets for both, then get a taxi between the two. Look on Google maps to see where they are in relation to each other.

The Colisseum is next door to the Forum and many tours combine both. The Victorrio Emanuel 11 monument (also known as the ‘Wedding Cake’) is also close to the Colisseum and the Forum.

Another building well worth seeing is the Pantheon.

 

 

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We booked an early morning (first entry) tour of the Sistine Chapel with City Wonders. Supposedly our small group of no more than 20 people get in to the Sistine Chapel when it's empty; 30 minutes prior to any other group, and 90 minutes before general public. We start there. Then they release us into the Vatican Museum. Tour is called "First Entry Sistine Chapel Express and Vatican Museums Entrance Tickets". Our tour is next week.

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We booked an early morning (first entry) tour of the Sistine Chapel with City Wonders. Supposedly our small group of no more than 20 people get in to the Sistine Chapel when it's empty; 30 minutes prior to any other group, and 90 minutes before general public. We start there. Then they release us into the Vatican Museum. Tour is called "First Entry Sistine Chapel Express and Vatican Museums Entrance Tickets". Our tour is next week.

 

Interesting. Let us know how it works out. Thanks.

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We want to see the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. We are not so interested in the entire Vatican museum and therefore, we could "speed" through it to get to the chapel. I'm assuming that would mean we should avoid a formal tour, however, tickets for St. Peter's basilica on the same day now seem to be for only 1 time slot (13:00) and we are committed to another tour at that time. Do I look elsewhere for tickets to St. Peter's? the tour we have booked is at 1:15 for the coliseum.

 

 

Just took a continuing ed class at local community college on traveling in Europe, according to the instructor there is no such thing as speeding through the museum to get to the chapel. The instructor and his family had been there before and wanted to skip most of it and he said it still took at least 45 minutes to get to the chapel. They funnel you through and you follow a predetermined path.. I believe there is no charge to get into the Basilica but there is for the museum. You can get advanced tickets online at www.vaticanstate.va He said allow three hours for the museum.

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Just took a continuing ed class at local community college on traveling in Europe, according to the instructor there is no such thing as speeding through the museum to get to the chapel. The instructor and his family had been there before and wanted to skip most of it and he said it still took at least 45 minutes to get to the chapel. They funnel you through and you follow a predetermined path.. I believe there is no charge to get into the Basilica but there is for the museum. You can get advanced tickets online at www.vaticanstate.va He said allow three hours for the museum.

 

These are the right official websites for tickets:

https://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?weblang=en&do

http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/visita-i-musei/scegli-la-visita.html

The distance from the Museum entrance to the Sistine chapel is about 450 meters or 500 yards. If it is crowded, it would be slow walking. There are predetermined paths according to how many areas of the museum you want to visit. The shortest way is to follow the signs for "Sistine Chapel" and "Short Itinerary" or "Percorso Breve."

 

Here is a map of the museum. Look at page 2.

http://www.museivaticani.va/content/dam/museivaticani/pdf/visita_musei/servizi_visitatori/mappa_musei_vaticani.pdf

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CaribbeanBound...

Please come back and let us know how it works out with your early tour of the Sistine Chapel.

I will be watching for your post!

 

If we limit our time in Rome, I am hoping to be able book a tour to see the Sistine Chapel, and the colosseum, before transferring to the cruise port.

 

Hopefully this is doable.

 

Not sure what other 'musts' we would be missing!!!

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