Scavi Tour, Vatican Tour

The Sistine Chapel is in the Vatican Museums. You can't enter it without musuem entrance. Schedule your museum tour for after lunch.
http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-Info/MV_Info_Servizi_Visite.html

If you schedule a late enough tour of the museum, you will have time to tour St. Peter's after the Scavi tour as you can enter without going through security lines. As you are leaving the Scavi tour, just go up the steps into St. Peter's instead of exiting through the barrier.

You can't see the Sistine Chapel before the Scavi tour.

After the Scavi tour, you can visit St. Peter's Basilica (without a guide) without going through the security line. Then grab a bite to eat and take the 2 pm Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel tour. It's actually better this way, as the museums are slightly less crowded in the afternoon.

In my initial inquiry for Scavi reservations for this May I wrote that I was taking a morning tour of the Vatican museums and Sistine Chapel from 8am to noon, and preferred an afternoon reservation.

They wrote back and offered me a tour at 9:30am

Since they get so many emails, they most likely had looked at my bullet points (date, number of people, etc.) and replied very quickly (within 4 hours). So, as politely as I could I sent another email asking if any afternoon tours were available. The next morning I received a reply with a 3:30 reservation.

Since its so far ahead, I would email back as politely as you could and see if you can get a later tour. That is assuming you haven't already paid and confirmed the time.

keep the tour you have and take Zerlina's advice. Take your time in St Peter's and as she said, do the Museum tour in the mid afternoon. By all means do a good bit of research on what you'll be seeing. There is an overwhelming amount of history to experience and you'll enjoy it most if you've learned details of what you're viewing. Good luck!

kybourbon- We are aware that the Sistine Chapel is part of the Vatican. I thought, perhaps, that if we purchased tour tickets through the Vatican that they might allow us to see the Sistine Chapel first (since so many people opt to go there first in order to truly appreciate the Chapel before the huge crowds arrive.

Zerlina and kybourbon- That is great to know that we can go to the Basilica after the Scavi tour. Would you recommend that we have a guide /or audio guide?

Abendenek- We also heard back from the reservation office within several hours. I very respectfully sent a second email requesting the afternoon time slot and they responded..ONLY TIME. So, we sent payment and confirmed the time.

Clayman- We are definitely doing alot of research ahead of time and are not sure how much of it we will be able to absorb!

Thanks for the suggestions...feel better about the time slot that we received.

If you don't mind, I have another question. Some of you may have read a previous thread of mine regarding our arrival into Rome on May 1st. We unfortunately didn't know that it was a holiday. We have decided to take the train to Venice upon our arrival. Assuming that our plane arrives at 9:30am and we are able to just have carryon luggage, how much time should we allow to get to the train station? There were different opinions as to whether we should make reservations for the Eurostar. If you miss the train, will they allow you to take the next train providing that seating is available? I read somewhere that the tickets are much cheaper when purchased ahead of time as opposed to buying the tickets at the station. Is that correct information? Thanks for the responses.

May the 1st is an european holiday. You can buy the ES train ticket also few minutes before the departure if the seat is available, and the price is the same as you reserve in advance. It is different for the New "High performance" Trains like the "FrecciaRossa". they do, for those trains, something similar at a "lowcoast" Air Company. They do special offers if you reserve tickets very in advance. Anyway I suggest you to book the train for that date, because it is the worker feast and it is possible (i'm not sure) that the train traffic will be restricted.

The trains shown at www.trenitalia.com for May 1 will run.

As far as I can tell, Trenitalia is not offering the Mini fare for any Rome-Venice train on May 1, so the only advantage in buying online is that you are assured a seat. You can buy the ticket from Fiumicino Airport to Venice; the earliest I would suggest is the departure from FCO at 11:37 am.

>>>I thought, perhaps, that if we purchased tour tickets through the Vatican that they might allow us to see the Sistine Chapel first (since so many people opt to go there first in order to truly appreciate the Chapel before the huge crowds arrive. <<<

The Sistine Chapel is quite a trek from the entrance. You don't just walk in the museum and enter it. Unless you are among the first people entering for the day and make a beeline (there's a route of sorts you must take) for the Chapel, you will not avoid the crowds in the mornings.

If you purchase tour tickets from the Vatican, you will be on a tour with a tour guide. They won't adjust their tour just for you.

We are also booked on the Scavi Tour for Tuesday, May 10th but we have an 11:00am time slot (English speaking tour). Thought at first we might be on the same tour, as I understood they only do 2 English speaking tours per day. We'll certainly be in the same area on the same day.

We got the same 10am time slot. We booked a Vatican tour with Presto Tours at 1pm for the same day. The tour covers the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums and St Peter's Basilica. We are just going to eat some lunch and rest between the Scavi Tour and our Vatican Tour with presto tours.