Advance Activity Tickets in Rome, Florence & Venice
 

Does anyone know if I should purchase or reserve any tickets in advance for the major tourist sites in Rome, Florence and Venice during Christmas from 12/24 through 01/01. Should I contact the hotel directly for assistance from now, or purchase on line something? For example we want to visit the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, David in Florence, basically "all" the major tourist sites (the same for Venice). Any advice is appreciated. We will be traveling with our 3 boys, ages 16, 14 & 11. MERCI!

The easiest at this point in time is to ask your hotels to do it for you; most of them are happy to do so.

There are no advance tickets for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. In Rome, you might consider advance tickets for the Galleria Borghese. They can be purchased on line:

http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/einfo.htm

In Florence, reservations can be made by phone by your hotel for the Accademia (David) and the Uffizi.

In Venice, only the "Secret Itineraries" tour of the Doge's Palace requires advance reservations. They can be made by phone by your hotel.

In Venice, advance reservations can also be made on line to visit the Basilica di San Marco.

Search for the threads "Italy - Useful Information" and "Italy - Useful Information II"; I'm sure one or the other gives the URL.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34443340

This will give you a link to the second thread.

Here's the link for booking for San Marco:

http://www.alata.it/eng/BOOKING/sanmarco.asp

Eloise has said it all! I definately would encourage advanced booking for the sites she lists. The lines may be long and three teen boys (even the best behaved ones)would probably be challenged to wait in hour long lines.

Sounds like a great trip!