For those of you who have done the after-hours tour of the Vatican, since the tour doesn't go to all parts of the museum(s), is it recommended to go earlier in the day to visit the rest of it? Do you have to pay two entrance fees if you do?

Thanks!

There's no readmission to the Vatican Museums so if you enter twice you have to pay twice (unless the entrance fee is included in the tour price).

I haven't done the after hours tour so I can't answer your other question since I don't know what the tour covers but not all museums are open all the time and even if you go to the museums earlier in the day you may not be able to see a specific museum.

There's no such thing as "The" after-hours tour, and you really ought to think twice about why you're taking one.

Many tourist companies run shortish - usually two hours - tours of the Vatican Museums after hours for nearly absurd sums. The Vatican Museums are a huge complex of different museums, and you can't possibly see more than a tiny fraction of them in an entire day. Two hours gives you scarcely enough time to walk to Sistine Chapel and back.

At this time of the year, it's hard to see what the point of keeping these companies in business is: you can prebook your ticket online (€14, or about a twentieth of the price the tours charge), get delayed only by the security scanners (which after hours tours subject you to as well), walk at your own pace through the museums and even the Sistine Chapel is currently about as crowded as a normal church on a minor saint's day.

However, at peak times, the Sistine Chapel can get uncomfortably crowded - though some of the less Greatest Hits-style museums are always empty. So the one thing the after hours tours do offer is a nearly-empty chapel.

But you'll see next to nothing else in so short a time. You need to find from the tour company concerned what their itinerary covers, and if there's anything you want to see they're not covering, make separate arrangements to go and see it. Since only you know what you want to see, you need to take a proper guide book, like the Blue Guide, and draw up a list of the things that matter to you. If there are only a few that the private tour doesn't cover, double-check it's worth visiting them separately. Some bits of some museums close from time to time, and some objects are inevitably on loan: you'll currently see a lot of their Etruscan collection in the specialist exhibition at the Palazzo delle Espozizioni for example than in the Museums themselves. And bear in mind that if you do go under your own steam separately, there's a considerable cost in time: you have to take the route march to the Museums' front door, which is convenient to practically nowhere, follow the tortuous pre-set route, have the presence of mind to check nothing into their cloakroom, and take the quick, poorly signed, exit straight from the Sistine Chapel at the end straight into St Peter's Square - thus avoiding the miles back to the entrance and the return route march back from the entrance to civilsation.

Well, as someone that has done the after hours tour with Italy With Us I can tell you it was an amazing experience. I have also done the official Vatican daytime tour. There is simply no comparison.

I did a pretty detailed report on the tour, here is the link...

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...amp;dirtyBit=1

Yes, you will miss parts of the museum, but to sit in the Sistine Chapel, with only about 20 others was amazing. To walk the hallways and not hear the drone of thousands of other people was a totally different experience.

While it is expensive, it was worth every dime, and we are not rich by any means.

dave

OOPS, wrong link, here is the link to the report...

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35099168

"The" after-hours tour I was referring to was the one that Dave and a couple other members have posted raving reviews about.

Thanks for the info.

d149, you will probably see my info on the after-hours tour I took as well (the same as Dave). But in direct response to flanneruk, as an art aficionado, the private tour was a dream -- to be one of about 20 people in the Sistine Chapel, in front of Raphael's frescoes, in the map and tapestry corridors. I had been to the Vatican Museums about 6 years ago and it was horrid, bumper to bumper with thousands of other people everywhere we turned in the museum, especially the Sistine Chapel. It was a pretty negative experience overall, with crowding and noise I could barely think over, let alone appreciate the art. The Louvre on a free admission Sunday is a cake-walk compared to what I experienced then.

On the after-hours tour, I was actually able to stroll about, take in the ceiling and frescoes from every conceivable angle, and enjoy what I was seeing to my heart's content, without the crowding, rudeness and other unpleasantness of my trip years ago.

I did not get to see the Pinacoteca, which I would have to return for later (and pay a separate entrance fee), but I did not find the fee for the after hours tour excessive for the unlimited, private access and exquisite enjoyment I got to one of the grandest museums in the world.

Hi debrad, while I haven't (yet) taken an after-hours tour in the Vatican Museum, I think it's a brilliant idea.

I have visited the museums perhaps 10 times over the years, most recently last January when there were very few people around. It really was remarkable to spend time in a quiet, calm Sistine Chapel -- that experience was so much more rewarding than previous visits during more conventional visiting hours, when the Sistine Chapel can get extremely noisy and hectic.

So if it's important to you and you can swing an after-hours tour, I think the experience would be fantastic. And if you can visit the Vatican museums more than once, I think that's also a good approach (although you definitely have to pay each time you re-enter the complex!)

The museums really are enormous and -- with or without an organized tour -- I'm not sure it's possible to absorb more than few hours' worth of its artistic wealth in any single visit without overloading your system.

There were about 40 people in the Sistine Chapel - and no queues at any ticket desk or in any of the museums - after I paid €14 to enter the museums last week.

That's why debrad needs to think twice. At busy times of the year, avoiding thousands of people might well be worth hundreds of euros. Last week, there was absolutely no point in doing anything except take our own time, with a decent guide book, spending as much of the day as we wanted wandering round blissfully empty museums.

Assuming the museums are always jampacked is a great way of throwing lots of money down the drain.

FlannerUK, it goes beyond that. Having a private guide like Chris Longhurst to point out the intricacies, to answer any kind of question, to discuss the stories behind the art. No guide book can do that.

Yes, there are times when the crowds thin considerably, but never to the point to where it is almost vacant. What happens normally in the Sistine if you talk? The guards are busy clapping and yelling "No Talking, No Pictures". Not so on the after hours tour. Does a guide book point out the minute details of a tapestry or painting? Does it weave the story of Raphael? I don't think so.

With that type of thought, why go at all? You can look at a photograph and see the same stuff.



dave