best time to visit Vatican Museums
 

Hi everyone,

My husband and I will be in Rome May 11 and 12th.

Our plan was to visit the Vatican Museums and St. Peters on Tuesday morning. Is early morning better than noon or the afternoon?

I've searched the forum and opinions seems to be divided between morning and afternoon.

Also, would it be better to do the museum first then St. Peters or the reverse.

Thanks for your help. This forum has been a great resource for me as I plan our trip to Italy.

Carmelita

I don't have an answer for whether morning or afternoon is best, but I know that the Enjoy Rome tours were scheduled for afternoon because the lines were supposed to be less long.

In my opinion you are better off visiting the museums and then St. Peter's. It is a long walk between the two unless you exit the Vatican Museums through the door on the right as you leave the Sistine Chapel. This is supposed to be for guided tours only, but you can wait for a tour to leave and follow along. This will leave you right outside the entrance to St. Peter's without having to go through security to get in.

I wondered the same thing as you, Carmelita, before we visited Rome last September. As it turned out, we overslept on the day we had planned to go to the Vatican Museums, so we didn't get there until lunch time. I noted in my journal that we arrived at 12:23 pm and it took exactly three minutes to buy our tickets and another one minute to pass through the turnstile. Maybe that was dumb luck on our part, but whenever we return, we're going at 12:23 pm!

We did St. Peter's afterward and that worked out well. Wear comfortable shoes; you'll need them. Also, you might want to buy some of the beautiful postcards at the Vatican gift shop. You can mail them with Vatican stamps at the post office there--very special--but be sure to bring your address list with you. We forgot and I had to rely on my somewhat iffy memory!

We arrived at about noon and the lines were horrific. It was during Spring break, though. We went around to the back and went through the Vatican museum and from there snaked our way to the Cistine Chapel and St. Peters. I would look at the situation and see if it is better to arrive through the back entrance. It is a long walk through the museum. If you were going there anyway... no problem.

We were in Rome in March this year. After driving by the Vatican the day of our arrival around 9 AM and seeing the horrific line, our limo driver told us that we should go at lunch time because less people go then. We went on a Thursday around 12:30-1:00 and we just literally walked in and bought our tickets. No line. I would avoid going on a Saturday and also on a Monday because other museums are closed that day so you're liable to find more people in vatican Museum.