Thank you!!!! I hadn't realized St. Peter's had a separate website.

So, seeing that the basilica is open until late afternoon, we COULD do it all in one day if we wanted. Scavi tour at 9:15, then the museums until 1pm, then lunch, then St. Peter's.

I think we'll probably do the museums and St. Peter's on the day before the Scavi tour, but it's nice to know we can be a little more flexible.

This year we rented the audio tours and they were surprisingly good. If you can't hook up with a tour group after you Scavi tour, consider these tapes.

You can't go wrong with Context Rome. They're a first rate outfit and their tour guides are very knowledgable. They will ask you what you want to see at the Vatican, then match you with a small goup with similar interests and put together a tour that corresponds with your interests. We used them last Christmas and were very pleased.

Context Rome was a serious consideration for us, but based on a friends recommendation, we decided to try one of Icon tours private guides.

We just got back from 8 soggy days in Italy, four of which were in Rome. We had the absolute best experience at every turn. Our Icon guide was the high point, it was less expensive then Context Rome tours, and we did not have to deal with other people being in our group. Icon does have group tours, but they could not guarantee a specific group size in email.

We spent 3 hours in the Vatican with an American named Douglas . It was miserable waiting in the line in the morning wind & rain, but Douglas managed to get us past the ticket line. We decided to meet with Douglas again the following day for a walk through the city monuments. Lucky for us it only drizzled for this. We have been to Rome 2 times before, and this was the most unforgettable.

The audio guides we had used on previous trips inside the Vatican dont even begin to compare to the experience of having a really good guide who knows the art.