Making museum reservations.....question
 

I know you can make reservations for the various attractions (Uffizi, Accademia, Vatican, etc) in Italy, but can you make reservations at the same time to take an English-speaking tour of these places? I have been advised that it is best to view these places using a guide......any advice is appreciated!

Stacey

I have been twice in both the Accademia, twice in the Uffizi and three times in the Vaticna museums without any guide, and never felt the need for any. You might like the audioguides.

There are no reservations for the Vatican Museums, to the best of my knowledge. It's a big place; 200 people can be in line between you and the front door, and you can still enter within ten minutes.

Best wishes,

Rex

I would agree.

I would suggest reading ahead in your tour book, or perhaps a little general history about the Renaissance and ancient Rome.

I read Sister Wendy's European Grand Tour: I believe she covered the two Botticelli and the Michelangelo Holy Family at the Uffizi, the Laoccoon at the Vatican, and a few sculptures at the Borghese Gallery in Rome. Gave the Greek myths and her reflections.

Let me suggest that for the Vatican you do use the audio guide, and not take a group tour offered by one of the Vatican's own guides. (Inside the front door, when you buy tickets, there is a window for Guided Tours.) When I did that, the guide raced us through, he spoke too low (couldn't be heard over the ambient noise of the place) and his English was poor.

I've read many posts warning against taking a tour of the Vatican Museums with one of their own guides.

Most often, tours are booked with other organizations. Some of the companies offering tours of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's are Context Rome (generally acknowledged to be the best, but expensive), Icon, Through Eternity (I think...) and a number of others.

If you put <"Rome" "tour"> (without the arrows) in the search box, you will find many threads with many companies described.

Context Rome now also operates as Context Florence and probably offers tours of the Uffizi. A tour of the Accademia would, I think, be overkill. Basically, there are Michaelangelo's David and his unfinished Slaves; the rest of the collection is of secondary importance.

Here is one current thread that names a number of tour companies in Rome:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34709800

For the Vatican museums, we did a Through Eternity tour and the guide was excellent. The tour included St Peter's as well, and was almost the entire day.

We didn't have time in Florence for the Uffizi, but we did make reservations for the Accademia (a must) and didn't feel the need for a guide.