We thought the Castello had some of the most interesting history (nearly 2000 years) of any sight in Rome. Tomb to military fortress to papal fortress to papal residence to prison, appearance in Puccini's Tosca, military baracks and now museum, with lots of plots and intrigue along the way.>>

there we have it vivi - boring monument with a good view, or fascinating monument encapsulating 2000 years of Roman history.

you choose!

Haha Thanks for the info everyone!

You'll be pleased with your revised hotel location. I stayed at the Boutique Trevi Hotel last New Year's. Very easy to get to all the sights from there and perfect for ending the evening with a gelato and enjoy the fountain.

Thank you hollywoodsc, I think I will be too!

Do I need to book a vatican museum ticket or will the Scavi tour allow me access to those?? Just a little confused, can someone explain that to me please??

The Scavi Tour will allow you to skip the often times long security line into St. Peter's Basilica but no help with the Vatican Museums.

Either prebooking tickets thru the Vatican or joining a tour helps avoiding the line (someone can likely offer more info on this).

Also (don't quote me on this I've only seen this off-season) the line disappears in the afternoon and you can walk right in.

Alot of info and links on this thread http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...y-location.cfm

>>>Do I need to book a vatican museum ticket or will the Scavi tour allow me access to those?? Just a little confused, can someone explain that to me please??<<<

The Scavi is underneath St. Peter's. The museums are a good 15 minute walk from St. Peter's. To reach the Scavi office, you exit the piazza at #3 on this map and the office is #28. The museum entrance is not even on this map. To reach the museum entrance you would exit the piazza at #8, walk down Via di Porta Angelica and turn left on Viale Vaticano.

http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Exter...quare-Area.htm

You can see the museum entrance (marked by red arrow) and streets on this map.

http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Pics/...n-area-map.jpg

vivi - to make it even clearer, at the end of the Scavi tour you can gain entry to St. Peter's without going through security again.

entry to the Vatican museums [the only way to get into the sistine chapel unless you're a cardinal] is entirely separate and you have to walk a long way round the side of the walls of the Vatican away from the front of St. Peter's to get to the museum entrance.

the only point they have in common is that there is a door at the back of the sistine chapel [which is the point of the museums furthest away from the entrance and can take several hours to reach is you look at all the exhibits thoroughly - or get lost like we did] which if open you can use to get down into St. Peter's without walking all the way back round the walls and going through security again.

entry tickets for the scavi tour and for the museums are entirely separate.

You should eat at Ciccia Bomba when you visit the Piazza Navona area. It was one of my best meals when I was in Europe.

Thank you for clarifying the Vatican info for me everyone!

@JillDavis- I will have to check that restaurant out!

Have you looked into ViaTor (http://www.viator.com/)? My travel agent suggested this to us before we went to Italy with another tour a few years ago. We were able to book a supplemental tour of the Uffizi museum in Florence with a special behind the scenes tour of the Vasari Corridor (normally off limits to the public). The tour was great and the price very reasonable.

Also, the map room at the Vatican is amazing, but don't worry about trying to capture it all with a camera. They sell books with fantastic photos of the paintings and sculptures in the map room for about 20 Euros.

A good read before you go is "The Vatican Diaries" by John Thavis. He was the Catholic News Service Bureau Chief in Rome and travelled with Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. To read the behind the scenes info was amazing (not a dirt filled book, but rather a fact filled treat) and incredibly informative.