So I will be in Rome for 4 days in the middle of June and sent an email to the Scavi office 90 days out from our visit. I have not heard back from them and was wondering if I should contact them back or wait until our visit gets closer? Anybody else never heard back from them?

It took at least a month for me to hear back from them. I had finally assumed that I wasn't going to be taking the tour when I finally got an e-mail 2-3 weeks ago that I did get a place on a tour in early June.

Have you looked in your Junk or Spam folder? Some ISPs route replies there.

I sent in a request last fall. Nothing. I emailed again about a month ago. Nothing. I emailed again 2 days ago & actually got an automated reply. Not a booking, just an autoreply. This time I asked for English or Hungarian . . . my wife can translate . . . worth a shot . . .

We will be there in 3 weeks & no booking yet.

Ian

I heard back about a week and a half before our trip. (we leave on Friday and our tour is on that Monday) It seems to be how they do things...

We heard in a couple weeks, but we were at a very slow time of year. I'd inquire again if I were you.

I would email or even call. I just made reservations last week for a group in July and it took about 1 week to hear back. However, I have also emailed them on occasion for a small group (>4) and they never respond. I get the sense that booking smaller than a full tour is not worth their effort. Good luck. Here is the number. They speak English (limited -so talk slow)

Mr. Paolo Parrotta
Responsabile Ufficio Scavi
Fabbrica di San Pietro
00120 Città del Vaticano (Europa)
E-mail [email protected] <mailto[email protected]> ; [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Tel 0039 06 6988 5318
Fax 0039 06 698 73017

I sent them an email for reservations from my yahoo account and never heard anything back (not even in my spam folder), then someone on this forum suggested I try from a gmail account, which I did, and I heard back the next day.

Well I sent them another email with my gmail account. I will call them the beginning of June if I don't hear back. It is good to know that I am not the only one with problems booking the tour. I never even received an autoreply last time I emailed them.

I requested a reservation at the end of March for July 3 or 4. I did get the autoreply but nothing else since then. I have a hotmail account.

I have a gmail account and while I got the autoreply right away, I still had a long wait to finally learn that I had a space on a tour.

I will call tomorrow & report back with results. Thanks for the #s.

Ian

Poor Paolo Parrotta! The man works like a fiend - I got my Scavi confirmation four years ago in an e-mail sent on a Saturday evening from his home computer and e-mail address - and he still gets abused in the Fodors forums!

I received a autoreply this time! Hopefully that is a good sign.

An update:

A confirmation email arrived this morning & we have reservations for Monday, May 24 @ 11:15AM. In Hungarian though, so I guess I rely on my wife for translation.

Ian

Fascinating tour. We did it last year. Entrance is to the left of the steps at St. Peters. You line up and wait for the Swiss guards to let you in.

One thing we did a couple of years ago, and without knowing, where we exactly were in the basement of St. Peters is to do the tour of the Tombs of the Papi.

I only mention this, because at the end of the Scavi tour you will be at a capella that has side lights directly into the burial of sight show to you on the other tour. While I don't think it really matters which tour you do first, we did the tombs tour first. I was surprised later to find out just where we were in relation to the tombs, the altar et.al.

All I can say is Wow, what a history lesson.

Well I got my official confirmation for the tour I want in mid-June! I think the first time I emailed too early, about 100 days out. I would advise to wait to about 2 months before.

Someone helpfully noted above that they never heard back to a reservation request from a yahoo account. The same thing happened to me. I sent requests from both yahoo and gmail accounts five months before my trip and got no response at all. When I sent a request from an aol account, I got an automatic response back immediately and a confirmation within a month. The lesson: if you don't get an auto response, try another email account.