We are wanting to climb the dome during our Vatican tour, which begins with the Vatican Museum->Sistine Chapel->St. Peter's Basilica.
I seemed to recall that there was a place to join the queue right after leaving the Sistine Chapel.
Can someone direct me in where to proceed? Don't want to have to backtrack and wait to reenter.

I'm thinking we may want to take the elevator to the higher starting point to save time since we're sneaking away from our group and hope to rejoin them later. Will this have a shorter wait as well?

If you're on a tour that includes St. Peter's Basilica, you'd want to tour the Basilica before joining the queue for the dome, wouldn't you?

There is an exit from the Sistine Chapel, which takes you to St Peter's without exiting and getting in line. I remember it as being on the left side, as you are approaching the wall with the exits.

It saved us so much time, and we didn't have to stand outside in the sun, waiting to get into St Peter's.

We did not climb the dome, so don't know about that.

<bvlenci on Feb 6, 17 at 12:03pm
If you're on a tour that includes St. Peter's Basilica, you'd want to tour the Basilica before joining the queue for the dome, wouldn't you?>
We've already been through the Vatican museum twice, so we're thinking of immediately doing the dome climb & catch up with our group @ St Peter's.
(but stopping at the Sistine chapel, which I'll never tire of)

<Tabernash2 on Feb 6, 17 at 12:16pm
There is an exit from the Sistine Chapel, which takes you to St Peter's without exiting and getting in line. I remember it as being on the left side, as you are approaching the wall with the exits.>
That's what I'm talking about. I recall taking the tour group exit out of the Sistine chapel and entering the side entrance to St Peter's.
I believe in the courtyard between the 2, there was a second entrance to climb the dome that avoided the longer line in the basilica.
Can anyone confirm?

When you use the group exit (I believe on the right with the Last Judgment at your back) from the Sistine Chapel, you exit down a flight of steps virtually next to the line to the dome. I would be very skeptical about being able to time this to meet up with your group inside St Peter's. What if the dome line is slow moving? What if the tour guide is fast moving?

In my experience, the shorter line is for those who are climbing from ground level to the roof. The elevator has the long line, it may be the same wait as climbing all the way. It all depends how crowded it is the day you visit.

You can't visit the Sistine Chapel without going through the Vatican Museum; it's at the very end of the itinerary, and will be the last stop on the guided tour. After that, the tour will pass to the Basilica, using the door that leads directly to the Basilica. (This door is supposed to be used only by tour groups, but often the guards don't check. If you're not with a tour group, you may or may not be able to use it.)

There's no way you can "stop at the Sistine Chapel" without going through the Museums. You could try to catch up with the tour group at the Sistine Chapel, then visit the Basilica and climb the dome. However, given the enormous crowds in the Museums, I wouldn't count on being able to move quickly through the crowd. You'd better just stick with the tour group.

Another possibility would be to not get a group tour, which is a bit of a waste of money if you're not interested in the Museums. There are several ways you can do this.

<b>First </b>, you could get the "early entrance with breakfast" offered by the Vatican. This would allow you to enter the Museums at 7:15, have breakfast (which I've heard is not very good), and head directly to the Sistine Chapel before the hordes arrive. Then, you could try to use the "tour" door to go directly to the Basilica. The visits to the dome begin at 8 AM, and by the time you get there, they should have started, and I doubt there would be a long queue at that hour. You can tour the Basilica after climbing the dome.

https://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va...ita=175&step=2

If they don't let you use the tour door, you'll have to go back to the entrance, which you wanted to avoid; as long as you leave the Sistine Chapel by 8:30, you still should get to the Dome queue before the crowds arrive.

Don't rent the audio tour offered by the Vatican, because you definitely have to go back to the entrance to turn that in. There are better audio guides to the Sistine Chapel available online, including some that have visuals you can see on your phone or tablet. I'm pretty sure you can also find some for the Basilica. I can't recommend any of these, as I've always used a plain old guide book.

<b>Second</b>, if you're willing to skip the Sistine Chapel, you could arrive at the Basilica at 7, when it opens, and when there won't be a line. Then you could be the first in line for the Dome climb. If you see a line beginning to form, you could take turns waiting in it, but I seriously doubt there will be much of a line before 9 AM.

<b> Finally </b> you could just buy tickets online for the Vatican Museums, which would allow you to skip the line and visit the Museums at your own pace. If you get tickets for a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon at 3 PM (the last visit possible on the least crowded days), you should be able to get to the Sistine Chapel very quickly. The last visit to the Dome is at 6 PM (from April through October) and 5 PM at other times. If you can use the tour door exit from the Sistine Chapel, which is more likely to be possible in the afternoon than in the early morning, you will get to the Dome queue at a time when probably the number of people would be less. From April to October the Basilica is often until 7 PM. You would have time for a quick look at the Basilica; I don't know how long the visit to the Dome takes. This option is a bit riskier, because the time is short, and if you can't use the tour door, you may not have enough time for all you want to do.

I forgot to include the web site for ordering simple tickets online (Open tour of Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel). This is not really a tour, although you can rent an audio guide. As I said above, you have to backtrack to the entrance to turn in the audio guide, so I would look for a guide you can download on the internet.

http://www.museivaticani.va/content/...a-sistina.html

Thanks for the info.
I think we'll be able to do a version of the final option you presented.
We will be part of a tour group that will start early morning. My plan: As soon as our group enters the Vatican museum, jump ahead and go immediately to the Sistine chapel, stay there long enough to take it in, and then exit the tour group door and go right to the dome.
After descending the dome, we hope to find our group still in the basilica.
We're comfortable with catching up with them later if the timing is off as well.

I would count on half an hour to get to the Sistine Chapel, unless you're on one of the tours that enter before 9 AM (when the general admission begins). Then half an hour to visit the Chapel and get to the queue for the lift to the Dome. Maybe half an hour in line for the lift? After that, the visit to the Dome is supposed to take about an hour on average. That's a total of 2 1/2 hours. I would want to spend at least a little time in the Basilica, even if your tour group is no longer there. You may not be able to find your tour group even if they are there, because it's a huge space, and rather crowded, although not as badly crowded as the Vatican Museums.

Just for your information, here's what the Vatican Museums was like the last time I was there, on a Saturday morning in March (low season).

https://get.google.com/albumarchive/...U63A6NYjE_rnpY

I can't see anyone making their way quickly down that corridor.

Reporting back:
Here's what we wound up doing:
*Our group had a scheduled entrance with guided tour.
*After security, we skipped waiting for a headset & went immediately to the Vatican Museum.
*POLITELY battled the crowd and make it through the packed hallway, stopping for a few of our favorites, but arrived at the Sistine Chapel in about 20 minutes (like bvlenci's pic, it's shoulder to shoulder the entire time)
*After a pause in the Sistine Chapel, exited the group exit and the queue for climbing the dome is directly beneath the exit stairs into the courtyard.
*Remarkable short wait to climb the dome, took our time and stopped for coffee @ the rooftop café on our way down
*Roamed St Peter's (mass was in progress)
*We finished and beat our tour group, who didn't climb the dome, but had to endure a slow, congested through the Vatican museum.

Worked perfect for us! Thanks to those here who helped with the planning.