We plan to book a morning tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel through the Vatican. Afterwards, we will check out St. Peter's. Will it be possible to return to the Sistine Chapel later that same day to view it on our own without a guide? Thanks.

No. Once you exit the museum, you can't reenter. The Sistine Chapel is in the museum and can only be accessed by paying for entrance to the museum.

Thanks for the quick response. So at the end of the tour it will be possible to reenter the chapel and other parts of the Vatican museum complex as long as we don't exit them and enter St. Peter's Square?

Many museums allow re-entry. You may be able to do this with the Vatican Museums. You may have to get your hand stamped first, or show your ticket, or something like that.

You may not need to do that, however. When we took a Vatican tour of the Vatican Museums, the tour ended in the Sistine Chapel, and the guide left us there, so we could spend as much time as we wanted in the Sisten Chapel, before we left there and went into St. Peter's.

hi scout,

as I understand it, once you're in, you can stay as long as you like. once you get to the sistine chapel, you can either exit via the door on the right at the back which goes into St. Peter's, or take the door on the left which goes back into the museum. there's a cafe and restaurant [and pizzeria I think] inside the museum if you want to eat. no reason why you shouldn't go back into the museum, have a snack or a meal, and then go back into the sistine chapel.

if you have the energy!

Thanks very much, everyone!

Actually after you leave the museum complex - which houses the Sistine Chapel you can't go back in. St Peter's is in a different boundaried "zone" if you will, than the museum complex and there is no "hand stamping" or readmittance that occurs once you leave the museum complex.

You can circle back out of the Sistine back to the rest of the Vatican Museum to see other rooms, use the restroom, visit the cafeteria or bookstore, and then go back to the Sistine if you like. But as stated, once you leave the museum building (which you'd be doing if going to St Peter's), you're out.