1. If you book the official Vatican museum tour which takes around two hours, do they allow you to browse a little longer or do they send you to the exit?
2. Have anyone joined the Vatican and the Vatican Gardens and Sistine Chapel tour which lasted for three hours with tourguide?

Hi goplan

so far as i am aware, once you are inside the museums, with any tour, [apart probably from the very expensive private ones, when you'd want to stick with them anyway, having paid so much] you can go your own way.

however, it was VERY difficult to backtrack because of the no of people, and once inside the sistine chapel, you can't go back.

if you want, you can use the door at the back of the sistine chapel to exit [almost] straight into st. peter's without having to walk all the way back round the walls and joining the security queue. but you can't do this if you've rented an audio-guide as this has to be returned to the desk where you rented it.

there was a report about the tour of the gardens a while ago. I seem to remember that the participants were somewhat underwhelmed, but felt that it was a unique experience, so worthwhile on the whole. it only runs from May to ? [or did when i was looking at doing it].

regards, ann

Maybe things have changed since I was last there, but when last I was in the Sistine, I told a guard that I needed to go eat something and buy a book in the bookstore, and then wanted to return. He told me it would be fine. I ate in the cafeteria (pretty good, by the way) and bought the book, and just made my way back to the Sistine.
But again, maybe rules have changed.

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hi elaine,

what you describe may be true in theory, but the crowds, all moving in the same direction, would make it impossible.

I was very disappointed with the way in which we were herded like so many cattle through the galleries. perhaps we were just unlucky. we did go to the cafe after we'd seen the picture gallery, and it was one of the best bits!

regards, ann

regards, ann

We are going in May and the Vatican garden will look good in spring. I so want to go with the garden and museum package. It cost a few euros more to do this package.
However, I also want to stay longer to browse in the museum. Just no sure solution.

You have to organize tickets for the tours of the Gardens in advance. They are limited and when we were there did only one tour per day. We (the group was limited to 20 I believe) drove to the high point and then walked down from there. I'm not much on gardens, but they were pretty (we wanted the Scavi tour but were not there on the right day).

My highlight was seeing an ancient chapel in which a Roman principesa (I guess) was being married. It was the same chapel in which, in 800, Charlemagne grabbed the crown from the hands of the Pope and crowned himself Holy Roman Emperor - thus gaining the Emperorship without technically owing fealty to the Pope.

Great fun if you're a history buff. But the tour guide was focussed on the gardens and didn't know what I was talking about. (The sign on the chapel was in Italian only.)

The Vatican Gardens and Sistine Chapel tour is for groups only. I don't think they offer it for individuals. You have to book two separate tours.
http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-In...zi_Visite.html

We didn't have any problem wandering the museum after viewing the Sistine Chapel. We took a break in the cafeteria and stayed another two hours. I think many people just follow the crowds and don't veer off to view other things.

Hello kybourbon,
We are visiting Rome early May and have the Scavi tour booked. I am very tempted not to book the Vatican museum and just go line up at 12 or 1pm and take the whole afternoon visiting the museum. They close at 6pm in 2008. I am taking chances and hopefully the lines are not too long.
Is not booking a feasible one in this case?

With the change in Vatican hours and admittance rules this year, I don't think you can predict which times will be the least crowded. Last year's attempt at controlling crowds by only allowing tours in from 8-10 didn't work. The food in the cafeteria is decent if you need a break/lunch while touring the museum.

Hi, We went on the official Vatican Museum tour last April. My DH and 9 year old son were very resistant to the idea but ended up enjoying themselves. You are given headsets to listen to the guide and then give them back right outside the Sistine Chapel. The tour ends there and you are free to spend as much time as you want in the Chapel. After we left the Chapel we spent several hours in the museum visiting the areas not covered by the tour; the Pinacoteca, Egyptian section, etc. We found many areas of the museum uncrowded. We also had a snack in the cafe and mailed postcards.
We were all happy to have taken the tour and skip the long lines. We had been to Rome 4 times before and always balked at standing in the lines with our kid. He has a strange phobia of lines!
I hope you find this useful.

Hello Y_lou,
Many many thanks for your posts. You answer is exactly what I need to know, ie, that we are allowed to go back and visit some of the areas not covered by the tour.
The question for you is: do you go a different way to the other parts of the museum or do you have to go back into the Sistine chapel and against all the tides of people coming into Sistine Chapel?

I did a tour and then we left the Sistene chapel by a door right at the back on the left hand side, (facing the rear of the chapel) which led back into the museum. No fighting

there is basically one way traffic pattern to and a one way traffic pattern from the Sistine chapel. If you look at a map of the museums, they are set in a rectangular pattern with the Sistine chapel and Raphael rooms at the end nearest St. Peter's (and farthest from the entrance. Once you get back to the entrance area you can see other sections like the picture gallery (highly recommended)

While there is basically a one-way traffic pattern, it doesn't mean you can't veer off into other rooms. We didn't have to return to the entrance after the Sistine Chapel. The rest of our group took the shortcut exit to St. Peter's from the Sistine Chapel, but we stayed. It really wasnt a problem and we just wandered the museum and looked at what we wanted. It seems most of the tour groups really just trek towards the Sistine Chapel.

Thanks folks for showing me the way out and back into the museum.

an area of the museum that we visited that was almost empty was the modern art section. It is at the far end near the Sistine Chapel and we went there to try to see a painting my son was interested in. A nice break from the crowds.