Vatican for elderly
 

Hello!

I am traveling to Rome in September and I'm taking my mother along. She is 72 years old and cannot walk more than 200 meters without taking a rest. She also needs to sit down quite often. I would love to visit the Vatican museums and Saint Peter's Basilica, but not sure how we are going to visit most of the Vatican sights. As I understand, it is quite a walk through the museums if you want to visit the Sistine Chapel.

I was thinking about hiring an individual tour guide, who would walk with our pace and would be willing to stop often. Not sure if I can find someone like that... they will probably charge a fortune for such an arrangement?

Do you know if they have some sort of electric cars or some other forms of transportation for elderly or disabled individuals?

Any advice would be highly appreciated!

I'd rent a wheel chair

http://www.sagetraveling.com/Sistine...isabled-Access

I'd rent a wheelchair, too, but problem is she'll then be at butt-level with about a million other people and won't be able to see much. I would google for private, after-hours tours.

Wheelchairs are free at the Vatican museums, you can reserve online in advance. No, they don't allow electric cars inside the museum or Sistine chapel. In fact, I've never seen an electric car inside any museum in the world (I presume that means those electric scooter things people may use in a grocery store or on the sidewalk).

I don't really understand your need for a tour guide, they have audioguides and if you DIY, you can stop whenever you want.

Here is the link for reserving wheelchairs at the Vatican Museums:

http://www.romecabs.com/transferservice/civitavecchia/

You should definitely get the wheelchair, because the crowds inside are tremendous, and even finding a place to sit is a problem. I wouldn't take a tour, because they are all two hours of more, and just being inside with the crowd and the heat might be very uncomfortable for that amount of time.

The wheelchairs are only for the Vatican Museums. I don't think there are any for St. Peter's Basilica. At the Basilica, you would have a fairly can go to the head of the security queue if your mother is disabled. I don't think they require proof, but if she uses a cane, that should be enough proof. In fact, even if she doesn't normally use one, you might want to get her a seat/cane combination like one of the following:

http://www.amazon.com/Folding-cane-c.../dp/B006JPYVRI
http://justwalkers.com/canes/seat-canes.html

St. Peter's Square is very large; she might have to walk 200 meters just to get to the entrance of the Basilica, and then the Basilica is very large also.

The museum is arranged in a long, long line of rooms. Unless your Mom has a very high interest in Art, I would not subject her to a tour of the museums, but try instead to go straight as possible to the Sistine Chapel. Of course there are treasures in the museums and years ago, when much younger, I toured the museums. Now I find it tiring when preceded by the Basilica (which is so beautiful, you could spend hours), and followed by the Sistine chapel. Those two take a lot of time.

Get a wheel chair if possible.