Julie_Hurst

We will be in Rome next month. Is it correct that the Vatican Gardens Tour is only given on Saturdays during November?

If so, we can't take it because we have other tours set up on the 2 Saturdays we will be there.

So....are tourists allowed to self-tour the gardens? If so, is there a recorded tour available?

Also, on the day we will go, we will not tour the museums. Can we just tour the gardens? If so, do we wait in the same long museums line or go elsewhere to get in for just the gardens?

Thanks, Julie

saps

I don't know about the dates but the Vatican Gardens are only accessible through a Vatican led tour. You cannot go on your own and they are totally seperate from the Vatican Museum tour.

Julie_Hurst

Thank you Saps, again. Looks like you & I are on the same wave-length today! Sadly, it sounds like we will once again miss the Gardens, assuming the info I have is correct - about Saturday only. I will check with the Vatican Office once we get there, just to be sure.

Julie

Travelnut

I'd like to know how much of the gardens can be viewed from the dome of St Peters...

Travelnut

ttt for me.

dgg

I've got a story for you about the Vatican Garden Tour.... (Refer to my recent reply to the Scavi Tour question. ) When we got to the Scavi and were informed that we did not have a reservation, my friend and I bantered with and begged the manager, to try to get in. Standing in the office was a gentleman who spoke perfect English. I thought he was Italian. It turns out he was an American FBI agent who had been assigned to Rome for many years, and was best friends with the manager at the Scavi office. He couldn't do anything for us to get into the Scavi since they had cancelled the next tour due to about 300,000 people crowding St. Peter's Square for some sort of rally! Anyway, the FBI agent's daughter was getting married in St. Peter's later that month and he knew everyone who worked there. He gave us a private tour of the Gardens and it was quite interesting. Certainly, a nice gesture since we were so disappointed about the Scavi. That made the Gardens such a fun experience for us.

Having said all of this, I would not juggle your schedule to see the Gardens as the tour times are limited. It's nice, but unless you see the Pope taking his afternoon consititution, it will be uneventful. The most interesting thing was getting to hang out a little bit behind the Vatican gates.

In case your interested, LOVE All of Rome, but my favorite Rome experiences/sights...hanging out in the Campo dei Fiori, strolling the Via Appia on Sunday morning when it's closed to traffic, the Scavi and the Domus Aurea. Not everyone gets to do the latter three so that makes them even more special.

Travelnut

That was a lucky intervention for you!

but my real question is can you see much of the gardens from the dome of St Peters?

dgg

I can't remember since it's been years since I've climbed to the top of the dome. Are you interested in seeing something specific in the garden or just curious about it?

Travelnut

I have a fellow traveler who put Vatican Gardens on her list - I'm assuming she doesn't realize it isn't open to the public outside of tour reservations, so I wanted to know what you can see of it from the dome before we talk about it.

normanoromano

From the top of the dome you get a high plan view of much of the gardens and the backyard of the Vatican City. It is of course a distant view and is not the same as walking through.
We did this last fall on a Vatican garden tour led by a charming Roman woman but I cannot say that I wasn't a little disappointed. I didn't get to some of the places I wanted to see such as the Casina di Pio IV. I would have preferred to run free but of course not possible.
The gardens are a repository for a vast collection of plants (trees, shrubs and herbaceous) many of which are tender and thus rare in other than (zone 9) southern mediterranean like climates.
The gardens are very well maintained and the quiet ambiance, exclusiveness and the array of views and glimpses of San Pietro (only way to see the exterior as designed by Michelangelo) make for a pleasant two hour stroll.
As a garden designer and history buff, I would just have preferred an approach more academic and specialized. The kind that might have been offered by say ContextRome if they were granted access.