Vatican Gardens Tour
 

We are interested in taking the Vatican Gardens Tour. The web site for making reservations says the following:

HOW TO RESERVE (FOR INDIVIDUALS)



It is necessary to book in advance by fax.

For the reservation this office requires the names of all the participants to the tour. If we do not receive the list you may not join your requested booked tour. The list must be received at the moment of the reservation.

Bookings are valid only if you receive our confirmation fax. The fax must be shown at the “Guided Tours” desk on the day of the visit. In case of no written reply from this office, the booking is considered not valid.

An advanced booking is needed from one month to one week prior to the date of the visit. The cancellation is accepted, up to 12 hours before the visit.

While asking for the reservation, we appreciate, if possible, a contact number or address in Rome (or Italy).

So, my question to anyone who has done this is: Do they only fax the confirmation to you? I can fax the request to them, but I can't receive fax's. Does anyone have any experience with this? Do they send e-mails?

Thanks

Unfortunaltely, the Vatican will only fax a response back to you. Do you know anyone with a fax machine that might be willing to accept the response for you?

Advice: Arrive at least 15 minutes early for your gardens tour. We underestimated our time to get there (huge lines, etc.) and arrived a couple of minutes late. Tour had gone, no amount of begging, pleading or offering relatively large sums resulted in our taking a tour of the gardens. And yes, they only fax back.

Is there an Office Max or Staples near you. Many of these stores have fax service available at a minimum charge. Receiving and sending. Also many of those small mail stores also will fax for you.

Thanks for all the replies and info. I guess they assume everyone has a fax machine in their home. I do have a Staples nearby. I will check with them on receiving a fax. That is a good idea, Thanks Ruby.

I fax our request 2 weeks ago & it was received but we have had no response. We are leaving Sept 5th & some posters say they return fax near the reservation requested date. I'm getting kind of nervous! Has this happened to anyone? You never got a return fax?

I read this idea on the forum.. you might want them to fax the confirmation to the hotel that you are staying at.. That way you are sure that you will get it... We emailed our hotel and informed them a fax might arrive (could be before we do as we are going through Heathrow!)and they were more than happy to allow us to do that.

We received it this morning! At 4:30 am our FAX machine started beeping, we ran in there and there it was! Only thing is we asked for the 10:30am & got the 2:00pm tour which is perfectly fine for us. Whew...now just to sweat the air controller strike on Sept 6th & we're on our way!

peggye,
:) Have a wonderful trip.

I leave for Holland/Italy in 20 days.