We (me and 3 teens) want to tour the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel on Monday 12/30/13. We arrive by train from Florence at 8:35am, and need to drop off luggage at our hotel near the train station (Donatello).

We may need to grab breakfast, and will need to purchase subway or bus tickets.

What would be a reasonable time to allow to get to the Vatican by public transportation?

If I reserve, for instance, at 10am and we arrive later, will we still be admitted?
Thanks! Rebecca

You're arriving on a Monday, during "peak hour" - which won't be so bad at that time of year as most are on holidays - so perhaps to allow for any train delays, transport mix ups and getting to/from hotel, you should book for an 11.00 entry.

On a usual day, it takes around 15mins from Termini to the Metro stop Ottaviano/San Pietro or Cipro/Musei Vaticani on Linea A (the red one, direction Battistini). Either stop will get you to the entrance for the Vatican Museums, but neither are exactly in front of the entrance so you'll need to allow 10mins to walk as well.

You could store you luggage at the luggage storage area in Termini rather than going to your hotel if you are in a hurry. And there are food options for a quick breakfast/snack in Termini so you don't have to go far.

Tickets for the Metro/public transport are easy to purchase and can be found at Termini as well.

Wait - just remembered there might not be an 11.00 tour, but check when you're booking and choose a time closest to that (ie 10.30 or 12noon if possible).

If you allow 30mins from Termini to the entrance of the Museums then you should be fine. This will cover any delays, walking the wrong way, etc.

No, I don't think you could make 10am and no, you could not be late for a tour and expect the tour to wait. Your train from Florence may be late (I've had as much as an hour delay on a Florence/Rome train before). Your hotel may take longer than you expect to reach, check in and drop luggage.

I would allow about an hour from your hotel to the Vatican. You will have to walk from your hotel to the subway and then you will have to walk several blocks from the subway to the Vatican Museums entrance. For that date on the Vatican website, there are only tours at 8:30, 10:30 and 14:00 still available. You can book entrance only tickets if you don't need a tour and just want to bypass the line. You can also rent the audio guide.

Thanks for the advice. I did not mean we would take a scheduled tour, just an admission time. So, how strict are they about admission times?

There will be a time on entry printed on your ticket/voucher and there is usually a 15min window of grace period factored in to it, but that's it. As it will be busy at that time of year (well, when isn't it?!!), I wouldn't roll up late. In fact, aim to get there ahead of your booking time just in case the queue to get in to the pre-booked entry is longer than usual.

Do NOT underestimate how long it will take you to travel a route (ie Termini to the Vatican) you have not done before. Better to allow more time than you think.

If just admission tickets, people have posted on here that they were late to pick theirs up and they were still allowed in.

Allowing people to enter early or late is at the discretion of the guards, depending on how busy it is. I wouldn't count on it.

I think noon would be a good time, and if not, I would make it later rather than earlier. You can always get something to eat there in their cafeteria if hunger overtakes you.

By the way, I strongly recommend the Egyptian Collection if you're visiting with kids. It's one of the best collections of Egyptian antiquities in the world, and it's likely to be more interesting to kids than a lot of the classical sculpture. It's on the second level, and you can reach it from a staircase near the entrance. If I remember correctly, there's a sign.