I came across this by accident when I was researching something else. It is offered by TuscanyAll Tours.

For 23Euro it offers: "pre-booked tickets allow to enter the Museums without waiting on the line. Admission times 8.15 am or 9.30 am only."

Has anybody ever used this method of bypassing the line? And most importantly, does it really bypass the line?

Tours do get in first but the crowds kill any advantage once your in. Better bet is to go around 2:30-3pm in afternoon when tour groups have become thinner and most days you can just walk right in and tour at your own pace. A good guide book will tell you all you need to know.

Another idea is to take the scavi tour (underground crypts), which needs to be booked ahead of time, & when finished it allows you to go in without waiting in line.

sparks,

Are you saying that once you finish the scavi tour you can just walk right into the vatican museums without standing in line?
But wouldn't you still need to have your vatican museum ticket ahead of time? Can you buy your vatican museum ticket along with your scavi tour ticket and kill two birds with one stone?

I already have a Scavi reservation but it is my understanding that the tour ends at St Peters and that the Vatican Museums are further away with a separate entrance.

Joanne--I was thinking about going later in the day after the crowds diminished.

My time in Rome is brief and I am trying to minimize the queues!

We arrived just before 8 AM & some tour groups did 'jump the line' before they opened the doors. We were about 50 people back from the front & we beelined to the Sistine when we got in - just before 9 (I think). We were arted out by 11.

Ian

There is no way from the end of the Scavi tour to the Vatican Museum. In fact, the entrance to the Scavi is to the north side of St. Peters, and the Vatican Museum is on the south side. (You should also know that admissions to the Scavi are extremely limited and hard to get. Don't count on getting reservations).

What you *can* do is go straight from the Sistine Chapel (the end of the Vatican Museum tour) into St. Peter's and avoid that queue.

bookmarking

While I KNOW that Rick Steves is hated on here...

He is "blogging" from Europe. I read this the other day

Praying for Longer Vatican Museum Hours…
The big talk among tourists and tour guides these days in Rome is the frustration with long lines at the Vatican Museum, and the museum’s seeming lack of sensitivity to the chaos that surrounds its front door every day. Unfortunately, in what seems like a callous (and, some could say, even un-Christian) gesture, the Vatican Museum limits entry times to about half the hours that other great galleries are open.
Source:
http://www.ricksteves.com/blog/

He goes on to mention some problems and some reasons. For me, the Vatican Musuem goes on the "Been There Done That, Not letting them Rip Me off again" While I generally love museums this one goes down as one of the WORST run ever. No crowd control, overrun by tour guides lecturing everwhere so that the avg traveler can't even see the art. Long lines... If you cant' enjoy the art, why go?

So sorry, my mistake! You can go directly into St Peters, not the museum. We waited in line, but it went quite quickly.

Thanks for all the comments. I may try the Vatican Museums in the mid-afternoon. If the line is too Disneyland-ish I will skip it and move on! I have seen the Sistine Chapel and would love to see it again but I am not willing to be part of a mob! (In June we went to the Louvre and it was so hellishly crowded that we bailed out after an hour!)

The scavi tour sounds like it will work out well for me as I will be able to slip right into St Peters afterwards.

We used Angel Tours for the Vatican during Holy Week and effectively skipped the line. They put guides in line early in the day. You meet up with the guides near the front and go on in. This worked really well for us.