I've been waiting until we found out if we got Scavi tour tickets (we got them...woo hoo!!!) to book the museums. Going to the museum site directly, checking both tours and admission only, it stated that all of late October is unavailabe. In fact, for the admission only option it showed ALL of October unavailable. ("October unavailabe - please select another month")
Could this be true? All of October unavailable? Do they block out certain dates and make them available to reserve only at certain times (as some hotels do?)

If we need to, we will book with a private co., but after reading all the input here, that doesn't
really seem an advantage. Unless, of course, that's the only way we can reserve.

Any input and ideas very welcome! Thanks in advance

You can only make the reservation for the Vatican Museums 60 days in advance, so you will have to wait another week or two for late October tickets.

Thanks - I just went back to the site and noticed the 60 days prior limitation. That explains why I couldn't reserve anything for the day we prefer (the 27th) but I can't understand why they show all of October unavailable. Anyway - I'll go back and get the res. we prefer after the 27th of this month.

Thanks for the response.

So, now that is solved, I'm wondering about the schedule. The Scavi Tour we requested has been scheduled for 9:30 AM on Tuesday (happy to get the morning - I think that will make the schedule flow more easily.) It looks like that tour will be about 1.5 hrs.
I'm thinking we'll do that, finishing about 11:00 to 11:30. I thought we could take a break for a light lunch (hoping to find something open early) and then head to the museum around 1:00. Once the tour is over we'll go to the basilica if we don't schedule the tour that includes that.

Any tips or pointers? Thanks again.

Sorry, I wish I could help, but I haven't been there myself yet!

My scavi tour is scheduled for 9:00am and I booked my time for the Vatican Museums at 1:00pm. Others on the Forum said that with my time, it would be enough to look around St Peter's Basilica and then grab a quick lunch before heading over for the Vatican Museums.

Hope this helps a little.

The Scavi tour will either end in the Basilica (down a level at the Pope's tombs) or just outside, but still within security. I would tour the Basilica then as you will not have to go through security. When I did the tour we weren't allowed to use the stairs from the tomb area to go into the Basilica as they were roped off (on past visits, those stairs weren't roped off). You were forced to exit to the outside where you could go up the outside steps.

Thanks - that makes sense. We could schedule museums a little later- maybe 2:00- and go through Basilica first. I also read that you could end your museum tour and exit very near Basilica.
Either way will work, I guess. I just don't want to trek back and forth unnecessarily. Save my poor feet for the rest of the week.
Thanks for the help.

You can click around on the various maps to get your bearings for St. Peter's.
http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/index.htm

I found it tiring in the Scavi tour. You are standing the entire time (not much walking) and they don't want you to lean against anything.

You're right- standing is tougher than walking. Well, I'll have my husband to lean on!! I'm breaking in my walking shoes now.