Vatican tour - better tour through Vatican or Context Rome?
 

I'll be in Rome Nov. 10-15. Does the Vatican offer a decent tour or should I spend the money for Context Rome tour? Also, do you request Scavi tour reservations from Santa Susanna or the Office of Excavations through Vatican website? Thank you for any information you can offer!

Hi

I can't comment on the tour through the Vatican itself, but I took the Arte Vaticana tour through Context Rome, and it was wonderful. Ask if Elizabeth Lev is available. She was great; very knowledgeable and personable.

Johanna

Thank you Johanna!

We took the Vatican tour last May. It was very good. But since it's the least expensive way to go, I wasn't being especially critical. We were especially happy to have the reserved entrance time and to avoid the long lines in the sun.

Scroll down to the Scavi for the booking process -
http://www.santasusanna.org/popeVatican/museums.html

One of the great things about the Context Rome tour is that the group is limited to six people.There is ample opportunity to ask questions and make special requests.

I thought I'd remembered a comment about the Vatican Museum's in house tour, I did a search and found this thread.
One person here didn't like it much.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34702458

Thanks everyone for the information. I have learned SO much reading the posts on this board. :)

We also took the Context Rome Vatican tour and thought it was excellent.
We also really enjoyed the Scavi tour and highly recommend it if you are able to get a reservation.

We took 2 Context Rome tours (Arte Vaticana and Underground Rome). Both ended up being private tours because the others were either lost or late. Very expensive waste of money for those people! If you can afford it, take the Context Rome tour. For us, it was a bit of a stretch, and I'm not sure if it was the right decision. The Vatican tour was GREAT, but in the same way that a gourmet meal can be wonderful but never worth the hundreds of dollars it may cost you. At least that's my take. If you'd spend $300-400 on a meal without blinking an eye, that go with Context Rome and you won't regret it. If your budget is more limited, try Icon or Eternal City and unless you are an art historian yourself, I'll bet you'll be happy with them as well. The only option I wouldn't do is self-guided or audio tours, especially not if I was traveling with a group of family or friends. (I find it a pain when everyone is going at their own pace and the Vatican is way too crowded for that.)

Victoria-The Context Rome Vatican Museums tour is 60 euros for a four-hour tour.It's not cheap,but not quite the same as a $300 meal.

Has anyone used Greenline Tours in Rome? My travel agent recommeded them.

We took the Vatican tour offered through the Vatican this past June. It was wonderful, but the best thing about it was that we avoided the horrendously long lines. I highly recommend the tour and we also did the Scavi tour which was also wonderful. Excellent tours.

We will be in Rome in Oct and we have reservations for the Scavi and for the audience with the Pope. Do we need reservations to tour the Vatican and the all that it includes? If so, how much time do we allow? We will see the Pope in the morning and do the Scavi in the afternoon? Will we need additional Vatican touring time? Is it open in the evening the week of Oct. 8? Please advise.

If you want to see the Vatican Museums (which include the Sistine Chapel), you need to take a tour. Also, you may want a tour of St. Peter's Basilica. Your audience with the Pope and the Scavi tour are distinct from these tours. All are worthwhile. You'll probably need 2 days in the Vatican area.

Just to clarify, you may be able to enter both the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's as a visitor without a tour guide, but you will likely prefer some sort of guide (at a minimum, an audio guide) to make your visit worthwhile. If at all possible, hire a live guide as a part of a small tour group. These range in price from the your offered by the Vatican to more expensive ones like Thorugh Eternity, Icon, Context Rome.

Missy - While I can't speak to the other tours, we took the ContextRome tour of the Vatican & museums in May. It was fantastic! It was my fourth or so time through the Vatican museums and I only wish I had done a tour with them earlier. Hope this helps....

wmandmj: We will also be in Rome in early October. May I ask when you wrote for your Scavi reservation, and when you heard from them? I e-mailed them in late June, but I'm still waiting and hoping... thanks for any information you can provide about how the process worked for you.

We sent for the Scavi tckts in May and we received our confirmation last week. It is in writing with notice where to pick up the tckts and the time we can enter. They did charge our credit card.

Good Luck. THis is a very special part of our trip.

MJ

We took the Context Vatican tour in May of 2005, and were able to arrange both the Scavi tour and the Vatican own tour this last July when my wife and I returned to Rome with our daughter.

BOTTOM LINE: if you can get on to the Vatican own tour DO IT. Although it was only for the Museum and the Sistine Chapel, it was more informative than Context, and after reading a few tour books (the best being Rick Steves' one on Rome), I am absolutely convinced that there is probably little difference between all of these tours and the information that they provide.
My suggestion is to read up a little before you go, try to get on to the Vatican own tour (it was great not having to stand in a very long and deep line-up), and do St. Peters with Rick.

Also, we found that although the Context tour was terrific for the Palatine, we were more impressed with a guide and tour that we picked up just outside the Colosseum, (we all wore "SPQR" labels) in regards to the Colosseum and the Forum.

I recommend that you save your extra euros for dinner, and use a less costly tour (my friends used Angel Tours, which gave a nice discount per person when requested). The experience and information probably does not vary greatly.

I forgot to add that I was able to book the Scavi tour for 3 different times in July, 2006 (absolutely wonderful) by following the Vatican web-site instructions.

However, I guess that this was just the luck of the draw, as I was shut out in my attempts in 2005.

We just got back. We reserved the Scavi tour as recommended by many Fodorites. I requested in January for Sept 6. I was notified in July. The tour is excellent and well worth the time. For the museums we used Argiletum Tours. This was recommended by our vrbo hostess. It cost 44euros each including entrance and had only 9 people. Our guide was excellent. The tour lasted well over 4 hours, probably closer to 5. I would highly recommend them.

I just got back from my honeymoon in Italy, where my husband and I spent our last 4 days in Rome, right before Labor Day. We spent 1 entire day from 10am - 5pm at the Vatican. We did the Scavi Tour in the morning, walked around the Basilica, ate lunch at one of the food stands and then did the Sistine Chapel/Museums tour booked directly through the Vatican (I had followed all the directions to fax in our requests).

The Scavi Tour was fascinating and totally worth it. Our tour guide was quirky - stiff at times and then EXTREMELY animated at others. After that, we went right into the Basilica cutting the line as other Fodorites suggested. We toured it ourselves for about an hour.

The guided tour of the Sistine Chapel and Museums through the Vatican was worth the money for us; we felt it was cost and time-effective and a great informative tour for first-time tourists like us. We paid around 50 Euros for two of us. The tour lasted about 2 - 2.5 hours, but the group was large, at least 20 people. I felt it was a comprehensive way to learn about the highlights of the museums in the relatively short amount of time. Others who prefer a more leisurely pace should definitely try an independent company. We had no problems with the tour guide, who spoke good English, was very enthusiastic, and gave great details.

Thanks to all you wonderful posters, I've already reserved the Borghese Gallery tour. Now, I've begun to read about the ContextRome tour of the Vatican which I had never heard about.

Could any of you who took it tell me the easiest way to find them and reserve online before we arrive in Rome in mid-October?

Grazie.

www.contextrome.com.

you can book online

I am trying to figure out if it is possible to coordinate a Vatican tour and the Scavi tour. We will be in Rome next May. I am ready to fax a request for the Scavi tour, but if I don't expect to hear for months, how can I plan on taking the Vatican tour the same day? When and how often are the Scavi tours given? English tours of the Vatican are at 10:30, 12 and 2p and I would like to coordinate the two tours. Is this possible?
:-?

I am ready to book tours in Rome for Vatican and Colloseum/Forum etc. I know Context Rome is given a great big thumbs up on this board. can anyone comment on Rome Walks

Leila, I wouldn't even try, because the more flexibility you allow yourself with the Scavi tours, the more likely you are to get one. If you told the Scavi office you would accept only a specific time, you drastically lower your chances of getting such a tour at all. At least wait until you get your Scavi tour confirmation to make your Vatican tour reservation.

I agree with Will Travel. Give as many dates as possible to the Vatican's Scavi office.

If you schedule other items, then email them for a changed time if the Vatican's Scavi tour turns out to conflict.

Thanks WillTravel and 5Alive,
I will follow your advice and try to get the Scavi tour and then arrange the Vatican tour around it.
[-o<
L

Has anyone done the Vatican Gardens tour and is it different from the Scavi tour?
Also, is it possible to fit any other sights in on the day we tour the Vatican, chapels and museums?

We ended up not doing the Gardens even though we had tickets. It was winter and our tickets were for a different day than the Scavi. So we did not want to go back.

There is a book called the Catholic's Guide to Rome by Frank Korn. As I recall, it described all the areas of Vatican City, as well as the history of other churches and holy places in Rome. Note that it is more the story of the saints, location, the history, rather than the artistic merits. http://tinyurl.com/znvjs

You may need to break your time at the Vatican into two days for this reason: Your Scavi tour may be at a time that does not work to go to the Vatican Musuems. For example in the off season, the last admissions into the Vatican Museum (this includes the Sistene Chapel) is at around noon and everyone must be out by 1:30 pm. So if your Scavi tour is at 10 AM you can go do St Peter's afterward (and skip the long lines) but not the Vatican museum because it will be closed when you arrive.