Ditto bellstar

We rushed through right at the opening in the morning. Saw the Chapel in relative peace & then spent 2 hours doubling back to see the rest of the museum. We planned ahead.

Ian

We were there in February and had the same awful experience as described in the first messege. I will never return! It wa horrible!

my goodness, proud to have taken pictures in the Sistine Chapel are you?

why? See it. Buy pictures in the shops...follow the rules. Use a flash?
Damages fresco don't they?

Apparently the number of visitors to the Vatican museums doubled between 2000 and 2005. Plans are afoot to change to a reservations-required system and perhaps that will help.

A few months back someone posted about a much less expensive after-hours tour.

I want to correct some errors in my previous post:

The number of visitors to Rome each year is now between 7 and 10 million (different sources, different numbers) Again, figuring the three most crowded months may account for up to 50%. That's up to 5 million over the summer. The Forbes magazine list of the top 50 tourist desitinations puts the numbers entering the Vatican museums (not including worshippers and others who visit just the Piazza San Pietro) at 4.2 million. I couldn't find a figure for daily entrance, but if the summer months are indeed the most popular, that might be over 20,000 per day to the VM.

Judging unscientifically from the many threads on the question we see here, and the crowds at the Vatican Museums who seem interested only in the chapel, perhaps the VM should consider a "Sistine Chapel" only admission for half the day, or on certain days of the week, with timed entrance, etc. If nothing else it would make the rest of the museum tolerable.

The Tate and the Louvre both host more visitors annually. The Met in NYC is just behind the Vatican, at about 4 million = but in each of these, although there are "popular" atractions, it may be true that the crowds are spread more evenly through the facility. And as large as the VM is, it is smaller than those institutions.

By the way, as most here already know, France is the most popular tourism country, at about 76 million per year. The US, about 50 million, Italy, nearing 40 million. In area, France is smaller than Texas, larger than California. Italy is about the size of Florida and Georgia combined (still smaller than California)

That's why I never go in the summer. In the fall, I lined up early and was close to the front of the line. We walked quickly to the chapel (which normally takes about 30 minutes to get there). We bypassed as many tour groups as possible and made it to the chapel with only a dozen or so other people. It was ours for about 45 minutes until the rest of the people caught up with us.

dutyfree-

Yes, I am 100% positive that I am not advertising for the "Irish woman". I reserved the tour after seeing it recommended here (by returned customers, not the company) and on slowtrav by a woman who uses a wheelchair. I seriously doubt that these people were fronts for the company. As I said, the tour was the highlight of our trip, and we would even take it again.

It may seem like a "ripoff" to you, but to us it was not. Standing in the chapel with 6 other people, in silence, in candlelight, for 30-40 minutes, and then being ushered out because the pope was coming in 30 seconds later for his private vespers? Priceless.

I agree with tomassocroccante. Many people just want to see the Sistine Chapel. Why have them clogged up the museum?

They should totally decouple the two. For the Sistine Chapel, introduce reservations with a high fee. If people are willing to spend $100 (or whatever) per person to get in a specific time, take their money. But also allow a number of non-reserved tickets for each time period, so those who don't want to pay the high reservations can still get in for a low cost - just have to wait in a very very long line.

We visited Rome in late February/early march and found that it was quite crowded then, too, although not as bad as described for the summer months. I thought seeing the Raphael rooms was even more difficult than the Sistine Chapel and the Fra Angelico frescoes in the chapel of Nicholas V are basically impossible to see with or without crowds because you can not get beyond ropes at the entrance of the chapel.

We took a detour at the end of the museum complex near the sistine chapel to see some works in the museum of modern religious art. This collection was virtually empty and was a pleasant change/rest from the crowds.

the Pinacoteca was also much less crowded than other sections of the museums. It is an extraordinary collection

Since entrance rules changed at the first of the year, you can no longer "be first" without belonging to a group/tour. Only groups/tours are allowed in until 10:00 am. There is one company selling tickets (for a mark-up) without actually providing a tour. You line up with them and enter and then you are on your own.

The last time I was in the VM was mid-June 2003 in the afternoon. It wasn't crowded and other rooms in the museum were quite empty.

lyceemoliere - You don't have to exit to the outside from the Chapel. It's your choice whether to stay in the museum or leave if it's not closing time.

Sarvo - Did they say why St. Peter's was closing early? There must have been a special event.

For VM info - http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Info.html

For St. Peter's -
http://www.stpetersbasilica.org/

Regardless of the horrible crowds, I hope that you were able to realize where you were and what you were looking at. That alone should be worth it.

bookmarking

bookmarking

I would think that if you did the most shallow research on your trip to the vatican you would have realized that the sistine chapel is at the end of the walk and that it would be extremely crowded during the month that you were there. I am sorry you didn't enjoy the rest of the mueseum because there are incredible pieces around every corner in my opinion.

I'm with brando on this one - it's not necessarily a secret that the Sistine Chapel is at the end of a long tour. Are the signs misleading? Of course.

And, I found a few of the rooms preceding the Chapel far better - esp. the one with the trompe l'oeil ceiling. The Sistine Chapel was pretty "meh" in my opinion, and of course, worse for the hundreds of tourists in there (each thinking the no talking and no photo rule could surely not apply to them). This was November - I can't imagine how it would be in June.

Why are the signs for the Sistine Chapel misleading? They do lead you through the shortest way to it.

We visited italy early june this year and had a pretty similiar experience regarding crowds etc in most of the major sights in rome, florence and venice.

It was a bit annoying and felt a little bit like visiting disneyland but i think you have to be realisitic when visiting these attractions as a "regular" tourist. They are very popular.

Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience particulary if it was hot.
It was a mild day when we went and the extra time it took to get there was no problem as there was so many amazing things to see along the way. Also we went mid morning so had plenty of time to view the sistene chapel. Only thing i wish was that i would have taken some small binoculars as i didnt realise it was so high!

For what it's worth we found central/eastern european countries like poland, hungary and czech republic just as interesting and amazing but without the crowds.
Trip

Just back from 2 weeks in Italy agree with post 100%. Have been before other times of the year and loved it. But summer crowds and heat as well as all the tourist such as myself and family were too much. Europe summer time never again. We will stick with the fringe months as we have before.

I'm so sorry you had such an unpleasant experience. I hope the rest of your vacation was more positive. On the other hand, I feel fortunate to have been in the Sistine Chapel several times. Yes, the crowds are huge. Yes, it was warm and, at times, uncomfortable. That said, I think it's important to remember that the Sistine Chapel is, after all, a holy place dedicated to celebrating Mass for the Catholic Church. While I'm not Catholic, I respect it as such and understand why the guards are attemtping to silence the crowds & prohibit flash photography. I appreciate the Catholic Church sharing this beautiful oratory with the world. I'd love to hear more about your trip - have you, by any chance, posted a trip report? (I love trip reports on Italy!)

The Vatican really needs to modernize its ticket system, perhaps only offering time entries (eg, you buy your ticket in advanced and then can enter on a certain date from 1:00 to 1:15, and only then). I last visited in December 2005, and the line was long, even though we were there an hour before the museums opened. But, as soon as we got our tickets, we made a beeline for the Sistine Chapel (we followed the signs and it took maybe 20 minutes to get there). Since we had been to the museums several times before, we didn't stop to see other exhibits, and we were in the Sistine Chapel for nearly an hour with only a few other people.

The current system, requiring visitors to spend hours in line, is ridiculous.