Please indulge as I ask another question about this Vatican tour madness, as I am thoroughly confused about it all:

I am not in need of an organized tour taking me through the museums. I do, however, want to make sure I get in. I'll be there in early January, so I imagine the crowds will be lighter, but the opening hours are shorter. My question is: Do I absolutely have to go with a tour? If I don't, how do I make it into the place on my own? I am terribly confused by what I read on this site.

30 years ago I just went into the museums by myself, no reservations, during the summer...oh well, I know those days are long gone.

Vicky

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Originally posted by VickyP:
...I just went into the museums by myself, no reservations, during the summer...oh well, I know those days are long gone.
Vicky

It's still the same, as far as I know, being there last fall. You just show up at the entrance, get in line, pay the admission and go through the exhibits, at your own pace. It was not a big deal.

Don't worry, just go and do it.

Yep, that's right. Just show up, get in line, pay for a ticket and enter the museums.

Keep in mind that unless the rules change again in January 2008 (and there's a rumor going around Rome that they may do that), you won't be able to enter until after 10:00am. So, don't bother showing up to get in line very early in the morning.

And, yes, crowds should be lighter.

I have been to the Vatican Museums in Feb. Don't expect the crowds to be lighter in Jan because in Jan and Feb the Museum closes at 1pm. I went to the Vatican 3 times in Feb and the line was so long, the people I was with didn't want to wait in it. By the time you might get to the front and get in, you might not even get to the Sistine Chapel (if that's what you want to see).
I finally got in on Dec 9 after waiting in line 1 hour and 40 min (the line was much shorter). That day (Dec 9) was unusual for Dec becasue the Vatican Museum was open till 5 pm.

All this was before the Vatican starting restricting general admission before 10 AM.

So, then, in the winter general admission is only from 10:00-1:00?? At what point do they scoot you out? In other words, how fast do I have to do this? Since seeing the Sistine is the main point of this museum trip, it sounds like I might have to sprint through

Here is the 2007 calendar. One mighrt expect the 2008 one to be similar.
White area 10-12:30 exit 1:45PM. Looks like the Jan 2-5 they are open later (yellow area). can you do those days?

I agree, there seems to be more confusion about the Vatican Museum than anything else in Rome.

I have been there twice, once with Tony and his 3 Millenia group tour which is excellent and well worth doing. On another occassion we went mid June about 1.00pm and there was a huge line up so we went to St Peters and had lunch and went back to the Museum "queue" at 2.30pm and walked straight in the front door. I guess when opening hours are less you may just have to get there early and hope.

We did find it difficult to get a "map" of the Museum layout because they want to hire you an electronic guide. They also cleverly have the Sistine Chapel near the end of the route through the museum. I suggest you ask if there is a short cut.

If you want to spend as much time in the museum as absolutely possible, then you should not show up after 10:00 am when the museum has its last entrance at 12:30 pm. This would give you just a couple of hours because you will loose time waiting in line. Instead, you should get there a few hours early 7-8am. This way you are right at the front of the queue for when the museum opens to the general public. This is not always at 10:00 am. This past Wednesday it was at about 9:15 am. Doing this, you can get in around 10ish and have until 1:45 pm.

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They also cleverly have the Sistine Chapel near the end of the route through the museum. I suggest you ask if there is a short cut.

Rick Steves mentions in one of his books that you should head directly to the Sistine Chapel which is at the end of the "long march", aned then view the rest of the collection on the way back more leisurely. The way some of the corriders were blocked off and the enforced traffic patterns, I am not sure how you could speed right down to it.

They ought to have a blockage at one end of the sistine chapel and 2 entrances. One just for the Sistine Chapel and the other one for the rest of the museum.

They might have to hire more people and security then which might be advanced for a reason to not do it. The "pagan" statues were unavailable for viewing the one day that I did get inside. No Augustus Prima Porta, no Julius Caesar, no Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus sarcophagus for me. No, subject myself to the whole ordeal all over again, and MAYBE that wing will be open the day you are there. It was as bad the the Naples Archeological Museum where the Pompeii fresco wing was unvailable becasue there were no security guards to watch them; someone told me that had been the case for 2 years. Oh well, there are those Coffee table books with just great photos in them.

Tons of people go to the Vatican Museum just to see the Sistine Chapel. maybe one would have a better chance at viewing some of the other great works of art if the two were decoupled from each other. Maybe there might even be more money in it also.

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I suggest you ask if there is a short cut.

And the Italian way to say "short cut" is...?

Unfortunately, with the current location of the entrance, there really is no "short cut" to the Sistine Chapel. The entrance is at one end of the long gallery of the museum and the Sistine is at the other. Certainly, you can breeze through the long corridor which contains galleries of Roman sculpture, the map gallery, and the gallery of tapestries, but any way you look at it, you still need to get from one end of a very long building to the other. Once there, you can sometimes skip the Raphael rooms (depending on how the one-way system is working that day) if you really want to, but that's about the only short-cut available.

This really is one of the most frustrating museums in the world. There's so much to see (not even counting the Raphael Rooms and Sistine) and most visitors aren't the least bit interested in any of it except those bits. The Vatican seems to be doing everything it can to make it hard to visit the general collections in the interest of pushing as many people as possible through the Sistine. Since most visitors (and especially the large tour groups) would be just as happy to skip the museum and visit only the Sistine, it does seem like they could find a way to accomodate them while still allowing the rest of us to spend more time in the rest of the collections.

I strongly agree with the idea of having different tours. If anyone has a contact at the Vatican, maybe pass this on. If you are going with someone who is unable to do a long tour or with small children, you are physically "done" long before you have reached some of the treasures that drew you there in the first place. We found interesting everything on the tour, but we were so miserable with the heat and the tired children that we tried to find a way to "short cut" and it seemed like an extremely crowded one-way street. By the time we reached the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel, we really did not enjoy the experience because the kids were so hot and tired and because other tourists were so pushy and crowded in. From this distance, however, I do enjoy my recollection of all parts of the Vatican museums.

I have been there three times, but not since the chage (tours allowed in early).
In Jan. it looks like using a tour to get in early (no wait) seems really best.
Waiting outside for a couple hours on an early cold morning isn't what I'd be looking for.
while think the audio tours work fine for what you want, I would look for a tour.

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Originally posted by VickyP:

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I suggest you ask if there is a short cut.

And the Italian way to say "short cut" is...?

Probably moot on this topic, but the word is scorciatoia, pronunced scor-cha-TOY-a.

Scorciatoia! How great that sounds! That's my new favorite Italian word. Thank you.

Jim, you bring up a valid point about waiting in the morning cold for hours; hadn't really thought about that. I'll consider your suggestion.

Vicky

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Jim, you bring up a valid point about waiting in the morning cold for hours; hadn't really thought about that. I'll consider your suggestion.

Cold is a relative term. Roman winters vary from year to year. 2005 was colder than 2006, but unless it was raining it wasn't very bad. It never got below about 45 deg F. I was worried about having to go to the bathroom before I got to the head of the line. No expresso for me.