Pre-booked Vatican and Collosseum tickets

onlyroz

Has anybody pre-booked Vatican tickets direct from the ticket office?

http://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?action=booking

Does doing this allow you to jump all queues, i.e. just turn up at the door, wave a bit of paper and then go straight through? And would you recommend booking a guided tour (around 32 Euro) or just looking round yourself (around 16 Euro)?

In the same day we'd also like to visit the Colosseum and the Roman Forum - would we be able to get tickets for this easily at the entrance? And would it be easy enough to get a taxi from the Vatican to the Colosseum and back again? (Bearing in mind that my knowledge of Italian is limited to music terms like Allegro, Andante etc...)

Yinster

Personally I have never use the Vatican site as I was part of a group. The group leader organised everything for our trip to the Vatican. But we did get pre-booked tickets and this allowed us to skip the queues. But bear in mind there be others who have done the same so we actually queue in a much smaller queue. From memory we only queue for about 10 minutes rather than the hour or so.

We also took a guided tour which was worth the money. So I would encourage you to do the same if your budget allows. Then right at the end our guide instructed us to go to the right hand side at the end of the chapel to a wee small door and that led us to St Paul's and thus avoiding the queue outside to go into that.

I would also encourage you to pre-book your tickets for the Colosseum as the queues there are lengthy.

onlyroz

I will definitely pre-book all the tickets that I can. I'm reluctant to book on a guided tour because I'm not sure exactly what time I'll be there or how long it will take to travel between places. I'll be on a cruise and the ship docks at Livorno, then we have to be bused into Rome (dropped off at St Peter's Square) - but I'm not sure exactly what time we'll be there. I suppose I could safely arrange a mid-morning tour but I don't want to waste time waiting around for a tour to start when we only have around 7 hours total in the city.

martindow

I imagine queues will vary according to the time of year. If it is a less busy time and you are not sure of your schedule maybe you could just turn up if there would be only a short queue? When will you be going there?

sjlou

tbh I think you might struggle to do both sites justice in one day.

We pre booked a guided tour (jumped the massive queue) and whilst it was great, we didn't get to see everything. I think we were in there about 3 hours.

The Colosseum and forum we also pre booked and got to jump the (also massive) queue. We also had the luxury of being able to split these over 2 days.

I think you might need to prioritise which you want to see the most, and maybe go back to Rome another time to enjoy the rest it has to offer. You be rushing round feeling panicky trying to fit it all in.

onlyroz

We are going in the middle of August, which I imagine will be pretty busy.

I appreciate that we won't be able to see everything in 7 hours but my priorities are the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum and if time the Forum. There are Thomson organised tours but most of them say you'll only get to see things through the bus window, which is why I want to organise my own itinerary if possible.

sjlou

OK, so if you're not bothered by a guided tour of the vatican, then just book the entry ticket. Then get there as early as you can.

Then you'll be able to get the underground across the city to the Colosseum/forum area.

If its very hot you might want to do it the other way rounds to avoid the midday sun at the Colosseum/forum.

You're right, you'll prob get to see more, and more flexibly doing it yourself rather than the cruise set guide.

Have a great time, its an amazing city and history.

Bob_the_Saver

" Pre-booked Vatican tickets"

Can you pay with Paypal?

sjlou

Bob_the_Saver wrote: »

" Pre-booked Vatican tickets"

Can you pay with Paypal?

Not sure. I think the card we used just reserved the tickets and then we actually paid when we got there and collected the tickets.

The tripadvisor forum on Rome has a lot of information on this and is worth a read.

Bob_the_Saver

sjlou wrote: »

Not sure. I think the card we used just reserved the tickets and then we actually paid when we got there and collected the tickets.

The tripadvisor forum on Rome has a lot of information on this and is worth a read.

Paypal Papal

Murphy_The_Cat

Bob_the_Saver wrote: »

Paypal Papal

oh dear

oh dear

oh dear

would you like me to get your coat ?