I was wondering, of those who have been to Rome, if one takes one of the Vatican tours, do you miss anthing that you might want to see, if you are not on a tour. Not having been there, I'm not sure what to expect.

I'm thinking I might see more, on a tour, and skip lines. According to some of the day guided tours, one can bypass lines (true; not true). But, is there a downside to taking a tour; like not having access to parts of the vatican, that one not on the tour might see.

This is what the tours include:

• Vatican Museums
  
• Raphael Rooms
  
• Sistine Chapel
  
• St. Peter's Basilica
  
• St. Peter's Square
  
• Vatican Estate and Gardens - Courtyard of Damasus, Park of Villa Pia, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Piazza Santa Marta, Mosaic Studio, Palazzo del Governatorato, St. John Tower, The 'Casina' of Pope Pious IX, and Papal Heliport, the Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe , Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, Replica of the Grotto of Lourdes, Fountain of the Eagle and Fountain of the Sacrament and various other sites of interest.

Anyone here actually take one of the guided tours? Comments?

The only time I went through the Vatican Museum, I did it with a guided tour. And I'm glad I did. Yes, you will miss stuff - but it's not because you don't have access to those parts of the museum, it's because the museum is absolutely enormous and there's no way you could see it all in one go whether you were on your own or with a tour. At least with a tour you know you're seeing the "most important" stuff.

The tour I went on included both the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica, and St. Peter's was 2nd on the itinerary - meaning once we'd left the museums we couldn't backtrack to see anything the tour had skipped. If you want that flexibility, take a tour that only covers the museums and make sure you'll be able to go back and see more stuff once the tour's over.

I noticed in the article you linked to, it says "unfortunately there are no ways around the lines at this moment".

Does that mean the advertisements for "no lines tours" is inaccurate? Does one still have to stand in lines for the early tours, if the tours say "no lines"?

Yeah, I need to update that page...

What I wrote there is based on my experience with a tour, but that was back in 2001. I've since heard that some tour companies actually can get you around the lines if you book with them, so if the tour companies you're looking at say they can do that, they probably can.

Whether you go independently or through a tour, I recommend expecting the worst and hoping for the best when it comes to the Vatican Museum.

My boyfriend and I were in Italy in FEBRUARY. We had been told it was a holiday weekend, but we were certainly not prepared to find a line already a mile long to get into the Vatican at 8am. We returned earlier the next day, but the line was just as long. There are few officials who control what's going on so lots of people cut in line which was extremely frustrating.

Once inside, we were swept away by the ocean of various tour groups (many way too big, up to 40+ people). I'm not sure I saw anything until we got to the Raphael Rooms where hundreds of people were literally funneled into a 1-person wide hallway to get into the Sistine Chapel. No fire codes here, that's for sure. Despite the policy on no photography (announced in 5 different languages over a loud intercom), tourists were snapping away with flashes not giving any consideration to the damage it was doing to the art.

Visiting the Vatican Musuem was the single most frustrating experience of our entire 7 months touring Europe. I say this certainly not to discourage you at all, because it is definitely worth seeing. But I very much hope you have a more positive experience than we did. Best of luck-

I didn't book a tour of St Peter's or the Vatican museums in advance. The lines for both were incredible. I didn't do both on the same day. I stood in line for over an hour to get into St. Peter's the first day. It looked shorter. It was frustrating. I too watched people cut in the line and totally ignore it. This was between Christmas and New Year's. I got an audio guide when I went in, that was plenty for me.

I came back a few days later for the Vatican museum on a day I suddenly had "free" (a friend I was meeting to head south with had a delayed flight). The line went on and on. There was a tour guide who was wandering the back of the line looking for people for her tour. I joined and passed the whole line. Totally worth it... Her tour was excellent, too. I liked her or I wouldn't have just jumped on like that.

oh, I went back yet a 3rd time to do the climb to the top of the dome. An incredible view but very crowded climb and few places people could really pass, so you went the speed of the slowest person ahead of you through a confined space. I love the views, though.

I'm glad I did it as I did. The audio tour of the Basilica was plenty and the more involved tour of the vatican museum was informative never mind the hours in line. :-)

I was in Rome in Feb this year and decided to take one of the tours of the Coloseum because we wanted to see if the "no lines" worked. It worked there and we liked the tour guide so much that we organised to go on the same guy's walking tour around Rome AND his guided tour through the Vatican museums and St Peter's (although had attended Mass at St Peter's already). We managed to skip the queues at the museums, which was WELL worth it, but did only go to certain things in the museum. I'm a big fan of the Map Room and was a little dissapointed that we went through so quickly but the trade off of not having to queue was well worth it according to my friends who had not done the museums before.