Our first real day in Italy was spent in Rome, and we had plans to spend most of the day at the Vatican and surrounding areas.  I was very torn about visiting the Vatican at all…my husband and I had already been there, and it certainly wasn’t the highlight of our previous Italian vacation.  But as a parent traveling with teenagers, I felt that seeing the Vatican would be an important “block to check” on their lifetime list.  In hindsight, I regret that choice because hopefully our kids have long lives and plenty of time to make their own lists.  Maybe the Vatican will be on their lists, and maybe it won’t, because, let’s be real, there is so much to do in the world!  Learn from me and follow your own personal passion in travel.  Don’t be obliged to visit anywhere that doesn’t truly interest you.

Regardless, what’s done is done!  Here is the good, the bad and the crazy of our day in the Vatican.

THE PLAN

Friday December 28^th – Vatican City and St. Peter’s Basilica

• I had read enough blogs (thank you Romewise and Ciao Bambino among others) to know that I needed to book a timed entry to both of these locations. My friend Marco alerted me to the fact that I could have booked a reservation directly with the Vatican website, but I was too late. I went with a “skip-the-line” timed entry to both the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s, but with separate companies. So I did have set times that I needed to arrive to each location. But I did not book tours. I usually don’t choose tours because my crew is very impatient; when I do book a tour, I have to be very selective! I chose to do tours in Ancient Rome for Saturday, so I knew that I couldn’t do a structured tour on Friday as well.
• I booked the entries for late in the day because I had no idea how late we would sleep in and didn’t want to rush on the first day of the trip. Also, I wanted to see the St. Peter’s Nativity Scene and Christmas tree lit up at night. I had read that late afternoon entries to the Vatican were less popular, so I thought I was also beating the crowd (foreshadowing).
• We planned to walk to Vatican City, crossing at the bridge at Castel Saint Angelo; I chose to enter St. Peter’s first and then tour the Vatican, which is the opposite of what many do. I had also wanted to try to buy a post card and send it from the Vatican Post Office just for the novelty.
• I ultimately booked the Saint Peter Basilica Self Guided Tour through Get Your Guide with the tour operator being Vox Mundi.  The entry time was between 1pm and 3pm with an audio guide included, but no tour guide.  I chose this time slot because my entry time for the Vatican was at 3pm with a 2:45 check in.  I knew enough to know that if St. Peter’s closed at 5pm, I would never get out of the Vatican in time to visit the basilica after.
• Our Vatican booking was also through Get Your Guide and they were also the tour operator (along with Tickets GmbH).  It allowed us an escorted entrance and audio guide at 3pm.
• I had a list of potential restaurants for the evening and pre-booked a reservation, just in case, using TheFork (via Trip Advisor). All reservations in Italy should be at 8pm at the earliest unless you have young children that will be starving. If you go somewhere that doesn’t take reservations, eating at 6:30pm or 10:30pm will help to limit your wait, as 8pm – 10pm is the prime time.

 

THE REALITY

We were all really happy not to have an early start for our first day.  With the late night dinner at Cucina e Cantina and the jet lag, having a somewhat lazy morning definitely helped.  We left our hotel in the late morning to walk to the Vatican.  Our walk took us directly passed the Pantheon, so we stopped there to take a look.  We lucked out because there was no line to enter, and the inside wasn’t overly crowded.  The Pantheon is a quick stop if you want it to be.  Or, if you want to walk around and read everything, you can take your time.  We didn’t have a tour, so we just looked at our leisure and carried on.

We continued our walk on this lovely street just as the shops were starting to open. What a pleasant find!  I wish we had had more time to just wander Rome.  This had no traffic and deposited us almost directly at the bridge for Castel Saint Angelo.

Once we crossed the bridge, the crowds were thick and so were the vendors.  We never entered the castle because we needed to keep moving to make our window for entry at St. Peters.

I used Trip Advisor and found a place to have lunch.  I didn’t want to waste a meal at fast food or something overly touristy.  We ended up at Ristorante Wine Bar De’Penitenzieri. Of course, it wasn’t fast, but the food was very good.  A pizza on the run would have been easier, but with two lactose intolerant travelers, food becomes trickier.

We made our way to St. Peter’s to hunt down the meeting place for our skip-the-line passes.  On our way, we saw the “regular” entrance line to get into the basilica and were dumbfounded.  Literally unbelievable.  It was so long, we couldn’t even take a picture to illustrate it.  More determined to find our faster entry, we followed our directions we received to encounter the tour staff.  We didn’t realize that we were looking for Vox Mundi staff…I thought I was looking for Get Your Guide staff.  I was glad I had printed out the tickets because I showed them to several tour operators and they pointed us in the right direction.  I didn’t realize that Get Your Guide sells all sorts of tours, and not all of them are their own tours.  Regardless, finding these tour people is not easy, so give yourself lots of time.  However, it paid off for us because we literally skipped the line. Why doesn’t everyone do this?  Why would anyone wait in that line?

Once we were through the metal detectors (no water bottles!), we got lost finding the audio guides.  We thought we had to go downstairs near the restrooms, but the tours actually have their own audio guide desk up the marble stairs and near the original entrance of the basilica.  This was such a pain and nothing like the efficiency we had experienced in French and English museums.  Ultimately, the man at the audio guide desk had us download the Vox Mundi app and listen to the museum information on our own phones.  And since we had iPhones, we couldn’t use their headphones so we had to hold our phone speakers up to our ears.  What a waste of time!  At that point, I was really wishing that I had done some pre-work and either downloaded apps/guides from Rick Steves or brought my favorite Eyewitness Travel Guide from the “good ole days”.  This is what I recommend for all the sites in Rome (foreshadowing). There is so much to see and learn and it’s ultimately better to just have your own guide/information.

We had very little time in St. Peter’s, but we did see the Pieta by Michelangelo and admired the rest of the interior.  It’s beautiful and worth seeing, but the struggle was real.

For St. Peter’s, the entry time was a range, but for the Vatican, it was a set time, and Get Your Guide said to arrive 15 minutes early.  The entrance to the Vatican is FAR from St. Peter’s.  The walk is easily 20 minutes even though it doesn’t look far on a map.  And, if you are trying to meet the Get Your Guide Fast-Track Entry, once you arrive at Viale Vaticano, walk on the north side of the street (opposite of the entrance) because the south side of the street is packed and you will likely get stuck behind a tour group.  We met Get Your Guide at the corner of Viale Vaticano and Via Tunisi, but at the steps, so it was a little confusing.  Here is the area.

We arrived at 3pm, but our group was already crossing the street to the Vatican entrance.  The Get Your Guide crew was nice enough to let us wait until 3:30 and go in with that group.  The tickets weren’t cheap and 3:30 was the last entrance time, so I was willing to wait.  So, just know, when they say arrive 15 minutes early, they are not kidding!

Once we finally entered the museum, I was woefully unprepared for what we would encounter.  It was literally wall-to-wall people, and there is only one path through the museum.  We were miserable and could barely move for the entire length of the museum.  All we could do was plow forward toward the Sistine Chapel.  I can’t say that we saw much of anything, and we didn’t enjoy it at all.  I’m not sugar coating this…can you tell?

What made things worse for me was that I really needed to visit the ladies room. Because of the design of the museum, the restroom is at THE END right before the entrance to the Sistine Chapel.  So, I would warn you, go to the restroom at the entrance of museum. Otherwise, it’s a long wait.

Again, I wish I had prepped my family for what we wanted to see in the Vatican Museums and especially in the Sistine Chapel.  There is no doubt that the work in the chapel itself is beautiful and significant, but the audio guide is extensive (like easily 30 minutes of explanation), and it is so crowded inside the Sistine Chapel that there is no where to stand and observe.  Not to mention that you are looking up at the ceiling, so it’s incredibly uncomfortable.  The guards inside the chapel are yelling over a loudspeaker to be quiet (irony?) and to keep moving.  There is very little to enjoy about the experience which is a complete shame, and I’m sure that Michelangelo would be appalled.

The only thing we liked about our visit was the spiral staircase.  Thank you Romewise! It’s near the store at the end of your long visit.

Sadly, this visit was my family’s least favorite day on vacation.  My recommendation to improve upon our experience would be as follows.

• Start in the morning.  If it’s your first day, maybe wait until your second or third day when you are able to get up early and will have the endurance for a FULL day’s visit.
• I would visit the Vatican Museums FIRST thing in the morning, and I wouldn’t try to walk through St. Peter’s square to get there.  Instead I would walk to the Vatican entrance using different side streets.  Then, after exiting the Vatican museum, I would eat a quick touristy lunch close by and then visit St. Peters.
• I would definitely purchase front of the line passes again, and I think the ones I purchased were fine, but I would not use their audio guides.  I would also allow a lot of time to find the guide representatives.
• I would buy a guidebook and preplan what I wanted to see inside the Vatican and St. Peters.  During high season, these are not locations that are conducive to meandering.
• I would read guide information about the Sistine Chapel in advance and create a fun “top ten” of artistic or historical elements.  This way we could all feel that we saw and understood WHY the chapel is such a big deal.
• I would purchase postcards in the Vatican store (near the spiral staircase) and then after visiting St. Peter’s, stop at the Vatican Post office near the exit of St. Peters (as you are facing the basilica, it’s on the far left side) and mail my postcards to get a Vatican postmark.

 

We ended up salvaging our day with an evening meal at 433 Restaurant.  Our daughter had steak and said it was one of her favorite meals of the trip.  And dessert at Gelateria Frigidarium was a definite repeater the next night!  I guess there isn’t much that a good meal and dessert can’t fix!