Reply To: Ancient Rome tour – points?

[masaccio]

Just saying what I saw two weeks ago. St Peter’s queue was allegedly 2 hours. Last time we went, we just walked in, but that was 2006.

@Northernlass get in touch with the ‘Scavi’ office at the Vatican to visit the catacombs under St Peter’s. There is quite the waiting list and daily numbers are very limited, but I expect February will be just fine. The tour guide we had had quite the mic drop moment at the end. I think it’s the best thing to do in Rome. And if you like the underground stuff, the catacombs at San Sebastiano on the Appian Way are also a great trip.

For the Sistine Chapel, get into the Museum as early as possible, and hoof it to the Chapel as quickly as you can ignoring everything else. You will get there before the masses and when we did this, there were only a handful of other people. Then you can slowly visit the museum backwards. If you have very, very deep pockets you can book an after hours private tour. I think when I looked it was 4 figures!

I remember that ice cream place – my wife and I both got a ridiculously large cone of ice cream when we first went to Rome on our honeymoon.