Vatican

Regardless of whether or not you have tickets, the museum is super busy (you'll be squeezed shoulder to shoulder for most of it), especially during peak seasons like summer. If you can, try to buy tickets for a private after-hours tour where you can actually enjoy your experience. Otherwise, the exhibits are beautiful and full of history - but the crowds did dampen our experience.

Cruiser66594998858

Buy tickets ahead of time. The line to get tickets day of is insane. If you can't get tickets from the official website then just get on a tour. Some tours pop you out directly into St. Peter's Basilica which saves you hours of walking and queueing. If you're going mid day, just mentally prepare yourself to butt shoulders with people.

mikex2017

As a venue, the museum is impressive — the corridors and rooms are grand and ornate, and the art collections are extensive. But as a visitor experience, this has to be one of the worst places I’ve been in my life. For starters, the queuing systems to enter the complex are appalling. There is no information displayed, no order, no structure. Staff stand about idly rather than proactively giving out information. But the single biggest issue is that far FAR too many people,e are allowed in at one time. Corridors are FULL, trying to get up stairs or through doorways is horrendous, more like football crowds than an ordered museum. It would only take one person to fall on stairs or an emergency to happen and there would be absolute chaos — and injuries and deaths. Signage to navigate around is also very poor, and there is zero sense of any natural visitor flow — it’s just a chaotic free-for-all. I managed to escape some of the crowds by going upstairs to the Etruscan and Egyptian rooms, which are definitely quieter and contain quite impressive impressive collections. But overall, I was really quite appalled by the total chaos of the place and disgusted by the obvious avarice nature of the Vatican in shoving-in as many people as possible without any regard to the actual quality of the visitor experience. And if you don’t have a pre-booked ticket, expect to wait in half-kilometre-long queues for 2-3+ hours. In all conscience, I could not recommend the Vatican museums as a positive experience to anyone.

michaelbrowning

A beautiful museum with great art

Loverochelle