Vatican Museums

Is the Catholic Church, represented by the Vatican, effectively appropriating tourists’ funds? My visit to the Vatican Museums was cancelled by the administration due to institutional events, and I was promised a full automatic refund. However, more than 60 days have passed and I still have not received my money. I have not been given any transaction confirmation or clear information about the status of the refund. This delay is unacceptable and very disappointing. I hope the administration will pay attention to this issue and finally resolve the refund.

_J8511MJ

Not for the faint hearted… This place is vast and very very very busy! A must see.. packed with artefacts but chaos! Ticketing a the entrance process is total pandaemonium! I was there alone and it was stressful.. anyone trailing children round here is crazy! - don’t put yourself through it!

R2248ZItomm

The Vatican museums house some of the world’s most beloved masterpieces. It is a collection revered the world over - anyone interested in history would want to see at least some of it. We certainly did. We arrived early to cater for the long lines. This is when the fun began. The queuing area is staffed by what I can only assume to be the Italian version of the Keystone Cops. There were many queues and according to staff, their purpose and applicability changed from moment to moment, depending on which Keystone Cop was doing the talking, These queues were dependent on the time of people’s tickets. However there were no signs, no meaningful guidance from the inepts at the gate, it was a free-for-all. It was ugly, it was messy - for families it was unforgivably awful. My thought on the way in that at the home of Catholicism, with nearly two thousand years to plan - it’s depressing this is the state of things. Inside the museum, what should have been a beautiful experience is made just awful by the fact the place is grossly, enormously, irrationally stuffed with people. It is simply too busy. The things put in place to help manage the heaving masses made the experience more confined, more rushed, more miserable. Every time I went to stop for a moment to look at something, or to talk to one of my kids, there was yet another person wanting to get by, or wanting to see the thing next, or wanting to just look, or just cross… it was just dreadfully woefully dreadful. For reasons that defy explanation, the museum operates some asinine one way system around the exhibits. It feel like being cattle. The net effect is that you can’t go from the things you want to see to the next, then the next. You have to follow the stupid system. I’ve recently visited the Louvre, which was less busy, less regimented, less controlling, and as a consequence much more enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong there are wonders to see at the Vatican Museum - but seeing them is just painful. You do it because this is the price - not because it’s agreed experience. The whole thing is just marred by an idiotic incompetence in organisation and it’s a terrible shame.

700PeteJ