Tickets - Last Supper/Vatican/St Peter's

[amaroo]

Any recommendations for ticket/tour operators for these tourist sites?

I know the official cost for Last Supper admission is very cheap however, I'm booking for 4 and don't want to wait for tickets to open ... I want to lock in dates for Rome/Milan and get on with booking the rest of the trip with confidence.

I've found heaps of operators that have availability ... just need to pick a good one.

 

[RooFlyer]

My travel agent booked me on Carrani Tours' "Extended Vatican Museums and Gardens" tour, then the "Early access Vatican, including Sistine Chapel" tour. My TR including Vatican is here. (Sorry pics have been deleted.

Note that Carrani meeting person (different from the tour guide) was late both days, but arrived just in time for it to be OK. The tour of the gardens etc the previous day was very good; it was just the meeting person who was hopeless.

I suggest my strategy of having a guided tour on one day, then go for an 'early access' tour the next day, to get in the Sistine in relative quiet and uncrowded.

There are a number of 'early access' tours but we (group of about 15 from memory) assembled over the road at 7:40 and marched straight across, and straight past the other 'early tours' lines that had formed along rope-lines. I believe we were the very first group in the doors that day. It wasn't actually a tour, but basically a person meets you, takes you in through ticketing, go through security, up the escalator, gives you a map, and off you go by yourself. As I had done the guided tour the previous day, I knew exactly where to go and was IIRC the second person inside the Sistine Chapel It remained relatively uncrowded for a full 15 minutes.

See the bottom of post 105 in my TR thread for the trick for 'legitimately getting near the front of the St Peter's Basilica's dome queue, avoiding the 500m-odd of regular queue. PM me if you want more on this. Its very worth doing!

Here are précis of the 2 tours:

EXCLUSIVE EXTENDED VATICAN MUSEUMS & GARDENS

** Exclusive partner agreement with the Vatican providing VIP access through areserved
Door, allowing you to skip all the lineseven the priority lines.
** Vatican Gardens
** Bramante Staircase
** Tapestries and Geographical Maps Galleries
** Sistine Chapel
** St Peter s Basilica

Enter inside the Vatican Gardens, Museums, SistineChapel and St Peter s Church with no wait access.Meet your tour Guide in theVatican area and discover the masterpieces of Rome.Your friendly andprofessional tour guides will lead you to discover the splendid Gardens, theBramante Staircase, the Galleries, the Sistine Chapel and the monumentalBasilica.

Meetingpoint: steps near to Caffe Vaticano onViale Vaticano 100 opposite side of the Vatican Museums entrance, at 8.00 am. Tour ends Close to St Peter s square.
NOTEress code is to be respected forduration of the tour (covered shoulders, no shorts).It is forbidden to pick theflowers or plants inside the Gardens.

_______________
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[TD="width: 627, bgcolor: transparent"]EXCLUSIVE PARTNER S EARLY ACCESS SISTINE CHAPEL & VATICAN MUSEUM TICKETS
** Exclusive Partners entrance
** Be part of the firstgroup entering with your map and Audioguide
** Great DVD as a memorabilla


Enter into the Sistine Chapel as a VIP!With privileged access to the Sistine Chapel 15 minutes before over tour groups and 1 hour and 15 minutes before the general public, you ll have the chance to admire the Michelangelo s masterpiece with only a few other lucky people.

With the aid of a map of the Museums and your exhaustive pre-recorded audioguide you ll feel free to explore all the Vatican Museums at your own pace.Special tickets include the DVD Art and Faith with a full description of the Vatican city in several languages.

Includes:
No line partner s entrance ticket
Audio Guide Device with more than 400 comments
Map of the Vatican Museums
Vatican TreasuresVD

Does not include:
  Pick up and drop off service, extras

Departures: every day except Sunday at 7.45 am
Blackout dates: Dec 8, 25-26; Jan 1, 6; Feb 11, Mar 19, Apr 21, May 1, Aug 14-15.

Meeting point:
Steps near Caffe Vaticano on Viale Vaticano 100 opposite side of the Vatican Museums entrance, at 7.20 to 7.30 am.
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[Milboo]

Looking back I am confident it was Tickitaly I used.

We choose to do a day trip to Milan (from Paris) quite near our departure date so could only go through someone who did the tour.

I studied this work in detail during my degree and to see it was overwhelming.

 

[amaroo]

What a PITA process to purchase tickets for the Last Supper !!! The date we want opened up today, multiply calls - either not picked-up or dropped out mid conversation. 2 hrs after the tickets were supposed to be available online, they finally appeared - lucky to get the date/time/quantity we required. The website is terrible - not exactly sure I've booked the right thing. Will find out in a couple of months I suppose.

FWIW - 4 tickets (2 adults / 2 kids) cost €19 ... one of the phone attempts had the agent quoting €33 before the line went dead.

 

[Milboo]

It is not very user friendly is it.

I am glad you secured tickets though.

If anyone in your family feels the cold, make sure they take a jumper. The room is kept cool for preservation reasons and I remember a few people found it cool especially as you're stationery for the 15 min viewing.

 

[amaroo]

It is not very user friendly is it.

I am glad you secured tickets though.

If anyone in your family feels the cold, make sure they take a jumper. The room is kept cool for preservation reasons and I remember a few people found it cool especially as you're stationery for the 15 min viewing.

The tickets don't last long - within an hour availability for >2 tickets in any time slot was exhausted :shock: Thanks for the heads-up on the temp.

Terrible process - needed a few glasses last night to counterbalance the frustration