Eden Washburn

Review of Musei Vaticani-Dipertimento di...

Listen. I LOVE museums.

Listen. I LOVE museums.

I feel almost guilty rating the Vatican 1 star because it's ~THE VATICAN, but I was really disappointed.

Short version: High prices. Insane crowds. Miserable, exhausting, and frankly unsafe inside. Art was disappointing and overrated.

I have been living in Italy for nearly 5 months now, so I have come to expect a certain level of inefficiency with everything I do here, but this was something else.

I did my required research and saw that you should buy tickets ahead of time but that it costs a bit extra and you can't get a student discount. I was under the impression that was still the best option however, until a few different friends told me that waiting in line wasn't bad at all if you get there in the morning, and then you can save a few extra Euros buying tickets in person. Currently on a super tight budget so I took the advice and once we got there it was instant REGRET. You'll wait in line all day. So instead of saving money, we ended up spending an extra 10 to skip the line.

Personally I think I would have been even more disappointed with the experience if I had waited in line all day instead of shelling out 10 more euros, but that is just me.

I recognize that it was never meant to be a museum, but even still the flow is HORRIBLE. You will miss rooms and have no way to push through the crowds to get back to them. Inside you are herded like cattle packed in hot and smelly rooms. I just needed some air. I felt like I was going to pass out at points.

These conditions would be worth it to me if there was something INCREDIBLE to see, but there honestly isn't. Even the Sistine Chapel. I recommend Basilica San Silvestro if you want to see an even more beautiful ceiling without crowds of people shoving you.

Prado in Madrid and the Louvre in Paris are so much better that it's hard to say that the Vatican museum is even in the same league.

It was not even worth half of the price.

Honestly I wouldn't go again even if it was completely free.