Ruwi W

Review of Musei Vaticani-Dipertimento di...

One of the most beautiful museums I ve ever seen, ...

One of the most beautiful museums I ve ever seen, a must when visiting Rome. Great artefacts and helpful staff when you get lost, audio guides are really interesting as well.
The reason I give it three stars though is that the experience is chaotic because of the number of tourists allowed in at the one time. We tried to book online a couple of days ahead for a time slot but it was blocked out. We rocked up on the day to a long line outside - this moved quickly but once inside it wasn t clear where to buy tickets as the hall was jam packed with tour groups, signage wasn t clear and we had to wait ages to find out that tickets were available upstairs with virtually no lines. Once inside, particularly on the way to Sistine Chapel, we were blocked in the corridors due to tour group after tour group, masses of people which is especially comfortable on a hot day. With that many tour groups the poor security guards were finding it difficult to get everyone to move in an orderly fashion. We were under the impression that the museum controlled the amount of people who enter at a given time but judging by our experience this is clearly not the case.