Rome-booking sights ahead??

bills

My parents are heading to rome soon, they have never been before & neither have I so just wondering is it possible to book entrance to vatican, st peters basilica etc.. before they go so as to avoid standing in queues for hours. Or do the queues move quickly? Any advice welcome?

I know when i was in florence we booked museums ahead of time & you just showed up at the time & got entry. There was a small queue but nothing compared to the one if you hadnt booked.

Also, has anyone done a day trip to capri from rome? Is is worth it?

Thanks

hot fuss

For the Colloseum, just go to Palatine Hill or the Roman Forum first and in either of these places you can get a ticket that covers all three sights so you don't have to deal with the massive queue at the Colloseum.

We got tickets at Palatine Hill, which is well worth a visit and the queue was less than five minutes (this was on a Saturday in June so peak times too). We then just passed by the whole queue in the Colloseum with our tickets and strolled in easily..

Milktrolley

hot fuss wrote: »

For the Colloseum, just go to Palatine Hill or the Roman Forum first and in either of these places you can get a ticket that covers all three sights so you don't have to deal with the massive queue at the Colloseum.

+1. There's an entrance to the Forum at the Colloseum itself, just head through there and its on your left along the way, forget how far though. But it'll save you a load of time, a highly recommended way of getting your ticket!

zemphis

For the Vatican, trying go at about 12 or 1ish and the queue is usually a lot less. In the morning the queue can be exceptionally long but by lunchtime it tends to be a lot shorter. When I went, I went around 1ish and could nearly walk straight up to the door.

At St Peter's the queue to get into the Basilica itself tends to move fairly quickly. There is a separate queue to go up into the Dome and this was very slow moving so I didn't bother waiting.

As per previous posters I would also recommend getting a joint ticked at the Palentine Hill which will let you skip the queues at the Colleseum.

ncmc

bills wrote: »

My parents are heading to rome soon, they have never been before & neither have I so just wondering is it possible to book entrance to vatican, st peters basilica etc.. before they go so as to avoid standing in queues for hours. Or do the queues move quickly? Any advice welcome?

I know when i was in florence we booked museums ahead of time & you just showed up at the time & got entry. There was a small queue but nothing compared to the one if you hadnt booked.

Also, has anyone done a day trip to capri from rome? Is is worth it?

Thanks

I would recommend that they take a guided tour around the Colliseum and the Vatican museum. It is more expensive than single entry, but you pay outside and then skip the queue. In particular, the Colliseum one is very good as it includes a tour of the Forum. I feel that without a tour guide, you would just be staring at pillars and ruins, not knowing what anything is! They won't have any trouble finding the tours, there is loads of them milling around outside and they tend to approach you.

The Vatican is probably easier to negotiate without a guide. When we went, we were in the queue about 15 mins before opening and waltzed in with no queue. That was in March though, i'm not sure what August would be like.