Queues in Rome?

[Theresa]

DH & I are lucky enough to be going to Rome for 3 days at beginning of july (child free!). Have read the 'don't miss' tips on another thread and just wondered about queues to see the 'big ones' eg colesium & sistine chapel. Have been recommended to get there 'early' what time are we talking, how long are queues likely to be by mid morning?
Thanks

have you a Rough Guide or Lonely Planet?
very helpful - borrow from library if you don't want to buy

Not sure about queues as we went before the tourist season but one thing I really recommend is having a meal by the Pantheon...there is a lovely square there with loads of restaurants and outside seating...DH sat outside one mild spring evening on our anniversary and had a lovely romantic meal.....

Rome is endlessly beautiful

Have a lovely lovely time

XXX

that should read DH and I...

We went on a fantastic tour
www.icontours.com/deals&details.html
They did a tour of St Peters for free and then you can pay for the vatican tour which we did and it was well worth it. It look like this is all in now though. Just the right amount of information and anecdotes

we used Angel tours for a trip round the colloseum, so glad we did as there are 2 queues, one for guided groups and other for general, the main queue was 3 hrs long in the morning! (That was by 10am too)

We did the "big ones" first thing in the morning, as they opened, and didn't have to queue for most of them. Unlike bluesky we found the Colosseum was almost deserted at opening time, but packed out an hour later.

The only place we had to queue for was the Vatican; we arrived as they opened, and found ourselves at the end of an hour-long queue. We were then herded through like a load of sheep without being given time to really look around, and when we got into the Sistine chapel we were packed in shoulder-to-shoulder and "encouraged" to leave within ten minutes.

We got to Vatican when it opened and still had to q. My cousin went a year or so ago and got collared coming off the underground by the collesseum by a woman who said she could get them in without q-ing. He's game for anything so said ok - and ended up sailing in past the q, through the guided tour entrance. It cost him 10 euros on top of admission I think. Don't know if I'm brave enough to do that! Love Rome, am jealous - enjoy your trip!

We were there at Easter. We arrived at the Vatican just before 8am and avoided the queues for St Peter's. But the Sistine... We queued for an hour from about 8am another day and gave up! The same day we got to the colosseum about 9.30 and it was fine. Queued for about half an hour.

We went in January, so before the tourist season, but still had to queue to get into the vatican, we didn;t queue anywhere elaso though.

thnaks everyone, very useful