Collessum & Sistine Chapel Rome - how to book?

[TheClitterati]

Looking for some help in booking tickets to the Collessum & Vatican Museum - we are going at Easter which is a busy time, but its insanely confusing.

There are so many "official" websites and I am wary of being scanned. I don't want the Roma or card which includes Vatican - it seems very expensive, and then you still have to book. I've not even been able to figure out which are the official booking websites - there are many many websites claiming to be "official". We don;t want to do an expensive tour or have a guide - I just want to book entry tickets for both these sites.

If you've been and know how to book I'd really appreciate some wisdom & guidance. There are lots of YT videos on visiting Collessum & Sistine Chapel - I've watched so many and none offer any clarity at all. I'm so confused.

Its me and 2 DC ages 11 & 15 if that matters - I think Collessum is free for them but they still need tickets

For Collosseum you want coopculture.it and for the Sistine Chapel it is tickets.museivaticani.va (note that you need a ticket for the Vatican museums to visit the Sistine Chapel even if that’s all you want to see). If you can’t get tickets on the official site, we found GetYourGuide.com had availability and was only slightly more expensive.

We went to the Vatican museums last year and booked through the Vatican website. I left it a bit late and the only tickets we could get included a breakfast. Well the breakfast turned out to be a really lovely meal and the best bacon ever! I think we were quite fortunate as we had a freshly cooked breakfast made to order in a pleasant outdoor venue. This may have been because of Covid as reviews I had seen before booking said that the breakfast was a buffet in a cafeteria. We did not go on an organized tour but walked around on our own with the tour on earphones.

How has no one said it?

enjoy OP, but don't scream! 😂

thank you!! I will try that tonight.

I did see breakfast tickets.
I hope I haven't left it too late.

Whats all the screaming about @EmmaEmerald ? 😱

It's a mumsnet legend

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3178898-DH-embarrassed-by-my-sensitivity

oh that is hilarious - I'll try to control myself, but good knows what the kids will be like.

Fuck booking the Colosseum is a bloody nightmare - how to make something super unnecessarily complicated!! Anyhoo I think I have done that now. Not quirte sure but I think its done

Vatican museum next!

unless you are the most devout Catholics I would give the Vatican a miss. We went last Easter and here’s a pic of the crowd. It was very unpleasant tbh, and I’m not generally ‘sensitive’ (and am a Catholic).

i think your kids would love the Domus Aurea instead, which is just a few mins from Coliseum and has the most amazing virtual reality headset experience of the actual Roman palace.
tickets also available for that via coop culture.it

Were going in the summer and I agree it appears v complicated compared with booking places for other city breaks.
But thanks for the tips.

You beat me to it genuinely only clicked on this thread to say "don't forget to wail at it" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Colosseum - I've booked tickets - well a voucher. I had to buy a ROMA pass for me. They can't email the tickets to me and I have to collect the ticktes from the ticket office - nightmare.
No info about Roma Pass collection.

Vatican - had to use GET YOUR GUIDE - thanks for that tip.
Again I seemed to have booked but I don't actually have any tickets. The instructions are unclear - I have a voucher I need to exchange for tickets, but instructions of where to go with your tickets - but no instructions on how to get the tickets.

its a crazy complicated system. thaks for the advice - its impossible to tell what is genuine & this must be really vulnerable to fraud.

thanks I will check that out too

Totally agree with this.

We did the Domus Romane a few of years ago on the advice of a thread like this and it was amazing! Went with my sister in law who is from Rome and had not heard of it, she was really impressed.

We did enjoy going up the dome of St Peter's for the view but there was no need to book that then.

Yes book directly through the Vatican website as mentioned above. We booked a 'private out of hours' tour of the Vatican Museums with Headout Tours after seeing how busy it got during the day. And got totally ripped off. It was absolute carnage in there, even at 8pm, much like the picture posted above and as for the Sistine Chapel you literally could not move. So disappointing!

We chose not to visit the Colosseum, it is absolutely stunning to look at and you don't need tickets to do that.

Please make sure you visit Altare della Patria and take the panoramic lift to the top roof terrace for the best view of Rome you can imagine!

@TheClitterati I did Rome with DD last year, also Easter! When you arrive at Vatican, there are two queues outside the city walls one for pre-booked and one not. Then inside there are signs for where to change your voucher to tickets. Then upstairs to pick up your headsets.

It was painfully slow moving through the museum, we ended up skipping a few rooms - it's a bit like Ikea in that you have to follow the route through, you can't just visit specific parts.

We did a Big Bus tour too, that was good.

As an aside the colosseum is lovely at night. We wandered up one evening and just looked from the outside. Gorgeous. Felt very safe too lots of people about.

Ditto St Peters at night too.

And I know it wasn't in your post but the Capuchin Crypt about 10 minutes walk from Spanish steps is really interesting too

rome.us/churches/capuchin-crypt.html/amp/

To be fair even just a wander around the basilica is incredible - don't forget to look up - I found it quite moving just being there

I managed to keep it together tho

Clitterati your voucher gets exchanged at booths in a very typically Italian way once you’ve made it, along with the throngs, into the main visitor centre. Then you get divided into language groups with a registered Guide.
Not a slick process. Much faffery involved.

If you bought your Vatican museum tickets from the official site above you should have received an e-voucher with your email confirmation. You don't need to print it, just show it on your phone.

Should look like this

Thank you. I have that.

What a faff they make it.

Booking Colosseum tickets is a nightmare, particularly if you want to do the underground tour. Finally managed it last year through a guided tour which also covered the forum and wasn't too expensive.

We did the 8am Vatican museums tour but (being honest), it was really quite boring and most of the tour group sloped off at various stages. While some of the rooms before the Sistine Chapel are beautiful, it gets to the overload point and you just want to finish the tour.

Try coopculture website.

I've been to the Sisitine Chapel before - back in 1994. It was "free Sunday" and there was such a crowd my feet barely touched the floor.

You weren't allowed to take any photos and there was a Japanese man with this weird scanner thing scanning all the pictures - reaslised a few years later it was an early digital camera. I'd never heard of them before.

There is a lot of art there - of more interest to me than the DC I am sure.

hi @TheClitterati did you manage to get tickets for the colosseum for your kids? We are going in two weeks. I can figure out how to get adult tickets but it keeps sending me around in a loop looking for childrens tickets. I don't think we can get them online. DS is only 1 so I don't want to book a tour in case we only get to stay there for a short while

I'm pretty sure I booked via www.coopculture.it/it/

I had the Roma Pass & then booked our slot.

I had a few emails with the customer services and they were helpful so try that.

You do need to sort the tickets in advance.

We had a wonderful holiday in Italy and fun in Rome- I hope you can sort it out and enjoy! The colosseum is a fantastic visit.

Take your best walking shoes!