Vatican Tours/Papal Audience

We will be in Rome on a Wednesday during our Oct. Quest cruise. Would like information/advice on visiting Vatican & possibly arranging a Papal audience without having to wait in long lines, etc. Wondering if Azamara offers this type of tour or whether to arrange a private tour, as well as what tour company is best. Any experienced tips are very much appreciated.

I cannot answer what Azamara will do but there is a lot of really good advice on the Trip Advisor Rome Forum re vatican visits and audiences

Not sure about the Papal audience but we were in Rome in November 2011 and we bought our tickets online from the Vatican official website before leaving for Rome. I most definitely recommend doing this. I couldn't believe the lineup. And this was 'off-season'!!!! It was huge and we were able to bypass the entire lineup and walk right in. Saved us a lot of time and energy!

And the Vatican was amazing to see. Definitely recommend.

We arranged a private Vatican tour and our tour guide arranged for us to get the tickets to the Papal Audience. He made arrangements for the tickets to be delivered to our hotel. I suggest you get the tickets ahead of time or you will have a very long wait and may not even get in.

Marion

Thank you all for suggestions, we'll definitely get our tickets ahead of time.

Did you tour the Vatican on your own? There are so many tours that can be pre-arranged so I'm interested to know what your experience was like including the time you spent visiting. We are interested in going in May but don't want to be overwhelmed with a lot of info.Purchasing tickets ahead seems like the best way to go. Thanks.

We did arrange a tour and they got us the tickets to the Papal Audience. You can contact them to get more information. Email them at angel tours rome at hotmail dot com.or you can do a serarch on the Internet to learn more about them and what tours they offer. They keep their groups small - 8 to 10 people. Truly fabulous tours - we took a few of them.

Marion

Thanks Marion for the reply and we will certainly look for Angel Tours' info on the internet.

We went on Celebrity and did the rome tour with the ship, got to skip the lines at the Forum, the Colleseum and St Peter's. We did not enter the Sistine, but that was an available package as well.

DEFINITELY recommend a tour package of some sort that has head of the line priv, otherwise you would waste a lot of your day and see a lot less.

Thanks Marion for the reply and we will certainly look for Angel Tours' info on the internet.

FYI - we didn't wait on any lines either - they took us in a back door some where to avoid the lines. We were on our own for the Papal Audience - it is not part of the tour but they did supply us with the FREE tickets.

Marion

We did arrange a tour and they got us the tickets to the Papal Audience. You can contact them to get more information. Email them at angel tours rome at hotmail dot com.or you can do a serarch on the Internet to learn more about them and what tours they offer. They keep their groups small - 8 to 10 people. Truly fabulous tours - we took a few of them.

 

Marion

I am very glad I found this thread. I have been trying to figure out whether is possible to attend a Wednesday Papal audience when arriving the same on the cruise. I will be taking RC cruise this novemeber with overnight in Rome. I probably don't want to stay for the whole 3 hour audience, but I would like to go first to the shops around the St Peters Square to buy some religious items, anf then arrived the last hour to the audience to get the final blessing.

Marion,

How did your schedule work the day of the audience? Were you coming directly from the ship? What else did you do that day?

About angel tours rome at hotmail dot com. is that Angel Tours rome. I see the have a gmail address, I am not sure whther is the same company or not.

Thanks :-)

Papal audience in St. Peter's square is free. We got tickets from our hotel concierge.

FYI -- After further research and planning, we have secured tickets during our Rome Visit for the Scavi Tour - visit to St. Peter's Tomb & Necropolis under the Basilica. The Vatican issues only 200-250 visitors a day, with 12 people for each tour. You can email the following address for tickets Ufficio Scavi <uff.scavi@fabricsp.va> Also, you can reserve tickets for the Vatican Museum 90-60 days in advance via email 19 Euros pp for entry and 31 Euros pp for guided 2 hr. tours. Also, the Basilica is closed on Wednesday morning during the Papal Audience with no entry allowed after 10:30 for the Papal Audience in the Fall 2012.

For any shoppers out there...we were on a tour which was excellent, but it just took us to one shop then left. There were many others to see. Afterwards we realized we could have stayed longer and got a taxi ba ck too hotel.