The Sistine Chapel is definitely the highlight here, though the volume alone of art on display as you get there is mind blowing. Therein is one of the problems though, because after a while you are just dashing through another of a zillion hallways snaking over miles. It all starts to blur together, even thought the ceiling murals are all just amazing looking. Some of the more modern art you are forced to walk through to get the Sistine Chapel is ghastly, but you don't go to the Vatican for modern art. The Sistine Chapel is just as cool looking as you've heard, but the experience of being in it is not exactly what I expected or could have imagined. After you finally exit the last narrow hallway, you are disgorged into a huge room, the Sistine Chapel, that is stuffed to the rafters with people. All the while people continue to pour in from the hallway with seemingly nowhere to go and further pack together shoulder to shoulder. It is a bit of a madhouse. Adding to the harshness of all that, there are security guards whose sole job appears to be screaming out, "No talking, no pictures!" Never mind that the silence is destroyed by their continuous screams. And never mind that many people ignore them anyway and try to take pictures which leads them to push through the crowd to scream even louder at particular individuals. It is truly a crazy atmosphere. Something to experience, but only once.

This place is literally jammed full of beautiful works of art (and tourists). I could not imagine having booked a guided tour, it was wonderful just wandering around -- although we did get a bit lost. I would also recommend getting one of the audio guides where you can enter the number of each item and hear a description. Otherwise, you will have almost no context at all for the different works. By the way, there is no way to just pop in and check out the Sistine Chapel. The entire place is set up as basically one long, maze-like waiting line for it, but it is worth it.

From the Hotel Elite it’s an easy walk to the Metro, which takes you one way to the Vatican or the other way to the Bus/Train Terminal.

We booked a tour of the Vatican Museums with Viator, which I would highly recommend. There’s so much to see that we would have been overwhelmed and then not fully appreciated what we did see. We went in a separate extrance, so didn't have to stand in line at all. There are a lot of people in the museum and our guide did a good job of moving us through the exhibits, so that I hardly noticed the pack of people. Crowds aside, I can't say enough about how interesting this was! I had a small note book with me and took 8 pages of notes (most of which I can understand now as I go through them). Our tour guide was excellent, and you are given headphones, so you don’t have to be right beside her to hear her commentary.

After the tour was finished, our guide stood outside the Basilica and told us a few tidbits about it before setting us free to explore on our own. We would have liked to go down to the catacombs, but there was a long line and after walking the 4 miles through the museum we didn't have the energy to stand in the line.

This was one of my favorite things about Rome. Don't miss it!!!

Our Vatican Museum tour for 2pm on a Friday via the Vatican itself. I emailed them as per their website 30 days in advance and got a booking.

We took the Metro, line A to the Cipro stop (not the stated Vatican stop). It is very clean, modern and takes about 20 minutes.

I walk up to the guard – there was no lines that I noticed – show him my reservation and he advises me to walk through and head to the right to the “guided tours” desk. We go through security in moments, head to the desk, check-in with a lovely employee and go to a window further down to pay, no problems. All this is done within 15 minutes tops. It was so smooth and no problems at all. What a relief!

We head to the reservation waiting area and sit in air conditioned comfort awaiting our tour time. Our tour guide comes and first stop at a Sistine Chapel kiosk and the first 30 minutes, our guide explains the Sistine. It was thorough and very well done.

We walk through the misc. room, courtyard, rotunda (Apollo, Laocoon statues, etc), gallery of maps (amazing “3d” ceiling!!!), gallery of tapestries. Our tour guide explains key pieces thoroughly and makes sure the group stays together. It does get a bit crowded at times. We head to the raphael rooms, mostly under restoration but most can be seen. This portion is very crowded as there is only a small pathway instead of an open room.

We eventually end up at the back of the Sistine. At this point, our tour ends, it was about 2.5 hours. We enter the Sistine and due to our guide's excellent job of explaining it, we are able to understand all the paintings and knew exactly where everything was. It is very busy inside and we look a very long way up and stare. The guards were funny in silencing everyone every few seconds. I think they were making more noise the people. Photos aren’t allowed as well. I don’t think it would matter since everything was several stories up. I also think they just don’t want to deal with people taking photos and moving people out.

Photos are allowed everywhere else in the Vatican. We stay awhile and then head out to the “right” door to go to St Peter’s.

It is the most amazing place; as our tour guide said..."incomprehensively voluminous". Everything and every inch of it, there is something special to behold.