I would highly recommend to book a tour. You learn a lot and I guess I would have been lost in the vatican museum without a guide. Doris explained everything very well to us. As a guided group you can skip the lines, so we saved a lot of time with that.

Paying for the skip the line does cut off 3-4 hours waiting time however this does come at a cost (very expensive I my eyes). However worth it. The history, art work and sculptures within are second to none and the guided tour gives you a great understanding of information you might miss if you didn’t have the guide. We would strongly recommend to anyone come to Rome or coming back for a second go.

Our tour guide Francesco was great. He was informative and very enthusiastic. The tour was interesting but he made it enjoyable as well. He even stayed a few minutes afterward to chat with my husband and gave us recommendations for other activities in Rome. Only disappointment was that we did not “skip the line” as advertised, just went in along with everyone else (though a skip line was available as I observed others using it). Luckily, it was not such a busy time. Also, when booking, it indicated St. Peter’s Basilica was not open on Wednesdays or after 2:30, so not included in our tour as described. I was very disappointed to hear that but found it was untrue and we were able to see the Basilica after the Pope’s Audience, at 11:30. It was also open after the tour.