Vatican Museums Skip-the-Line Ticket with Host Assistance

If you would rather decide your own pace, a Vatican Museums skip-the-line ticket is the simplest way in. A host meets you at the meeting point, checks you in and takes you toward the entrance, so you avoid the main queue, though everyone still goes through security.

Inside, you are free to wander. Early on you meet the sculpture of the Museo Pio-Clementino, with the Belvedere Torso and the Laocoön group, then long corridors hung with tapestries (Gallery of Tapestries) and painted with maps (Gallery of Maps). The Raphael Rooms follow, including the Room of Constantine and the Room of Heliodorus, and every visitor ends up in the Sistine Chapel beneath Michelangelo's ceiling and Last Judgment.

Two ways to use the ticket:

• the entry ticket alone, with no guide, for a visit in the order and at the speed you like
• an upgrade with an English-speaking licensed guide, who then leads you into St. Peter's Basilica

Expect two and a half to three hours. Tickets are collected at the meeting point on the day, shoulders and knees must be covered, and the Sistine Chapel can close at short notice for official events.