9641 Vatican Museums

I am sure this is somewhere else but I cannot find it.
I have three days in Rome and plan to go to the Vatican specifically to go to the Sistine Chapel. Am I correct to think that there are no advance tickets?
Also is there any way to avoid a massive queue?

Thanks

Category
Do & See

Yes - get there before 9.00am [and preferably earlier than that]

! noted this some while ago but do check it out.
There is a Vatican Museum queue busting scheme. tel 0039 06 397 22 474 [url=http://www.museumrome.com]Museum Rome Reservation[/url] It is a private local company that charges a booking fee for 1 to 5 people or groups of 6 or more. Of course it may not be cheap (no info on price sorry). You have to email via the website and pay by Paypal. It's easy to set up an account to do this. The Museum Rome people send a booking number which you take to the entrance of the VM. You go up to the front of the queue where your number will be checked. Once inside you pay the standard entrance fee in the same way as if you had queued for hours outside!

We visited at Easter & the queues were very long. There were people offering us queue jumping for a fee (which was VERY high) so we didn't take them up on it. Once in the museums there is only one way around and again it is slow. Sistine Chapel was one of the disappointments for me because it was so crowded. I did think other rooms were worth visiting in particular the map room (but I am a geographer!), the Vatican library and the modern art collection (which was almost empty as people rushed through it to get to the "important" stuff"). What ever you do - enjoy and take your time!

Ciao, I've just come back from Rome. We took a Vatican tour ( incl Sistine, Basilica & Musei ) yesterday for 35 euro each; booked from our B&B in Prati & well worth it. The guide was excellent, and we strode straight in avoiding all queues. We had the coolest head-sets too.
Use the tours, it's a much easier way.