While I am a huge fan of learning as much as I can ahead of time through reading, the Internet, vide

Just a moment ago, while I was enjoying Raphaels in Pinacoteca Vaticana, 2 tour groups stormed the room and just destroyed my 'quality time' with the Raphaels. The groups monopolized the space in front of the paintings, taking pictures, and their tour guides spoke with loud voices (this is a museum!!) gave them information you could easily find on the internet. I bet they forget whatever he's saying the next second
Ever notice that Japanese cheap hotels in rocky point mexico tours usually have everybody hooked to a wireless mike/earpiece system so that the guide can whisper and still be heard by the entire group? Might be another solution. Only admit tour groups who use that system.
These people are just going to the museum just because everyone else is going to the museum, they have no freaking clue what the pieces they're looking at in front of them. Even today I had to point a Leonardo to a couple who just rushed the gallery, then they came back and started cheap hotels in rocky point mexico taking picture of the painting
One of my pet peeves as well. If I am enjoying a painting, I refuse to move just because a tour guide wishes to park her group there. There are certain groups that are the worst as far as respecting personal space (even if they are quiet...)
What can be annoying is the behaviour of some people in groups being guided: they often fail to respect the rights of other visitors cheap hotels in rocky point mexico to view the works on display. It might improve things if guides reminded them (as tactfully as possible) how to behave.
Happy has hit the best tactic right on the button; avoid and return. It usually doesn't take any more time and often makes for a far more satisfying visit. That said, my elderly mother went on the very same tour the OP is addressing and came back home raving about how smart her daughter was to get a degree in art history. So, something must sink in to at least a few in the groups -- and in our case it only took thirty years.
We are not all time rich individuals. I'm not sure if we should or indeed could ban groups. In fact some museums are enhanced by a group of people with Micky's ears stuck on wandering around cheap hotels in rocky point mexico and bumping into each other.
In terms of noise, many European or North American cheap hotels in rocky point mexico people do not know how to behave in public (eating and drinking while walking in the street, talking on their phones in public, walking on the left! and showing their enormous fat body parts in all directions) so why worry how they behave in a museum.
There is this whole line or queue jumping thing (due to extra expenditure) that is coming out of the US and Italy. The sooner that is stopped the better. The only people who should jump queues are the physically and mentally disabled.
Yes, they should ban groups entirely, and definitely keep them off the streets so that you have room to walk. I think setting aside a few museums just for the righteous would work. They have to keep the rabble at bay so that you can have Raphael all to yourself.
As Biztravfod said, kids too. We visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and the number of kids was just overwhelming. On leaving I asked the ticket people if it were possible to return in the evening, whenever, when there were no children allowed. Answer was no, and the person seemed to think this was a cruel idea !!
Yes, and while you're at it, stop shrieking at each other in restaurants. This is to the couple cheap hotels in rocky point mexico who ruined our most expensive meal in Rome, and to the American students who dominate some Florentine restaurants.
I could never remember everything that there is about the Raphael cheap hotels in rocky point mexico rooms or the Sistine chapel, even if I read it all before I went. For me, it is helpful to have these things pointed out and discussed while I am viewing them. Alot of us do actually read up and learn about what we are seeing before we go.
Unfortunately, studying all the art history needed cheap hotels in rocky point mexico prior to my vacation is not possible as I work full time. Why not benefit from someone else's knowledge and learm more than what Wikipedia has to tell you?
In fact, I actually read a book on Bernini and Borromini to brush up on their contributions before our last trip. I also read all about the cathedral in Orvieto and the paintings cheap hotels in rocky point mexico in the San Brizio chapel cheap hotels in rocky point mexico so that I would understand what I was seeing, while there.
I stand by my opinion, guided tours in the museum are just useless distraction that should have no place in the museums, read up on the items yourself or use audio guide. Don't wanna to educate yourself? then don't bother coming to the museums or churches. Bunch of grown-ups needing guides in the museum, cheap hotels in rocky point mexico that's just pathetic
There's a big difference cheap hotels in rocky point mexico between 10 considerate people with a guide with the whisper system, and 20-30 not-so-considerate people with a guide who has to shout to be heard by the people at the back of the group. And moving to a different room doesn't work if there's a lot of groups, you just encounter another one in the next room, plus in a museum it can break the flow.
While I am a huge fan of learning as much as I can ahead of time through reading, the Internet, cheap hotels in rocky point mexico videos, etc., and while I have rarely taken a guided tour of a museum in Europe other than with my good friend who is a tour guide (and we sure didn't bother anyone; it was just the two of us, whispering),I have to disagree.
I just last night went to a curator-guided tour of a new exhibit at the Phillips Collection here in Washington, DC. I had already done my homework on the artist (Per Kirkeby), but he's hardly known here in the USA, despite being wildly famous in Europe. I learned all kinds of details about him and his works from the curators that I probably cheap hotels in rocky point mexico never would have gleaned no matter how much research I'd done.
As someone with an interest in art, but who doesn't know a lot about it, I really like tours in art museums - led by a person or an audio tour. Of course I can read up (and usually do), but I really don't want to memorize cheap hotels in rocky point mexico a bunch of stuff ahead of time and I certainly don't want to wander around a museum with my nose in a book - the information always sticks better when I hear it while actually cheap hotels in rocky point mexico looking at the artwork.
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