How to Visit the Vatican in 2026: A Guide from 30 Years of Visits

Q: Is a guided tour of the Vatican worth it?

Yes. With 70,000 objects in the collection and seven kilometres of galleries, the Museums are a lot to take in without context. A good guide points you at the important pieces, explains what you're looking at, and helps you skip past the bits that don't need your time. We've done the Vatican both independently and on guided tours, and we got much more out of the guided visits. If budget is the sticking point, even an audio guide helps.

Q: Do you need to book Vatican tickets in advance?

Yes. The Vatican Museums have capacity limits and do sell out in peak season (April to October, Easter, Christmas). Tickets are released 60 days in advance on the official website. Without an advance ticket you can face a queue of several hours at the ticket office, or find out they're sold out entirely. Also remember: tickets are personalised now, and you'll need an ID that matches the name on your ticket.

My first visit to the Vatican was as a slightly sullen teenager, dragged around St. Peter’s Basilica by my parents whilst trying to project the level of disinterest appropriate to a fifteen-year-old. It didn’t work. The Basilica is simply too big, too ornate, and too full of Bernini to be ignored, even by someone determined to be unimpressed by everything his parents showed him.

I’ve been back many times since, starting with that first grudging teenage tour and continuing through guided walks of the Museums, early sunrise photos from the top of the dome, and a memorable descent into the ancient Necropolis buried under the Basilica. Between Jess and I, we’ve clocked up more than thirty years of Vatican visits, across every time of year, with tour companies and independently, on free Sundays and over-packed Wednesdays.

So we’ve learned, among other things, that the ticket queue on a Saturday in July is not somewhere any sensible person wants to be. We’ve learned which tours skip which lines, when the Sistine Chapel is bearable, why you need a scarf in your day bag, and where to find the post office (yes, the Vatican has its own post office, and it’s far better than the Italian one).

This guide is the result. It covers the best time to visit, how to actually skip the queues rather than just being told you can, the highlights inside the Museums and the Basilica, the Papal Audience, tickets, tours, dress code, and the various practical things that are likely to trip you up.

Right. First: what the Vatican actually is, because the terminology can be a bit confusing.

Table of Contents:

What is the Vatican?

The Vatican, or Vatican City, is an independent city-state tucked inside Rome. It’s the smallest country in the world by both area and population, and it’s ruled by the Pope, who doubles as the head of the Catholic Church. Which is quite a job.

Inside Vatican City you’ll find a set of attractions that are on most Rome itineraries: the Vatican Museums, St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Peter’s Square, and the Sistine Chapel (which sits inside the Museums). It’s a pilgrimage site for Catholics, but also a magnet for anyone with even a passing interest in Renaissance art, Baroque architecture, or extremely old sculptures of naked men.

A quick note on terminology. When most people say “the Vatican,” they mean either the independent state or the Museums. In this guide, I’m using it to cover everything inside Vatican City, including the Museums.

An Overview of the Vatican

The Vatican City State was formally established in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty, which sorted out a long-running and occasionally heated disagreement about how much of Rome the Pope was entitled to. It’s named after Vatican Hill, one of the traditional seven hills of Rome, and the name itself is much older than the state, going back to Roman times.

At 49 hectares (121 acres), Vatican City is tiny. You could walk across it in about ten minutes, although in practice you’ll spend the best part of a day trying to get through the Museums alone. The population is under 500.

The Pope lives in the Papal Apartments in the Apostolic Palace (also known as the Vatican Palace, or the Palace of Sixtus V after the Pope who oversaw most of its construction). The current Pope is Pope Leo XIV, elected in May 2025. The Apostolic Palace is also home to the Vatican Museums, the Vatican Library, the Sistine Chapel, the Raphael Rooms, and the Borgia Apartments, so it’s doing quite a lot of work.

The other landmark, and the one most people picture when they think of the Vatican, is St. Peter’s Basilica, with St. Peter’s Square in front of it. It’s the largest church in the world, and the square is one of the most architecturally striking open spaces anywhere.

About half of Vatican City is taken up by the Vatican Gardens, which are private and only visitable on a guided tour. Most of the rest is the Museums and the Basilica. Various other buildings (the Vatican Radio building, the Palace of the Governorate) are off-limits, as are the actual Papal Apartments where the Pope currently lives.

Where is the Vatican?

The Vatican is in Rome, or more precisely, Rome is wrapped all the way around it. It sits west of the Tiber River. You can see it on Google Maps here.

How to get to the Vatican

Getting to the Vatican is easy enough, but do bear in mind that Vatican City covers about 49 hectares, so which bit you’re heading for matters. The Vatican Museums entrance is on the north side (here on Google Maps), while St. Peter’s Basilica is on the south side (here on Google Maps). If you turn up at the wrong one, you’ve got a fifteen-minute walk around the walls to reach the other.

From central Rome, walking is often the nicest way to arrive. Piazza Navona is 20 minutes on foot to St. Peter’s Basilica, or 30 minutes to the Museums entrance. If it’s hot or your feet are protesting, the closest metro station is Ottaviano on the red line, a 7-minute walk to the Museums or 10 minutes to the Basilica. The red line also connects to the Spanish Steps and Termini, where you can change for the blue line to the Colosseum.

Buses from all over the city pass near the Vatican, and taxis or ride-sharing apps work fine too. Just be specific about which entrance you want, or you’ll end up making that walk round the walls I mentioned. A number of Rome hop on hop off buses also stop at the Vatican, which is a useful option if you’re already using one.

If you’ve bought an attraction pass like the Omnia Vatican and Rome Card, many of these bundle in a transit card or sightseeing bus that covers the Vatican stops.

Vatican Opening Times

The Vatican is a country, but it’s not like crossing into Switzerland. There are no gates, no passport checks, and nothing to tell you you’ve crossed the border. You’ll only notice you’re in a different country because suddenly you’re standing in front of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The individual attractions inside do have opening times though, so here’s what you need to know.

Vatican Museum Opening Times

The Vatican Museum is usually open as follows:

Monday – Saturday 8am – 8pm (last entry at 6pm)

The Museums are closed on Sundays, except for the last Sunday of the month when they open 9am – 2pm (last entry 12.30pm) and entry is free. Free sounds lovely, but the queue is less so. More on that further down.

The Museums are also closed on various religious holidays. For the most current opening and closure information, check the official website. There are several sites claiming to be the Vatican Museums; the only official one is https://www.museivaticani.va/.

A big piece of good news for anyone visiting in 2026: the Sistine Chapel’s Last Judgment was restored in early 2026, with work finishing on March 27, 2026, just in time for Holy Week. The whitish patina that had built up since the last restoration in 1994 has been removed, and Michelangelo’s colours are now visible in full for the first time in a generation. If your previous visit was any time in the last thirty years, you haven’t actually seen the fresco properly until now.

St. Peter’s Basilica Opening Times

St. Peter’s Basilica is usually open as follows:

1st October – 31st March: 7am – 6.30pm
1st April – 30th September: 7am – 7pm

Bear in mind this is a working church. Mass is regularly celebrated here, and while you’re not usually barred from visiting during services, you do need to behave respectfully. No wandering around taking flash photos of the celebrant, in other words.

When the Pope is in Rome there’s usually a Papal Audience on a Wednesday. These are held in St. Peter’s Square and run from around 9am, and access to the Basilica is normally closed until the audience finishes, which is usually around 12.30pm. If your visit is on a Wednesday, plan around this or attend the Audience itself (details further down).

For more on visiting St. Peter’s Basilica, see the official page.

What to see and do at the Vatican

The short answer is: more than you’ve got time for. The longer answer is what follows. Realistically, half a day is the bare minimum and a full day is better.

Vatican Museums

The Vatican Museums are the main event for most visitors, and with good reason. The collection holds around 70,000 pieces, of which about 20,000 are on display at any given time. Which leaves, if you’re doing the maths, 50,000 things in storage. Popes have been collecting art since the early 16th century, and they clearly didn’t stop.

The galleries span roughly seven kilometres and include paintings, sculptures, tapestries, religious artefacts, and the kind of ancient Egyptian objects you wouldn’t immediately expect in a Catholic museum complex. Raphael, Michelangelo, Bernini, Van Gogh, and Picasso all have work here. It’s one of the most visited museums on the planet.

A quick clarification on the name: “Vatican Museums” is plural because it technically comprises 26 separate museums. As a visitor, you won’t notice. It feels like one giant museum with a lot of galleries, and that’s how you should approach it. Don’t try to see everything. You’ll go mad.

You need a ticket, and I’d urge you to book in advance. The on-the-day queue is exactly as bad as you’re imagining. Tickets are released 60 days ahead on the official website, so if you’re visiting in peak season, set a calendar reminder for exactly 60 days before your trip. In busy months the Museums can hit capacity and walk-up tickets can be unavailable entirely.

One other thing: tickets are now issued in the buyer’s name, and you need to show a government-issued photo ID matching the ticket at entry. This was brought in to stamp out ticket touting. It’s a mild inconvenience, but if anyone’s selling you a ticket in someone else’s name outside the Museums, it’s now useless.

If your time is tight (under three hours or so), a guided tour is probably the best use of that time. We’ve taken tours on a couple of our early visits and they were excellent at directing us to the important bits without the overwhelm. Options we’ve used and would recommend include this one and this one, both of which include the Sistine Chapel.

Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel (Capella Sistina) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, built in the 15th century and named after Pope Sixtus IV, who commissioned it. The frescoes are what you’re here for, and particularly Michelangelo’s ceiling and the Last Judgment above the altar, which are both reasonably famous.

It’s also where new Popes are elected, in the Papal Conclave. Most recently the 2025 conclave, following the death of Pope Francis, took place here and resulted in the election of Pope Leo XIV.

The Sistine Chapel is only accessible as part of a visit to the Vatican Museums, so for practical purposes it’s part of the Museums. Technically it’s a separate entity (hence why tickets are always sold as “Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel”), but every Museums ticket includes it.

If you want a quieter experience, early-access tours are worth considering. The Pristine Sistine tour gets you in before general opening, and the more exclusive Key Master tour has you actually unlocking the Museums in the morning, which is an odd and rather special experience.

Worth flagging: some tours offer a shortcut from the Sistine Chapel directly into St. Peter’s Basilica, which skips the main security queue for the Basilica entirely. This shortcut is only available on tours that specifically include St. Peter’s Basilica, not on Museums-only tours. If that matters to you (and it should, in peak season), check when booking.

St. Peter’s Basilica

The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (St. Peter’s Basilica, mercifully shortened) is probably the most visually arresting building in the Vatican. The dome is visible from much of central Rome, and a visit is essentially compulsory.

Construction began in 1506, and the church was consecrated in 1626. It replaced the fourth-century Old St. Peter’s Basilica, which had been built by the Emperor Constantine on the same spot. So you’re looking at the world’s largest church, built on top of the ruins of an older church, built on top of a Roman cemetery. Rome does this sort of thing a lot.

A few quick reasons it’s worth your time. First, the sheer size. By volume it’s the largest church in the world, and the footprint covers nearly six acres. Second, the design: Renaissance, with contributions from Bramante, Michelangelo, and Bernini, among others. Third, the interior, which is packed wall-to-wall with Renaissance art by the same masters who designed the building. Fourth, the religious significance: 91 popes are buried here, and it’s widely believed to be the final resting place of St. Peter himself.

One thing that’s changed. Most recent popes have chosen to be buried in St. Peter’s, including Benedict XVI, John Paul II, and John Paul I. Pope Francis, who died in April 2025, chose the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore instead. Santa Maria Maggiore is one of Rome’s four major basilicas, a short walk from Termini station, and Pope Francis’s tomb there has become a major pilgrimage spot. It’s free to visit.

Entry to St. Peter’s Basilica itself is free, and you don’t need a ticket. You can take a guided tour like this one or this one. There’s also a fast-track ticket with timed entry and a digital audio guide on the official St. Peter’s Basilica website, which is very much worth having in peak season when the security queue for the free entrance can run well over an hour.

The dome climb is paid and is something I’d push fairly hard. More on that in the Basilica highlights section further down.

As with every religious site in Italy, the dress code is enforced. Covered shoulders and knees, no exceptions. I’ve seen people turned around at the door. Details further down.

St. Peter’s Square

Right in front of St. Peter’s Basilica is St. Peter’s Square (Piazza San Pietro), which is technically a large plaza that’s not actually square. Its current design is down to Bernini, working in the mid-17th century.

The centrepiece is a 25.5-metre-high ancient Egyptian obelisk, shipped from Alexandria in Roman times and installed in its current spot in 1586. How exactly you move an 84-foot granite column across the Mediterranean and into position without a crane is the kind of question that tends to stop me looking at my phone in the middle of the square.

Around the obelisk, the square is almost entirely enclosed by four-deep Doric colonnades, designed by Bernini to symbolise the Church embracing its visitors. There are two matching fountains either side of the obelisk, one by Bernini and the earlier one by Maderno.

The overall effect is pretty staggering, and the square is where Papal Audiences are held, which is part of why Bernini designed it to hold such enormous crowds. It’s free to visit and always open, although during Audiences large sections get cordoned off.

Vatican Gardens

About half of Vatican City is taken up by the Gardens, which go back to medieval times when the area was a patchwork of orchards and vineyards. The landscaped gardens you can see today are mostly 16th century, although they weren’t open to the public at all until 2014.

Today you can only visit them on a guided tour. The good news is you can get partial views from various points in the Vatican Museums and from the top of the Basilica dome, so it’s not as though you’re completely shut out.

Vatican Grottoes

The modern St. Peter’s Basilica was built on top of a fourth-century building known as the Basilica of Constantine, which was itself built on top of a Roman-era cemetery (the Necropolis, covered separately below). Rome, as you learn pretty quickly when you visit, is basically a stack of older Romes.

When they built the current Basilica, they didn’t entirely demolish the old one. What they left behind is what we now call the Vatican Grottoes. It’s not strictly accurate, because you’re visiting the original basilica rather than a set of caves, but the name has stuck. You’ll also sometimes see them called the Vatican Crypt and Catacombs.

Down in the Grottoes you can see sections of the old basilica, including chapels, funerary monuments, and artworks. It’s also where a great many popes are buried, along with various bits of European royalty, all of whom wanted to be near the final resting place of St. Peter.

Just to be clear: St. Peter’s tomb is not in the Grottoes. It’s in the Necropolis, which is below the Grottoes and which needs a separate booked tour. More on that in a moment.

Access to the Grottoes is free and included with your visit to the Basilica. Tours which include a guided walk through are available, like this one. The entrance is inside the Basilica, near the high altar at the Pier of St. Andrew. There can be a queue, and photography isn’t allowed down there.

Vatican Necropolis

The Vatican Necropolis (literally “city of the dead”) dates from the Roman Empire. It’s there because Roman law required the dead to be buried outside the city walls, and what is now Vatican City was outside those walls at the time.

The Necropolis is huge, and different parts of it are accessed in different ways. There are two sections most visitors will be interested in: the section containing the tomb of St. Peter, and the Necropolis of the Via Triumphalis. We’ll take them in turn.

Vatican Necropolis and The Tomb of St. Peter (Scavi)

In the 1940s, the Vatican decided to go looking for the tomb of St. Peter himself. The logic was simple enough: St. Peter had been martyred at the Circus of Nero, which was essentially where the current Basilica now stands, and early Christians would have buried him nearby.

The excavations uncovered a string of Roman mausoleums buried beneath the Vatican, and in 1968 the Pope announced that they had found what they believed to be the tomb of St. Peter, directly below the Grottoes and the Basilica.

This section of the Necropolis is now commonly called the Scavi (“excavation” in Italian), and it can only be visited on a guided tour. The tour takes you down under the Basilica and back into an ancient Roman cemetery, with its mausoleums and what is believed to be the final resting place of St. Peter. Normally, you exit upwards through the Grottoes and into the Basilica itself, which has the neat side effect of skipping the main Basilica queue.

Only 250 people can do this tour per day, and it has to be booked well in advance. We did it once and we’ve been recommending it ever since. If the history, or the sheer oddness of walking through a Roman cemetery under a Renaissance basilica, appeals to you at all, it’s worth the booking effort.

The entrance is on the far left of the Basilica as you face it, in the columns to the left, approximately here on Google Maps. You go through security, and you need a printed copy of your ticket. If you’re lost, ask a Swiss Guard. They do not actually wave halberds at confused tourists, in my experience.

Necropolis of the Via Triumphalis

The other part of the Necropolis you can visit is the Necropolis of the Via Triumphalis, which was discovered in 2003 and fully opened to visitors in November 2023. This is a different section from the Scavi under the Basilica, although it’s likely part of the same ancient Necropolis complex.

Visiting the Necropolis of the Via Triumphalis needs a separate ticket, and availability is patchy. Check the official ticket site before your visit to see what’s on offer.

The entrance is in the Vatican Museum walls as you walk up towards the Museums entry, near Piazza Risorgimento, at this spot on Google Maps.

Attend a Papal Audience

One of the more unusual things you can do at the Vatican is attend a Papal Audience. It isn’t a mass. It’s a general audience with the Pope in which he gives a speech, says some prayers, and often hands out blessings. If you’ve ever wanted to see a Pope in person, this is how.

The Papal Audience is free, held on Wednesdays when the Pope is in residence, usually in front of St. Peter’s Basilica (in warmer months) or in the Paul VI audience hall (in winter or bad weather).

You do need a ticket, even though they cost nothing. You can’t just turn up. Booking details are in the ticketing section further down.

The Audience starts at 9am, but you need to go through security, and seating is first come first served. There are capacity limits, so even with a ticket you can be turned away if the venue is full. We’d suggest arriving between 7am and 7.30am. In the summer months, earlier is better if you want a decent view.

You can also catch a glimpse of the Pope during the Sunday Blessing (the Angelus). When he’s in Rome, the Pope appears at his Papal Palace window at noon for about 15 minutes to bless the crowd in St. Peter’s Square. No tickets required, just show up. It’s busy and the view is distant, but it’s an option.

Popes Apartment Vatican — Papal Apartment as seen from St. Peter’s Square

Seating area for St. Peter's Basilica Papal Audience — Seating area for St. Peter’s Basilica Papal Audience

Attend Mass

Another option is to attend mass, most conveniently at St. Peter’s Basilica where services are held multiple times a day. You can find the full schedule on this page. These don’t require booking; you just turn up at the Basilica.

Depending on timing, you might also be able to attend a Papal Mass, which is a mass led by the Pope (also known as Liturgical Celebrations). These are less frequent than the weekly Papal Audience and are usually tied to special events like Christmas or Easter. They can be held inside St. Peter’s Basilica, on St. Peter’s Square, or occasionally in one of Rome’s other basilicas (see the list).

As with the Audience, you need a ticket, and it’s free. The booking procedure is the same too. You can see which Papal Masses are scheduled on this Vatican page for 2026.

Bear in mind this page is usually only updated about a month in advance. For the very popular masses (Easter, Christmas), book as far ahead as you possibly can. They may not show on the calendar yet, but there’s always a mass on Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday, and Christmas Eve.

Use the Post Office

The Vatican, being a country, has its own postal system. There’s one post office open to the public in St. Peter’s Square and another near the gift shop just before you exit the Museums.

If you want to send postcards from your trip, I can recommend sending them from the Vatican rather than from Rome. The stamps are unique (and collectable, if that’s your thing), the postmark is a nice touch, and in our experience the mail service is considerably more effective than the Italian postal system. Our international postcards from the Vatican have arrived weeks before ones we mailed from the rest of Italy. Jess always sends one to her grandmother, and we’ve yet to have one go missing.

For everything you’d want to know about using the Vatican post office, including hours and tariffs, see our full guide to the Vatican Post Office, or the official website.

Highlights of the Vatican Museums

With 20,000 things on display, you could quite happily spend weeks exploring the Vatican Museums. Most of us don’t have weeks, so it pays to pick a few highlights for a first visit and accept that you’re going to miss a lot. The official site has a list of masterpieces by gallery if you want to build your own route.

Because there’s so much to see, and a lot of context that’s easy to miss, I’d encourage you to consider a guided tour. A decent guide can turn a painting you’d have walked past in ten seconds into the highlight of your day.

Below are the bits we’d prioritise on a first visit, all accessible with a standard ticket. There are a few areas we love that require special tickets (the original Bramante staircase, for instance), but I’ve stuck to general access here.

If you want to plan a route before you arrive, the Vatican publishes a free map you can download. There are also paper copies at the ticket office.

Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel is the single most famous thing in the Vatican Museums, and if you only see one gallery, this is probably the one. Named for Pope Sixtus IV, who commissioned it, it’s best known for the frescoes inside, and best known of those are the ones by Michelangelo.

The ceiling frescoes tell the creation of the Earth from the Book of Genesis, in nine panels running from The Separation of Light from Darkness to the Drunkenness of Noah. The Creation of Adam panel, with God’s finger reaching out to touch Adam’s, is probably the single most famous image in Western art.

Above the altar is the Last Judgment, which depicts the Second Coming of Christ and the separation of sinners from the saved. As I mentioned further up, this was restored in early 2026 and now looks the way Michelangelo intended, which is to say considerably less beige.

Beyond Michelangelo, the side walls carry work from Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio, and others, all depicting further religious scenes. Don’t just look up; look sideways too.

The Sistine Chapel isn’t a large room, and it gets crowded, particularly as the day wears on. It’s also one of the few places in the Vatican where photography is strictly banned. I’ve seen people escorted out for taking a quick phone snap. My advice: enjoy the art, and if you want a memento, buy a postcard at the gift shop.

For a calmer experience, an early-access tour is the way to do it. We’ve done both the Pristine Sistine tour and the Key Master tour (see our Key Master Tour review), and both get you inside before the main crowds. The Key Master in particular is a bit of a bucket-list experience if your budget stretches to it.

Gallery of Maps

One of my personal favourites in the Museums is the Gallery of Maps (Galleria delle carte geografiche), on the west side of the Belvedere Courtyard. It’s a 120-metre corridor, six metres wide, with 40 frescoed maps of the various regions and cities of the Italian peninsula on the walls.

The maps date from the 1580s and were painted by the friar and geographer Ignazio Dante for Pope Gregory XIII. The Pope apparently wanted to be able to tour the Italian states (Italy wasn’t a single country at the time) without the bother of actually going anywhere. Which is, when you think about it, a fairly relatable impulse. The maps are astonishingly detailed, and the gilded ceiling is the kind of thing that stops people in their tracks.

Of all the corridors in the Vatican Museums, this is the one I’d single out if you only have time for one.

The Borgia Apartment

The Borgia Apartment (Appartamento Borgia) is a set of six rooms commissioned by Pope Alexander VI in the late 15th century. He was a Borgia, hence the name, and he had them decorated by the Italian painter Pinturicchio.

The frescoes cover a range of subjects: Old and New Testament scenes, planets, various religious allegories. They also contain what’s believed to be one of the earliest European depictions of a Native American, in the Resurrection scene in the Room of Liberal Arts. This wasn’t coincidence; the painting was done not long after Columbus returned from the Americas.

Alexander VI’s reputation didn’t survive his various affairs and alleged scheming. The word “Borgia” became a byword for moral laxity, corruption, and nepotism for centuries afterwards. After his own fairly nasty death (possibly poisoning, although historians still argue), the apartments were sealed, and they didn’t reopen until the 19th century under Pope Leo XIII.

Today the rooms display the restored frescoes along with part of the Vatican’s contemporary art collection. They’re included with a standard Museums ticket.

Raphael’s Rooms

Four rooms in the Museums are collectively the Stanze di Raffaello, or Raphael’s Rooms. They were originally intended as an apartment for Pope Julius II, with some historians suspecting he specifically wanted to one-up the Borgia Apartment of his predecessor Alexander VI. Popes can be petty too.

Julius II commissioned Raphael in the early 16th century, starting with the library. Unfortunately Julius died before the work was finished, and Raphael himself died in 1520 before all four rooms were complete. His students finished the job in 1524.

Our favourite is the first room that was completed, which contains “The School of Athens,” “The Parnassus,” and the “Disputa.” The School of Athens in particular is one of Raphael’s masterpieces, with extraordinary depth and perspective and a cheeky little self-portrait of Raphael himself staring right out at the viewer.

There’s enough going on across the four rooms that a guided tour really does earn its keep here. Without one, you’re likely to walk through in five minutes admiring the colours and missing most of what’s actually happening.

The Pinacoteca / Vatican Art Gallery

The Pinacoteca, the Vatican Art Gallery, opened in 1932 and houses some of the Museums’ most important paintings. It’s basically a mini museum inside the Museums, and I’d strongly encourage you not to skip it just because you’re tired of walking.

Across 18 rooms there are more than 400 works, arranged chronologically, so you move from the 12th-century Medieval period through to the 19th century as you go. Raphael, Caravaggio, Titian, and Leonardo da Vinci are all represented. The building was purpose-designed for optimal viewing, so the rooms are calmer and less crowded than the big-name attractions.

You could spend a couple of hours here alone, but if you need to prioritise, the pieces I’d make sure to see are:

Giotto’s “Stefaneschi Polyptych” (Room II)
Raphael’s “Transfiguration of Christ” (Room VIII)
“The Last Supper Tapestry” (Room VIII)
Leonardo da Vinci’s “St. Jerome in the Desert” (Room IX)
Titian’s “Madonna and Child in Glory with Saints” (Room X)
Caravaggio’s “Deposition from the Cross” (Room XII)

There are highlights in every room; the official Pinacoteca page lists them all if you want to build a fuller list.

The Pio Clementino Museum

The Pio Clementino Museum (Museo Pio Clementino) is the Vatican’s main classical sculpture collection, and it’s where some of the earliest pieces in the Vatican Museums were first put on display. Pope Julius II used this area in the early 16th century as his personal antique sculpture gallery, which is a pretty good hobby if you’ve got Vatican-sized funds.

There’s a lot to see, but a few rooms and pieces really stand out.

The Octagonal Court

The Octagonal Court is an outdoor courtyard in the Pio Clementino. Many of the sculptures on display have been in the exact same spot since the early 1500s, which tells you something about how these things were intended.

The Belvedere Apollo is the one everyone comes to see. It’s a Roman-era depiction of the Greek god Apollo, from about 120 AD, and it’s one of the finest ancient sculptures anywhere.

Right next to it is the statue of Laocoön and His Sons, which depicts the Trojan priest Laocoön being attacked by sea serpents along with his two sons. It’s believed to date from around 200 BC and has been on display in the Octagonal Court since 1506. If you want a sense of just how dramatic ancient sculpture could get, this is a good place to start.

The Round Hall

The Round Hall, also called the Round Room, is a circular room designed in the 18th century as an homage to the Pantheon.

It’s hard to miss the centrepiece: an enormous red porphyry basin from Imperial Rome, large enough to bathe a small family and possibly designed to. Around it, niches in the walls contain giant statues. You can probably tell from the fact that we just said “giant” that we’re dealing with the kind of scale that’s hard to photograph.

There’s more to the Pio Clementino: the Gallery of Statues, the Hall of Busts, the Hall of Muses, and so on. But the Octagonal Court and the Round Hall are the two rooms I’d make sure to see.

Gregorian Egyptian Museum

Walk into St. Peter’s Square and the first thing you notice, apart from the sheer scale of everything, is the enormous ancient Egyptian obelisk sitting right in the middle. Imperial Rome was, putting it mildly, obsessed with Egypt.

The Gregorian Egyptian Museum (Museo Gregoriano Egizio) is where you go to learn more about that relationship. Across six rooms you get stone tablets, funerary masks, and a fair bit of death-related material (the Ancient Egyptians took death quite seriously, as you may have heard). If Egyptology appeals to you, this is well worth the detour. If it doesn’t, the rooms are quiet and air-conditioned, which is its own reward in July.

Carriage Pavilion

Founded in 1973, the Carriage Museum (Padiglione delle Carrozze) is one of the newer museums in the Vatican and, I think, one of the most charming. It’s also tucked away in a spot that makes it a bit tricky to find, which means it’s usually gloriously empty.

The collection covers various modes of Papal transport over the centuries, from ornate 18th-century carriages through to modern-era Popemobiles. It won’t be on anyone’s must-see list, which is precisely why it’s worth the detour: you can stand there looking at the actual vehicles several Popes have used without being elbowed by a tour group.

Momo’s Double Spiral Staircase

Even the way you leave the Vatican Museums is worth lingering over. Once you’ve worked your way through the gift shop (and I always do, Jess always sends a postcard, we always leave with a rosary for someone), you descend via a double-helix staircase designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932.

This is actually the second double-helix staircase in the Apostolic Palace. The original was designed by Bramante in 1505, and rather confusingly both are often referred to as “the Bramante staircase,” which gives tour guides a small vocabulary problem. The original Bramante staircase isn’t usually open to the public.

Momo’s version is beautiful in its own right, and very much worth pausing to photograph on your way down. Which is also what everyone else is doing, so you’ll be photographing it around several other people photographing it. That’s just how it goes.

Highlights in St. Peter’s Basilica

As with the Museums, there’s a lot going on inside St. Peter’s, and there are a handful of things I’d particularly recommend tracking down.

High Altar & Bernini’s Canopy (Baldachin)

The High Altar sits directly under the Basilica’s dome and directly above what is believed to be the tomb of St. Peter. Above it is the single most striking piece of furniture in any church anywhere: Bernini’s bronze baldachin.

The canopy rises nearly 100 feet (30 metres) above the altar, supported by four helical columns and crowned by four enormous angels. It’s the sort of thing that wouldn’t really be possible today, even if anyone could think of a reason to do it.

Chair of St. Peter

The Chair of St. Peter (also called the Throne of Saint Peter) is a wooden throne which is one of the more important relics in the Basilica. The original chair was believed to have belonged to St. Peter himself, and it’s displayed above the second major altar in the apse behind the main altar.

The chair is encased in an elaborate bronze sculpture designed by Bernini, which is itself a significant piece. Bernini, as you may be starting to notice, did a lot of work here.

Michelangelo’s Pieta

The Madonna della Pieta (usually just “La Pieta”) is one of Michelangelo’s sculptures, and it’s notable for being the only piece he ever signed. The story is that he overheard someone attributing the work to a different sculptor and crept back to carve his name into it, although whether that’s true or just a nice anecdote depends on which art historian you ask.

The sculpture dates from the late 15th century and shows the Virgin Mary holding the body of Jesus after his death. It is unreasonably lifelike given that it’s carved out of marble. You’ll find it in the first chapel to the right as you enter the Basilica, behind a pane of bulletproof glass (a precaution added after a man attacked the statue with a hammer in 1972).

Vatican Grottoes

The Vatican Grottoes (not the same thing as the Necropolis, although both are underneath the Basilica) contain the remains of the original 4th-century basilica, which stood until the 15th century when the current one was built on top.

You can visit the Grottoes for free as part of your Basilica visit, and it’s worth doing. You’ll see sections of the original basilica, plus the graves of a great many popes who wanted to be buried close to St. Peter.

Access is near the high altar at the Pier of St. Andrew. There can be a queue, and photography isn’t allowed.

Pope Saint John Paul II’s Grave

One of the most prominent Popes of the 20th century, John Paul II, is buried in the Basilica and has become a major pilgrimage destination. He was canonised in 2011, and following his canonisation his remains were moved from the Grottoes to the Chapel of St. Sebastian.

You’ll find the chapel on the right of the central nave (facing the High Altar from the entrance), next to the niche that houses Michelangelo’s Pieta. His grave is under the altar, marked with a marble slab reading IOANNES PAVLVS PP. II.

Statue of Saint Peter

At almost every major pilgrimage site in the world there’s an object pilgrims want to touch for a blessing, and in St. Peter’s Basilica that object is the 13th-century bronze Statue of Saint Peter. It shows St. Peter seated on a marble chair, holding the keys of heaven in one hand and giving a blessing with the other.

Touching or kissing the feet of the statue is a tradition going back centuries. You can see the effect: the foot he’s extended has been worn smooth and slightly lopsided by several hundred years of devout contact. The statue is easy to find, by a pillar in the centre of the nave near the High Altar, and there’s usually a line of people waiting to touch the foot.

Tomb of Pope Alexander VII

Bernini did quite a lot of work in and around St. Peter’s, as I may already have mentioned. His last great piece, designed when he was 80, is the monumental tomb of Pope Alexander VII.

Alexander VII commissioned it himself, but he died about 11 years before it was finally unveiled in 1678, which is about as “Baroque” a situation as you can get. The marble monument has six figures, including Alexander himself, four female figures representing Charity, Truth, Prudence, and Justice, and then, a bit unexpectedly, a statue of Death holding an hourglass. Bernini clearly wanted everyone to remember what the tomb was for. The monument is in the south transept of the Basilica.

Dome Climb

My favourite thing to do at St. Peter’s Basilica is climb the dome. There’s a fee, it’s a lot of steps, and I’d push you towards doing it anyway.

Pricing is a bit messy, so pay attention. If you buy at the on-site ticket office (cash only), the dome climb costs €8 for the stairs or €10 for the lift. If you book online through the official St. Peter’s Basilica website, it’s €17 for the stairs or €22 for the lift, but that includes Basilica entry with a digital audio guide and a timed entry slot. Booking online is what I’d recommend. The on-site queue is reliably terrible, and the audio guide earns its keep.

The climb takes you from ground level to the very top of the dome, which is 551 steps total, or 320 if you take the lift for the first section. The lift handles the first 231 steps; after that, everyone is on the same staircase, and you do the rest on foot.

The views from the top are among the best in Rome. You get St. Peter’s Square laid out below you in its full geometric glory, and beyond that most of the city. On a clear day you can see the hills to the east.

I always choose the stairs over the lift, and not because I enjoy suffering. The stairs route takes you through parts of the Basilica you otherwise wouldn’t see, including a walkway around the inside of the dome looking down at the altar, which is unforgettable. The lift route is just a lift, and then stairs anyway.

The dome climb entrance is to the left of the Basilica as you face the entrance. It’s well signposted.

Planning your Vatican Visit

A few practical notes on how to actually approach a visit, before we get into tickets and tours.

Options for how to visit the Vatican

You have basically four choices:

Turn up without tickets and buy them on the day (not recommended except at the very quietest times of year)
Book tickets directly on the official site or via third-party sites like GetYourGuide or Tiqets
Book a guided tour with a walking tour company
Use a Rome attraction pass that includes some of the Vatican sights

Of those, I’d encourage a guided tour for a first visit, and the official site for everything else.

How Long to Visit the Vatican For

A full day would be the comfortable option. Four hours is the minimum I’d suggest, enough to see the highlights of the Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica plus the main outdoor spaces. You could happily spend multiple days here if you wanted to, but most visitors don’t have that luxury and have to prioritise.

Suggested Half Day Vatican Itinerary

If you’ve got half a day, I’d aim for:

St. Peter’s Basilica, including the High Altar, Pieta, Statue of St. Peter, and Tomb of Pope Alexander VII
St. Peter’s Square
Vatican Museums, covering the Pio Clementino, Gallery of Maps, Borgia Apartment, Raphael Rooms, Momo’s Staircase, Sistine Chapel, and Pinacoteca

The most efficient way to do this is a guided tour covering all of the above, like this one or this one.

If you’d rather go solo, start with St. Peter’s Basilica at opening time (queues build through the morning), then book a Vatican Museums timed entry for right after. That way you dodge both ticket lines.

Suggested Full Day Vatican Itinerary

With a whole day, you can take your time and add in the extras:

St. Peter’s Basilica, including the High Altar, Pieta, Statue of St. Peter, Tomb of Pope Alexander VII, the Grottoes, and the Dome climb. If you’re really keen, pre-book the Necropolis tour.
St. Peter’s Square
Break for lunch and coffee
Vatican Museums, covering the Pio Clementino, Gallery of Maps, Borgia Apartment, Raphael Rooms, Momo’s Staircase, the Vatican Historical Museum, Sistine Chapel, and Pinacoteca

Timing depends on the season. In summer the Museums get properly hot (they’re mostly not air-conditioned), so hit them in the morning and do the Basilica in the afternoon.

Tips for Pilgrims & Seeing the Religious Highlights

If you’re here as a pilgrim rather than a general tourist, the priorities shift. I’d suggest:

Attending mass at St. Peter’s Basilica
Attending a Papal Audience or the Sunday Blessing if the Pope is in residence
Visiting St. Peter’s Basilica, including the Necropolis where St. Peter is buried
Visiting the tomb of Pope Francis at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (short walk from Termini, free to enter)
Visiting the religious highlights inside the Vatican Museums, including the Vatican Historical Museum
Picking up religious items (rosaries, crucifixes, prayer cards) at the Museum gift shop

You might also want to book a specifically religious-focused tour that emphasises the spiritual history of the Vatican rather than the art.

Can you Visit the Papal Apartments at the Vatican?

Not the current ones. The apartments where Pope Leo XIV actually lives are strictly off-limits.

However, previous Popes lived in other parts of the Apostolic Palace, and a couple of those former Papal Apartments are open as part of the Vatican Museums. The Raphael Rooms and the Borgia Apartments are both included with a standard Museums ticket, and both were previously Papal residences.

Can You See the Pope at the Vatican?

If the Pope is in residence, yes. The two main options are the Papal Audience (usually Wednesdays) or the Papal Mass (tied to special events), both covered above. Both are free, and both need a ticket booked in advance.

You can also catch a glimpse during the Sunday Blessing, when the Pope appears at his Papal Palace window at noon for about 15 minutes to bless the crowd in St. Peter’s Square. No ticket needed, and the view from the square is fine but distant.

Where is Castel Gandolfo?

You might have heard of Castel Gandolfo, or its full name, the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo. This was long used as the Pope’s summer residence. It isn’t in Vatican City. It’s 16 miles (25 km) southeast of Rome, overlooking Lake Albano.

The Palace is a 135-acre complex of buildings and gardens in the town of Castel Gandolfo. The current Pope doesn’t use it as a summer residence (neither did Pope Francis, who preferred to stay in Rome), but a number of his predecessors did.

Good news: you can visit. The Palace and Gardens are open to the public, either independently or as part of an organised tour from Rome. The Vatican Museums sell a combined tour ticket that bundles the Museums, Gardens, return train, and a tour of the Palace and Gardens. Other operators run similar tours, including these on GetYourGuide.

Vatican Ticket Information

This is the section that’s saved us the most hassle over the years, so I’m going to be detailed here. The short version: book online in advance wherever possible.

Do You Need a Ticket for the Vatican?

Not to visit Vatican City itself. You can walk in and out freely. But various specific attractions do need tickets or a tour:

Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel (official Vatican ticket site)
Vatican Necropolis
Vatican Gardens
Papal Audience / Papal Mass
St. Peter’s Basilica Dome (official St. Peter’s ticket site)

Book in advance wherever you can, particularly for the Museums. Tickets are released 60 days before the entry date on the official website, and they do sell out in peak season.

How Much does it Cost to Visit the Vatican?

Prices vary by attraction. Figures below are correct as of early 2026.

Vatican Museums Ticket Price

There’s an entry fee for the Museums:

€20 if bought in person at the ticket office (not recommended, see previous comments about the queue)
€20 + €5 booking fee (€25 total) if booked on the official site (the option I’d choose)
From around €31 via GetYourGuide (check prices) or Tiqets (see prices). Good backup option if the official site is sold out.

Remember: tickets are issued in the buyer’s name, and you’ll need a government-issued photo ID matching the ticket at entry.

Third-party tickets are usually vouchers you exchange for the actual entry ticket at the gate. Instructions are emailed on booking, and there’s a dedicated line for voucher-holders.

St. Peter’s Basilica Ticket Price

St. Peter’s Basilica is free to enter. But you can buy a fast-track ticket with timed entry and digital audio guide on the official St. Peter’s Basilica website for €7. At busy times this is well worth it; the free security queue can run well over an hour. A guided tour that includes fast-track entry works too.

Some passes (like the Rome Tourist Card) also include fast-track Basilica entry.

Other prices from the official site:

Fast-track access to the Basilica with timed entry and audio guide: €7
Sacristy & Treasury Museum: €5
Dome climb: €8 stairs or €10 lift on-site (cash only); €17 stairs or €22 lift online (includes Basilica entry with audio guide and timed slot)

Vatican Necropolis Ticket Price

The section under St. Peter’s Basilica is guided-tour only, €20 per person as of 2026. Booking details in the next section.

When I last booked this tour it came with a few discounts on St. Peter’s Basilica activities (the museum, audio guide, dome). These were emailed after booking.

The Necropolis of the Via Triumphalis is a separate ticket: a 90-minute guided tour, €20 for adults. Bookable online through the official Vatican ticket site.

Papal Audience / Papal Mass Ticket Price

Both are free. No booking fee. Full booking instructions further down.

Where to Buy Vatican Tickets

This is where people trip up most often, so I’ll take each attraction in turn.

Where to Buy Vatican Museums Tickets

Start with the official website. Prices are best, and they sell a range of options: basic entry, guided tours, tickets bundling other attractions like the Gardens.

Tickets release 60 days in advance. For peak season (April-October, Easter, Christmas), set a calendar reminder to book the moment they’re available for your date.

Also worth checking third-party sites. Prices are usually higher, but sometimes they have availability when the official site is sold out, and they often have more flexible cancellation. I’d recommend either GetYourGuide (check prices) or Tiqets (see prices).

Vatican Museum Tickets Sold Out? You still have options to visit the Vatican!

The Vatican Museums have capacity limits, so tickets do run out in busier months. The good news is that even if the official site is showing no availability, you usually still have options. They’ll cost more, but they often come with extras.

First, check other ticket types on the official site. Standard entry can be sold out while guided tours or bundled tickets (Gardens etc.) still have room.

Next, check GetYourGuide. They sell a range of tours, including combined ones that also include St. Peter’s Basilica like this. GetYourGuide tickets have their own entry line.

Finally, check these Tiqets last-minute tickets. They’re pre-purchased, so they often have availability when the official site is sold out.

If all else fails, our favourite walking tour operator in Italy is Take Walks. We’ve done walks with them all over the world, including several Vatican tours. You can see their Vatican tours here. Often these have availability when independent tickets don’t.

Where to Buy St. Peter’s Basilica Tickets

St. Peter’s is free, but the skip-the-line ticket with timed entry and audio guide is on the official St. Peter’s Basilica website.

At busy times this is well worth it for the time saving alone. If you’re not on a guided tour, it’s also worth it just for the audio guide.

You can also get fast-track entry through a booked tour, like this one.

Another option is a combined Vatican tour that includes St. Peter’s like this. Some of the Take Walks tours include the Basilica too (see all their Rome tours).

If you’d rather not pay to enter, and you have enough self-discipline to get up early, go at opening. Most Rome visitors can’t face dragging themselves out of bed for a 7am Basilica visit, which means you can often walk straight in without queuing at all. From a photography point of view, this is also when the light is best and there are barely any other visitors to get in your shots.

Where to Buy Vatican Necropolis Tickets

As of 2026, Necropolis tickets are on the official St. Peter’s Basilica website. Before that you had to email the Vatican Scavi office at scavi@fsp.va, which is how we booked the first time we went. The online system is a considerable improvement.

Where to Buy Papal Audience and Papal Mass Tickets

Free, but you do need to sort them in advance unless you fancy your chances on the day.

Most Audiences and Masses are easy enough to get tickets for, except the big ones around Easter. First, check whether there’s an Audience or Mass on the date you want on this Vatican page (normally updated about a month in advance).

Then, for advance bookings (which I’d always recommend) and for groups of more than 10, contact the Prefecture of the Papal Household:

Email: ordinanze@pontificalisdomus.va
Fax: (+39) 06 698 85863
Post: Prefecture of the Papal Household, 00120 Vatican City State

Include the number of tickets, the event, the date, first and last names, and your email address. Everything is on the official Vatican page, where there’s also a downloadable form that makes the whole thing easier.

If you book ahead, you still need to collect the tickets in person at the Bronze Door in the Vatican (under the right-hand colonnade in St Peter’s Square, here on Google Maps), either the day before between 3pm and 7pm, or on the day from 7am. Collect the day before if you can.

You can also try just turning up at the Bronze Door and asking the Swiss Guards, subject to availability.

For more detail, see this page of the official Vatican website.

Can you Skip the Lines at the Vatican?

Partly. There’s always a security line, and nothing skips that. But the separate ticket lines are definitely skippable.

Vatican Museum Skip the Line Access

The Museums ticket line, on a bad day, can be eye-watering. The good news is it’s the easiest to skip: pre-book a ticket or a tour, both of which come with a pre-purchased entry, and you bypass it entirely.

St. Peter’s Basilica Skip the Line Access

Buy a skip-the-line ticket with timed entry on the official St. Peter’s Basilica website, or book a combined Vatican and Basilica tour like this.

Group tours can use a special access corridor from the Sistine Chapel into St. Peter’s Basilica, which skips all the lines entirely and also saves you walking back through the whole Museum. Note that this shortcut only applies on tours that specifically include St. Peter’s Basilica, not Museums-only tours.

The trade-off: the Sistine-to-Basilica shortcut means you don’t get to wander back through the Museums at your own pace afterwards. Most Museums-only tours end inside the Museum, so you can go back to any galleries the tour skipped.

Another skip-the-line option is to book a dedicated St. Peter’s tour like this. Tours still go through security, but entry is usually much quicker than the standard line.

Finally, the Vatican Necropolis tour exits inside the Basilica, so if you’ve booked that, you’ve already effectively skipped the Basilica entry queue.

Rome Passes that Include the Vatican

A Rome attraction pass is another way in, potentially including a tour. The options I’d look at:

Which one makes sense depends on what else you plan to see in Rome. Our guides to 1 day in Rome, 2 days in Rome, and 3 days in Rome should help you decide what else to build in.

When is the Vatican Free?

Vatican City is always free. St. Peter’s Basilica is always free too, though you can pay for fast-track entry or a tour to skip queues.

The Vatican Museums are free on the last Sunday of the month (9am-2pm, last entry 12.30pm). This sounds appealing and it isn’t, because the Museums, which are normally busy, are frankly horrendous on free days. If you’re determined, arrive as early as humanly possible.

Tours at the Vatican

I’d recommend taking a tour on your first Vatican visit. We took tours on our first couple of visits and got substantially more out of them than we would have gone it alone. The Museums are too big to see sensibly without help, and St. Peter’s has so much going on that even a decent audio guide can fall short.

Tours of the Vatican Museums

Lots to choose from. My starting suggestion: pick something at least three hours long. Shorter tours tend to skip too much.

Here are some I’d shortlist:

The Pristine Sistine tour with Take Walks: early entry, smaller group, includes St. Peter’s Basilica. We’ve done walks with Take Walks around the world and keep coming back.
The Vatican Key Master Tour: the most exclusive Vatican tour going. You’re there as the Museums open, which is a once-in-a-lifetime experience if your budget stretches. Our full Key Master review has more on whether it’s worth it.
This five-hour tour, which covers most of the Museums and St. Peter’s including the Dome.
This three-hour tour, focused on the highlights of both the Museums and St. Peter’s.
This private tour, which includes both the Museums and the Basilica and offers hotel pickup.
Visiting with kids? Try this private kid-friendly tour.

Plenty more options, including all the Take Walks Vatican tours, Vatican tours on GetYourGuide, and Viator.

If you’d like a full day tour that covers more than the Vatican, we’d recommend this 1-day Best of Rome tour from Take Walks (Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and Vatican Museums).

For picking the right tour, read recent reviews and match to your budget.

Tours of St. Peter’s Basilica

Lots of the Vatican tours above already cover the Basilica. If you’d rather take a Basilica-only tour, these are the ones I’d shortlist:

This Take Walks tour has early entry, a dome climb, and a visit to the crypt.
This GetYourGuide tour covers the main areas plus the Dome and Crypts.
This early morning tour lets you experience the Basilica with fewer crowds and also includes a dome climb.

More options on GetYourGuide and Viator.

Practicalities for Visiting the Vatican

The stuff that’s easy to overlook but will make or break your visit if you get it wrong.

Dress Code at the Vatican

The Vatican State as such doesn’t have a dress code, but the major attractions inside do, and it is strictly enforced. We have seen people turned away. This applies at the main religious sites across Rome and Italy generally, so it’s worth getting right once.

Knees covered, shoulders and upper chest covered. T-shirts are fine. Men must remove hats; women can keep headwear on. No short skirts, short dresses, or shorts above the knee. No tank tops, sleeveless tops, crop tops, or low-cut shirts. Midriffs covered. This applies to all visitors, regardless of gender.

The dress code also technically extends to any visible content or body art that might offend Catholic morality. The Vatican isn’t specific about what that means in practice, so I’d just avoid clothing with explicit content, and if you’ve got heavy tattoos you’re worried about, consider covering them.

See the dress code requirements for more detail.

When travelling in Italy, we tend to be appropriately dressed anyway, but Jess always carries a travel wrap or travel scarf in her day bag just in case we forget or someone is being particularly strict. A scarf does double duty as shoulder cover or as a wrap around the waist if your skirt or shorts are borderline.

Facilities at the Vatican

A couple of public toilets in St. Peter’s Square, and more inside the Basilica and the Museums. You’ll not be stuck.

For food and drink, the Museums have a range of options from self-service to sit-down restaurants. You can bring your own snacks and soft drinks, but you can’t eat or drink them in the galleries. Plenty of cafes, restaurants, gelaterias, and bars ring the Vatican area, including some of our favourite coffee shops in Rome and gelaterias in Rome.

Security at the Vatican

All major attractions have security checks, including St. Peter’s Basilica and the Museums. Restrictions are common-sense: no knives, scissors, metal tools, or alcoholic drinks. These can be checked at the Vatican Museums cloakroom, which is free.

Weapons and hazardous materials are not allowed in Vatican attractions at all and can’t be stored either.

Accessibility at the Vatican

Given that so much of it is housed in buildings that are several hundred years old, the Vatican does a reasonable job of accessibility. Just bear in mind the outside spaces (especially St. Peter’s Square, which is cobbled) are uneven and need care.

The Museums offer free wheelchair hire for visitors with mobility issues. Mobility scooters and electric wheelchairs are allowed in most areas (with a few exceptions), and there are lifts and ramps for most of the museum, plus accessible toilets. There’s a suggested itinerary for visitors with mobility needs on the accessibility page.

The Museums also have services for hearing-impaired and blind or partially sighted visitors. More on the accessibility page.

St. Peter’s Basilica is accessible via ramps and a lift, and the interior is flat. Accessible toilets are near the entrance. The Grotto and Necropolis are not wheelchair accessible. A lift goes up to the dome terrace, but the final climb to the very top still involves stairs, so the very top is not accessible.

If you’re visiting the Vatican as a wheelchair user, this company offers wheelchair hire and wheelchair-friendly guided tours.

Luggage Storage Near the Vatican

Large bags, rucksacks, suitcases, packages, and containers are not allowed in the Vatican attractions, nor are tripods, selfie-sticks, umbrellas, banners, or signs. Walking sticks are fine.

The Vatican Museums have a free cloakroom for smaller items. St. Peter’s Basilica doesn’t. There are various luggage storage options near the Vatican that are easy to find with a quick search.

Tips for Visiting the Vatican

A few things we’ve learned through doing this wrong plenty of times over the years.

Plan your day in advance

Your visit is going to be better if you plan. Book tours and tickets ahead.

The Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica are among the most-visited sites in the world. Queues are long, and tickets do sell out. It’s also worth confirming the things you want to see will be open on your planned dates, and that a Papal Audience or other event isn’t going to shuffle your timing.

Having a plan and the right tickets in hand will save you hours of standing in lines.

Consider a Guided Tour or Audio Guide

I’ve said this throughout but it bears repeating: a good guide makes a huge difference at the Vatican. There’s too much history, too much art, and too much architectural complexity to take in cold. A guide points you at the important things and tells you why they matter.

We’ve done lots of Vatican tours, and our favourites have all been with Take Walks. Their guides know the material and, critically, care about it. There are plenty of other good operators, so shop around.

If you’d rather skip the tour, at least grab an audio guide. Both the Museums and the Basilica offer them at a small fee near the entrance, and they’re well worth it.

Dress and Pack Accordingly

Dress for the dress code (see the section on it above). Assume it will be enforced, and plan accordingly.

Comfortable shoes are essential. You’re going to be on your feet for hours and covering a lot of ground. See our guides to the best travel shoes for men and the best travel shoes for women if you need ideas.

Bring a water bottle (we travel with reusable ones) and, of course, a camera.

Leave behind the stuff you won’t need: large bags, luggage, food and drinks, knives, laser pointers, tripods, scissors, video cameras. Otherwise you’ll be queuing at the Cloakroom before you even start. The Museums cloakroom is free and not generally slow, but it’s still a queue.

Be Wary of on-site Touts at the Vatican

You will be approached when you arrive at the Vatican. Official-looking people will offer tours or tickets, often claiming fast-track entry, and occasionally implying you need to buy through them to get in at all.

You don’t. These people are almost never affiliated with the Vatican. They’re selling guided tours or pre-bought fast-track tickets at a markup, and if you’re standing in a three-hour ticket queue in the July sun, the offer can sound tempting.

My advice is to plan ahead so you don’t need them. If you’ve pre-booked, a polite refusal is all you need. If you’ve turned up without a ticket, find a cafe with Wi-Fi and book through the official site or GetYourGuide or Tiqets on your phone. You’ll pay less, and you won’t be trusting a stranger in a polo shirt with your day.

Skip the Free Days, or Arrive Very Early

I’ve mentioned this already but it’s worth repeating: the Museums are free on the last Sunday of the month, and that sounds great until you see the queue. If you’re determined to go on a free day, arrive early. Then earlier. Then about an hour earlier than that.

Arrive Early

Free days or not, arriving early helps. For St. Peter’s Basilica, the free entry queue just gets longer as the day goes on. It opens early, so if you can be there at opening time you’ll walk straight in. Or book the fast-track ticket with timed entry.

For the Museums, if you’ve pre-booked with timed entry, book as early in the day as you can, especially in summer. Most of the Museums aren’t air-conditioned, and they heat up significantly as the day goes on. An early start means fewer people and more tolerable temperatures.

For a guided tour, look for one with early entry. Same logic applies, and you also get the art without being in a crowd of 400 other people all trying to photograph the same thing.

Escape the Crowds at the Vatican

The Vatican is always busy. It gets busier as the day wears on, and it can get a bit overwhelming, between the tour groups, the security guards, and the sheer volume of art.

The trick is to know where the crowds aren’t. The Sistine Chapel, Map Room, and Raphael Rooms are always packed. The Pinacoteca, Carriage Pavilion, and Egyptian Museum are considerably quieter. For real peace, head to the basement for the coin and stamp collection (Museo Filatelico e Numismatico). You might not have stamps on your Vatican bucket list, but you’ll get a little breathing room, and breathing room is itself a reward.

Attractions Near the Vatican

Vatican City has plenty to keep you busy, but if you want to build the Vatican into a wider day, here are nearby spots worth a look, ordered by distance.

Museum of Leonardo Da Vinci: a small museum dedicated to his life and works. No originals, but still interesting. 5 minutes’ walk from St. Peter’s Square.
Castel Sant’Angelo: a 2nd-century Roman mausoleum turned fortress turned Papal hideout. 10 minutes’ walk from St. Peter’s Square.
Piazza Navona: one of Rome’s most famous squares, with a Bernini fountain as the centrepiece. 20 minutes’ walk.
Villa Farnesina: a Renaissance-era suburban villa in the trendy Trastevere neighbourhood. 20 minutes’ walk.
Belvedere del Gianicolo: a popular viewpoint overlooking Rome. 25 minutes’ walk.
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore: one of Rome’s four major basilicas and the burial place of Pope Francis. About 30 minutes’ walk, or a short metro ride from Ottaviano to Termini. Free.

There’s a great deal more around Rome, of course, but that’s a reasonable starting selection.

Where to Stay Near the Vatican

Rome has plenty of accommodation across every budget and style. Below are some Vatican-area options, ordered roughly by distance. Prices shift, so compare before booking.

If you’re visiting in summer, book a hotel with air-conditioning. Rome in July without air conditioning is not a situation I’d wish on anyone.

Residenza Paolo VI: a well-rated four-star in a converted monastery, right next to St. Peter’s Basilica. Lovely views of both the Basilica and the Square from the terrace, 15 minutes’ walk to the Museums.
Palazzo Cardinal Cesi: another well-rated four-star, 150 yards from St. Peter’s Square. 15th-century building with a courtyard garden and a good range of rooms.
Elle Boutique Hotel: four-star boutique about 500 yards from St. Peter’s, with dome views.
Starhotels Michelangelo Rome: well-reviewed four-star about 500 yards from the Basilica, classically decorated rooms and an on-site restaurant.
Tmark Hotel Vaticano: four-star, right by the Museums entrance, 10 minutes’ walk to the Square.
Best Western Plus Hotel Spring House: well-reviewed, 3 minutes from the Museums, 10 from the Square.
Hotel Silla: good-value, 8 minutes’ walk to the Museums, 13 to the Square, and right next to Ottaviano metro station for getting around Rome.
Villa Agrippina Gran Melia: luxury 5-star, 15 minutes’ walk to St. Peter’s Square or 25 to the Museums, and 10 minutes from Trastevere.

Plenty more options at the listings for accommodation near the Vatican on Booking.com.

How to Find More Information on Visiting the Vatican?

There are lots of websites with Vatican information (including this one). I’ve done my best to keep this page accurate based on our own visits over many years.

For official sources, I’d also point you at:

https://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html: the official Vatican website. Opening times, visiting info, Papal Audience info, visiting St. Peter’s. It’s not the easiest site to find your way around, but it’s the horse’s mouth.
https://www.vaticanstate.va/it/: the official Vatican State website, with service info, live webcams, and history. Italian only as far as we can tell.
https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html: the official Vatican Museums website. Tickets, collection info, virtual tours.
https://www.basilicasanpietro.va/en/products: the official ticket booking site for St. Peter’s Basilica and associated activities (dome climb, necropolis, fast-track access, etc.)

Start with those if you want more. There’s a full list of official Vatican websites here.

Any questions, drop them in the comments below.

Frequently Asked Questions about Visiting the Vatican

How long do you need to visit the Vatican?

At least four hours to cover the highlights of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica. If you want to take your time and include the dome climb, the Grottoes, and the less-visited museums, a full day is better.

If you’ve only got a couple of hours, pick one or the other rather than rushing both. A guided tour is the most efficient way to see the highlights when time is tight.

Is a guided tour of the Vatican worth it?

Yes, we think so. With 70,000 objects in the collection and seven kilometres of galleries, the Museums are a lot to take in without context. A good guide points you at the important pieces, explains what you’re looking at, and helps you skip past the bits that don’t need your time.

We’ve done the Vatican both independently and on guided tours, and we got much more out of the guided visits. If budget is the sticking point, even an audio guide helps.

Can you visit the Vatican for free?

St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square are always free. The Vatican Museums are free on the last Sunday of the month (9am to 2pm, last entry 12.30pm), though the queues on free days are notoriously long. The Vatican Grottoes under the Basilica are also free.

The Vatican Museums, dome climb, Necropolis tour, and Vatican Gardens all need paid tickets at other times.

What is the dress code for the Vatican?

Knees and shoulders covered to enter St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums. T-shirts are fine, but no tank tops, sleeveless shirts, short skirts, or shorts. Men must remove hats. This is strictly enforced, and we’ve seen people turned away.

If you’ve been caught out by the weather, a lightweight scarf or wrap over your shoulders is an easy fix. Jess always carries one for exactly this reason.

Can you take photos in the Sistine Chapel?

No. Photography of any kind is banned in the Sistine Chapel, and the guards take it seriously. We’ve seen people escorted out for trying. You can take photos in most other parts of the Vatican Museums and in St. Peter’s Basilica.

If you want images of the Sistine Chapel frescoes, the Vatican gift shop sells postcards and books with excellent reproductions.

Do you need to book Vatican tickets in advance?

I’d really recommend it. The Vatican Museums have capacity limits and do sell out in peak season (April to October, Easter, Christmas). Tickets are released 60 days in advance on the official website. Without an advance ticket you can face a queue of several hours at the ticket office, or find out they’re sold out entirely.

Also remember: tickets are personalised now, and you’ll need an ID that matches the name on your ticket. See the section on tickets above for the full details.