Places To Explore
Vatican museums
VIALE VATICANO
No trip to the Vatican City is complete without visiting the museums. All included in one ticket, along with the Sistine Chapel, you’ll walk along corridors of ancient Roman statues and explore rooms filled to the brim with Renaissance art. There’s a reason it’s visited by over 6 million people every year.
Founded in 1503, the papal collection on display was started by Pope Julius II, and has been expanded ever since. Clement XIV and Pius VI collected Greek works, while Pius V was a fan of 15th- and 16th-century Flemish tapestries and Medieval ceramics. It now holds thousands of statues, tapestries, paintings, ceramics and more.
Everything is separated into separate mini museums, all linked together into an interesting and historic day out. The grouping does have an advantage, too – if you’re more of a Classicist, you can focus on the relevant parts of the museum, like the Pio-clementino Museum and the Gregorian Profane Museum. Medievalists can head straight to the Borgia Apartment – the actual apartments that belonged to Pope Alexander VI – and the Gallery of Maps.
While your ticket also includes small archaeological sites and some of the pontifical villas, your trip will end with the real showstopper: the Sistine Chapel. The 15th-century frescoes painted by Michelangelo, Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Rosselli are a sight to behold. Everyone in the room will be looking up – where else would you look when surrounded by such stunning artwork?
€17 + $4 if booking online (which is recommended) Open daily, www.museivaticani.va