Vatican Tourist Guide: What to See and How to Plan Your Visit

For a tourist, the Vatican comes down to five sights: the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel (which is part of the Museums route), St. Peter’s Basilica, the basilica’s dome and St. Peter’s Square. The most practical order is to enter the Museums in the morning, finish in the Sistine Chapel and then move on to the basilica, which charges no entrance fee. The Museums are worth booking: the official ticket costs 20 € at the ticket office or 20 € + 5 € online and is valid only for the day you choose. The basilica is open every day from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. until 28 March 2027.

This guide tells you what is inside the Vatican, in what order to see it, which tickets to book, which rules to follow and how to get there. Each sight also has its own guide with the history and details.

What is there to see in the Vatican?

The Vatican a visitor sees is two separate complexes. On one side, the Vatican Museums, entered from Viale Vaticano, with the Sistine Chapel at the end of the route. On the other, St. Peter’s Square and the basilica, which you reach on foot from the city. Between the two is a walk outside the walls, except on some guided tours that go from the chapel to the basilica on the inside.

Vatican Museums

The Vatican Museums grew out of the private collection of Julius II, elected pope in 1503. Today they bring together 27 museums, galleries, chapels and rooms, according to Wikipedia’s list, and the Museums themselves speak of a route about seven kilometers long. In 2022 they had 5,080,866 visitors and were the second most visited museum in the world, after the Louvre.

The most searched-for sights inside:

• Pio-Clementino Museum, with Laocoön and His Sons, a 2.42 m marble group unearthed in Rome in 1506, and the Apollo Belvedere.
• Gallery of Maps, with forty maps of Italy painted in fresco between 1580 and 1585.
• Raphael Rooms, four rooms that Raphael and his workshop decorated between 1508 and 1524, with The School of Athens.
• Vatican Pinacoteca, with about five hundred paintings in eighteen rooms.

Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel is the chapel of the Apostolic Palace and part of the Museums: you get in with the same ticket. Michelangelo painted the ceiling between 1508 and 1512 and The Last Judgment on the altar wall between 1536 and 1541. The Creation of Adam is on the ceiling. It is also the room where the cardinals elect the Pope in the conclave. Inside, photos are not allowed and you must keep silent.

St. Peter’s Basilica

St. Peter’s Basilica was begun on 18 April 1506 and completed on 18 November 1626. According to Wikipedia it has the largest interior of any Christian church. Inside are Michelangelo’s Pietà, in the first chapel on the right, and Bernini’s baldachin, 28.5 m tall, over the papal altar. Beneath the floor are the Vatican Grottoes, with the tombs of popes. The Vatican Necropolis, with the tomb of St. Peter, can only be visited by request on the basilica’s official website.

St. Peter’s dome

St. Peter’s dome measures 136.57 m from the floor to the cross. You go up by elevator to the terrace (22 €) or on foot from the bottom (17 €), and in both cases the price includes the visit to the basilica. From the terrace there are about 320 narrow, spiraling steps to the top.

St. Peter’s Square

St. Peter’s Square is Bernini’s work: its colonnades add up to 284 columns, 88 pilasters and 140 statues. In the center stands the 25.3 m Egyptian obelisk that Sixtus V had raised in 1586. The square is free, and it is where the Pope prays the Angelus on Sundays at noon.

If you have time to spare, you can also book the Vatican Gardens or go to Castel Gandolfo, with the Papal Palace and the Secret Garden for 12 € full price.

Visit	Price	Hours (fall and winter 2026–2027)	Book?
Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel	20 € at the ticket office; 20 € + 5 € online	Monday to Saturday, 8:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m. (last entry 6:00 p.m.)	Strongly recommended
St. Peter’s Basilica	No entrance fee	Every day, 7:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.	Not needed
Dome	22 € with the elevator; 17 € by the stairs	7:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m.	Recommended
St. Peter’s Square	Free	Open space	No
Necropolis (tomb of St. Peter)	On the official website	By request	Required

In what order should you visit the Vatican, and how long does it take?

Start with the Vatican Museums and leave the basilica for later. The Museums open at 8:00 a.m. with last entry at 6:00 p.m., while the basilica opens at 7:00 a.m. and closes at 7:00 p.m. until March. That way you make the most of the hours the Museums are open and finish somewhere that needs no ticket.

Inside the Museums the route runs one way. The visits we sell follow this order: Pio-Clementino Museum, Gallery of the Candelabra, Gallery of Tapestries, Gallery of Maps, Raphael Rooms and, at the end, the Sistine Chapel. Guided tours that include the basilica go from the chapel to St. Peter’s without leaving, according to their listings. If you go on your own, you leave through the Museums exit and walk to the square to enter through the check under the right-hand colonnade.

For timing, we go by the length of the visits we sell:

• Museums and Sistine Chapel: 2 to 3 hours. The short guided tour lasts 2 hours; the skip-the-line ticket with a host, 2.5 to 3 hours.
• Museums, chapel and basilica: about 3 hours on a guided tour. The private tour lasts 3 hours and covers about 3.2 km on foot.
• Basilica, dome and grottoes: 1.5 to 2.5 hours.

With that, you can see the Vatican in one day: Museums and chapel in the morning, the basilica at midday and the dome if your legs still have it in them. If you only have half a day, pick the Museums and chapel, or the basilica and dome, but do not try to rush all three.

Three dates change the plan. On Wednesday mornings the basilica closes for the Pope’s general audience, as tour operators warn, so leave it for the afternoon that day. On Sundays the Museums are closed, except the last Sunday of the month, when they open free from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and usually have very long lines. And the rest of 2026 has these Museums closures: 1 November and 8, 25 and 26 December. If you want to see the Pope, see the papal audience guide.

Which tickets do you need to book?

Only the Vatican Museums and the dome charge for entry. A single ticket covers the Museums and the Sistine Chapel, and it is valid only for the day it is issued for. These are the official rates:

• Full price: 20 € at the ticket office without a booking; 20 € + 5 € online booking fee, which lets you skip the ticket office line.
• Reduced: 10 € (+5 € online) for young people aged 7 to 18, students up to 25 with valid ID, and priests or members of religious orders.
• Free: children under 7; people with a certified disability of 67% or more (and their companion if they are not self-sufficient), with the ticket collected at the Special Permits desk in the entrance hall; and everyone on the last Sunday of each month.

Official tickets are non-refundable. The only official online shop is tickets.museivaticani.va, and the Museums themselves warn about websites with similar domains that charge much more. You have all the details in Vatican Museums ticket prices and in the comparison of official or resold tickets.

If the official website has no time slot left, or you would rather have a guide, these are the Vatican Museums tickets we link to:

• Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel ticket, from $37, rated 4.5 out of 5 in 159,426 reviews of this ticket on GetYourGuide. It is non-refundable.
• Guided tour of the Museums, the Sistine Chapel and the basilica, from $71, rated 4.7 out of 5 in 19,233 reviews of this tour on GetYourGuide.
• Vatican Museums early access, from $122, to get in before general opening.
• St. Peter’s Basilica with the dome and grottoes, from $33, with a guide.

Eight of our nine visits have free cancellation; the $37 standard ticket is the exception. The full comparison is in the best Vatican tours.

The basilica has no entrance fee, but entry is not guaranteed either: it can close without notice for ceremonies. The basilica’s official website also sells timed visits with a digital audio guide, and the dome is booked at booking.basilicasanpietro.va.

What are the rules: dress code and security check?

The dress code is the same in the Museums, the Sistine Chapel, the basilica and the Gardens: no sleeveless or low-cut tops, shorts above the knee, miniskirts or caps. In the basilica, shoulders must also be covered and skirts or trousers must reach below the knee, for everyone. You will find examples in the Vatican dress code guide.

Before entering the Museums you go through an airport-style security check. Tour operators warn that in high season, which is June, July and August, the wait at that check can be over 30 minutes, even with a booked ticket. At the basilica the check is run by the Italian State Police under the right-hand colonnade of the square.

Other rules worth knowing:

• Photos: allowed without flash and for personal use along the whole route, except in the Sistine Chapel, where no photos or video are allowed with any device. In the basilica you are asked not to take photos. More detail in Sistine Chapel photos.
• Items: tripods, drones and selfie sticks are not allowed. Large bags and umbrellas go to the Museums cloakroom, which is free. The basilica has no cloakroom, so travel light.
• Food: no eating or drinking in the galleries; there are cafés, a self-service restaurant and a pizzeria along the route.
• Silence: in the Sistine Chapel, silence is required and phones must be off.

If you are traveling with children or with someone in a wheelchair, see the guides to the Vatican Museums with children and accessibility (both in Spanish): the Museums lend wheelchairs free of charge at the cloakroom.

How do you get to the Vatican?

The easiest way is the metro: line A, toward Battistini, to Ottaviano or Cipro. From either station you walk to the Museums entrance. By bus, line 49 stops opposite the Museums; lines 32, 81 and 982 stop at Piazza del Risorgimento; and the 492 and 990 at Via Leone IV or Via degli Scipioni. Tram 19 also stops at Piazza del Risorgimento, and there is a taxi rank in front of the Museums.

You reach St. Peter’s Square through the Borgo district, mainly along Via della Conciliazione, which leads straight into the square, and Via di Porta Angelica. You will find routes from Termini, the airport and the center in how to get to the Vatican.

If you are getting up early for a first-entry slot, staying nearby helps: see the hotels near the Vatican (in Spanish) and, for after the visit, restaurants near the Vatican.