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Although it can trace its origins to ancient times, the modern day Vatican was established in 1929 as separate from Italy. Technically, there are two legal entities in the Vatican — the Holy See, which is the "universal government" of the Catholic Church, and Vatican City State, which is a sovereign, independent territory that hosts the Holy See. However, from the perspective of a tourist, the Vatican effectively is just a neighborhood in Rome. There is heavy security in and around Vatican City, but there are no immigration or passport controls.

As far as travelgasm.com is concerned, if you only visit one place while you're in Rome, it should be the Vatican. Its vast collection of religious artifacts and artwork — not to mention the unbelievably beautiful Sistine Chapel — deserve at least one substantial visit, if not two or three.

Note that the Vatican has a dress code. Attending a religious service or entering just about any building in Vatican City — including museums — requires all visitors, without exception, to dress respectfully with clothing that covers the knees, shoulders, midriff, and back. Security is similar to that in an airport and prohibits sharp items and liquids. It will make everyone's life much easier if you leave your luggage elsewhere.

Seven Vatican City Highlights & When to Visit

The official Vatican website has details about the territory's history and attractions, but additional guidance based on our multiple visits also can be useful.

Seven highlights are organized in the order of a logical route on our map below:

1. Vatican Museums - The home of a vast collection of art collected by Popes over many centuries. For all practical purposes, it is essential to prebook a ticket or a tour guide to visit the Vatican Museums as multihour waits to buy tickets are the norm, particularly during the summer months. The cheapest option usually is to buy tickets in advance directly from the Vatican website, but direct tickets often are sold out earlier than those available from travel agents. If direct tickets are not available, you also may want to consider travel agent options for individual skip-the-line tickets, a guided tour, or an Early Access guided tour that provides entry to the Vatican Museums an hour before it opens to the general public. The Vatican Museums are closed Sundays, except for the last Sunday of most months, when it is open and entry is free. On Free Sundays, queues go around the block and the museum is very crowded. If you have more time than money — perhaps you are a student in Rome for a semester — a free Sunday makes sense, but for most short-term visitors, prebooking a ticket is the smartest option, and free Sundays are best to be avoided because it is not possible to buy a ticket at all.
2. Sistine Chapel - Michelangelo's intricate frescos truly are incredible. His famous painting of God reaching out to man — formally The Creation of Adam — is but one tiny portion of the beautiful ceiling. Access is combined with a ticket to the Vatican Museums and photography is strictly prohibited.
3. St. Peter's Basilica - Entering this beautiful Renaissance-era church is free, but an hour or longer wait to enter is not uncommon. There are charges to enter the treasury and the cupola (the view from the top), which can be purchased inside if desired. Our preferred time to go is early Sunday morning when the museum is closed and fewer tourists visit. The first mass is at 9 AM, but the church opens at 7 AM and lines often are short early in the morning regardless of the day. Some tourists report that the lines thin out a bit in the afternoon as well, but when we walked past in the afternoon — even in the off season — queues still were quite visible. We would suggest either combining your visit to St. Peter's Basilica with the Vatican Museums — and enter the Basilica from the Sistine Chapel (use the entrance marked for tours) — or visit St. Peter's Basilica independently as close to 7 AM as possible.
4. St. Peter's Square - Piazza San Pietro in Italian, this is the iconic square recognized the world over as the center point of the Vatican. Tourists queue up for St. Peter's Basilica and the Pope addresses crowds of the faithful in this square.
5. Apostolic Palace - On the right side of St. Peter's Square (when facing St. Peter's Basilica), this is the official residence of the Pope in the Vatican. On Sundays, he addresses the crowd from this building. If you want to setup your camera and tripod a bit in advance, he speaks from the top floor, second window from the right.
6. Via della Conciliazione - This is the main street heading into Vatican City. It is a fairly large street — and one that is rather unpleasant on foot — so we instead would recommend walking on Via Ottaviano, but Via della Conciliazione is a nice photo op, particularly in the evening when the Vatican is closed and most of the tourists and their noisy, fume-spewing tour buses are long gone.
7. Borgo Pio - This is an attractive, small-scale, people-priority walking street flanked by a gauntlet of tourist-targeted restaurants and souvenir shops. It's definitely not local, but it is the best street in the area. Many of the shops are run by the Chinese rather than Italians, so you also are presented with the unique opportunity to practice your Mandarin by haggling over a crucifix.

Because the Vatican is so slathered in tourists, it is not the ideal area for a meal in Rome. In fact, we even met a restaurant owner on Borgo Pio who was honest enough to say that 90% of the restaurants in the area are tourist traps and he would instead recommend that we go to Trastevere to eat. If you must eat near the Vatican, we would suggest that you choose something quick and Italian. Well-regarded Italian joints in the neighborhood include Alice Pizza, Forno Feliziani, and Mama Eat. We particularly enjoyed Mama Eat, which also has a location in Trastevere, and it offers its entire menu in both gluten and gluten-free variants.

How to See the Pope

For many visitors to the Vatican, the opportunity to see and hear the Pope — currently the popular Pope Francis — is even more exciting than the architecture, art, and artifacts. Because the Pope travels extensively, review the official calendar in advance to be certain that he will be in town during your stay in Rome.

When he is in the Vatican, the Pope usually speaks twice a week. Be sure to also confirm the exact time during your stay, because the schedule and type of address can vary a bit, but there typically is a "general audience" — effectively a sermon — at 10:30 AM on Wednesdays that is about two hours and delivered from a stage in St. Peter's Square (or inside the Paul VI Audience Hall when it is colder) and an "Angelus" at 12 Noon on Sundays that is about 20 minutes and delivered from a balcony in the Apostolic Palace.

Sundays are fairly casual and you do not need tickets. Particularly during peak season — roughly May though October — it still would be wise to show up a couple of hours early, but it is less crowded than Wednesdays and chairs usually are not set up, so it is possible to visit more quickly. When we went in the off season and arrived around 9 AM on a Sunday, substantial numbers of people did not begin congregating to see the Pope for a couple of hours and it provided plenty of time to also visit St. Peter's Basilica. If you dress appropriately on Sunday morning — as you would to attend a church service — our experience was that the queue was minimal and interior guards will waive you through with the assumption that you are there to attend mass. Mass is scheduled several times during the morning and throughout the day. Be respectful; St. Peter's Basilica is a genuine religious place and not an amusement park.

For Wednesdays, tickets for a seat are free, but you need to write a paper letter or find a fax machine and send your request to the Vatican directly months in advance. Then you need to pick up the tickets on the Monday or Tuesday before the scheduled Wednesday. To get a seat anywhere near the stage — you need to both have tickets and arrive about three hours early on Wednesday.

It's not free (or even cheap), but there also is a well-reviewed tour of the Vatican that includes a multilingual guide and a guaranteed seat on the selected Wednesday. If direct tickets no longer are available — even this tour tends to be sold out about a month in advance — you may find the tour to be a good option, particularly if you also would like the insight of a guide. Be sure to show up at the specified time.

We've mapped out our preferred walk below in a logical route from and back to Ottaviano Station. Ottaviano provides the most straightforward and pleasant walk to the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Square alike.

How to Get Here: Take the Rome Metro Line A (Orange) to Ottaviano Station. Use the V. Ottaviano/San Pietro Exit (Uscita) and head straight. Toward St. Peter's Square, be particularly careful crossing Piazza del Risorgimento. Whatever traffic laws exist at Piazza del Risorgimento are ignored commonly by drivers.

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