One of the most visited place in all of Rome is the Vatican. It is considered to be its own country – the smallest country in the world ! It was definitely on the top of our list . We made it to the Vatican on our fourth day in Rome .

Logistics

We booked an early morning skip the line tour with a live guide . You definitely need the skip the line option. The lines for the Vatican are insane!

We booked our tour with the same company we used for the Colosseum tour . You can find the details in this Post .

Day Of The Tour

We walked to the meeting spot near the Vatican and started our tour with the guide . I was super excited!

Vatican

There is a line to get inside even with the skip the line , however it moves very fast . There is only one entrance. I imagine for security purposes. Once you are inside you and your belongings need to go through security.

After the security check we started the tour outside of the Vatican. The guide gave us very detailed overview of the history of Rome and the Vatican.

Vatican Museums

We than moved on to the Vatican museums . Having a guide definitely helped us get a highlight of the museum’s in small amount of time . It seemed like each firmer Pope was trying to outdo their predecessors!

Sistine Chapel

After the museums we went into the Sistine Chapel to see Michel Angelo’s ceiling paintings. You are not allowed to take photos and is only supposed to get a limited amount of time . So we looked up like everyone else. The ceiling is definitely something. It was hard to even look up for some amount of time . The talent it would have taken to paint the whole ceiling in that much detail !

After marvelling at the art all around us we used a doorway to go to St.Peter’s Basilica. If you are part of a tour you can use this entrance. Otherwise you have to exit and lineup again to get in to St.Peter’s Basilica. Tip: There were no checks when we moved from Sistine Chapel to the Basilica. So even if you are not part of a tour just follow people who are .

St.Peter’s Basilica

Massive and beautiful church with rich history. You can climb steps to reach the top of the dome . Which we did . It was not too claustrophobic to climb . The views from the top are incredible! Definitely a must do . You can take elevator partially but to reach the top you need to climb stairs .

Inside the Basilica:

Roof Of St.Peter’s Basilica :

You can also go to the basement to see Saint Peter’s Tomb but we didn’t .

Once we had explored the inside of the church we headed outside. The courtyard itself is stunning. We took some more photos and left for lunch .