Vatican Guide: Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peter's

The Vatican is two separate visits that people often treat as one. The Vatican Museums (with the Sistine Chapel) need a ticket. St Peter's Basilica is free. The entrances are about 15 minutes' walk apart around the city walls. Here's how to get through both without burning out.

1. Book the Museums

Buy a timed ticket on the official Musei Vaticani website. The Museums are closed on Sundays, except the last Sunday of the month, when entry is free, hours are shorter and the queue wraps round the walls. They also close on a list of religious holidays, so check the calendar before fixing your day. The entrance is on Viale Vaticano, about ten minutes' walk from Ottaviano station on metro line A.

2. Pace the Museums

The route to the Sistine Chapel is long, and the Gallery of Maps and the Gallery of Tapestries are the busiest stretch of it. Don't rush the first part: the Pio-Clementino rooms have the Laocoön and the Apollo Belvedere, and the Raphael Rooms, just before the chapel, are as good as anything in the building. Allow three hours at least.

In the Sistine Chapel, photos are not allowed and guards ask for silence. Find a spot along the side bench, look at the ceiling from the end nearest the altar, then turn round and take in Michelangelo's Last Judgment on the altar wall.

3. Walk to St Peter's

Groups sometimes use a passage from the chapel straight into the basilica. Individual visitors can't count on it, so plan to exit and walk round to St Peter's Square, where the security line forms under Bernini's colonnade. Mornings are quietest; the line can be long by midday.

Inside, Michelangelo's Pietà is behind glass in the first chapel on the right. Bernini's bronze canopy stands over the main altar under the dome.

4. Climb the dome

A separate ticket, sold at the basilica. A lift covers the first part; the rest is over 300 steps, the last stretch tilted and narrow between the inner and outer shells. At the top: the whole square, the Vatican Gardens and the Roman rooftops. Not for anyone claustrophobic.

Dress code applies to both visits: cover shoulders and knees. Our what to wear guide has the details. Prati, next door, is a practical base; see the where to stay guide.