The Rest of the Vatican

The Vatican Museums encompass a dozen collections; beyond the most famous are sections devoted to Egyptian, Etruscan, and Ethnological holdings, early and modern religious art, plus the Vatican Gardens

Minor Vatican Museums
Viale Vaticano (on the north side of the Vatican City walls, between where Via Santamaura and the Via Tunisi staircase hit Viale Vaticano; about a 5–10 minute walk around the walls from St. Peter's).
tel. +39-06-6988-4947
www.vatican.va
Open Mon–Sat 9am–6pm (last entry: 4pm)
Also open the last Sun of each month 9:30am–2pm—and it's free!... and terribly crowded
For other closed dates, see "tips" below
Adm

Viator.com tours
• Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
• Skip the Line: Vatican in One Day
• Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Tickets
• Private Viewing of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums
• Private Tour: Vatican Museums Walking Tour
• Private Tour: Vatican Museums and St Peter's Art History Walking Tour
• Skip the Line: Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel Tour
• Skip the Line: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica Half-Day Walking Tour

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Here's a quick rundown of the other museums and sights at the Vatican:

Collection of Modern Religious Art - Not great, but some papal robes by Matisse along with works by Picasso, Chagall, Kandinsky,and Henry Moore...

Chiaramonti Museum & Braccio Nuovo (New Wing) - Miles of Roman busts and Classical statues, with a few standouts in the (rarely open) Braccio Nuovo...

Gregorian Egyptian Museum - Mummies, sarcophagi, and Egyptian statuary. Also, access to the Cortile della Pigna for a breath of fresh air...

Gregorian Etruscan Museum - Second biggest Etruscan collection in Rome, with several marquee pieces and other artifacts dating back as early as the Iron Age (9th century BC)...

Gregorian Profane Museum - "Profane" sounds racy, but they just mean "pagan"—in this case, lots of good ancient Greek stuff, including fragments from the Parthenon and a fabulous floor mosaic from a banqueting hall complete with "spilled food"...

Pio Christian Museum - Early Christian art from the 2nd to 6th centuries—including the earliest representation of Christ in existence (from the 3rd century)...

Missionary-Ethnological Museum - Booty collected during more than a dozen centuries of proselytizing around the world, representing 3,000 years–worth of artifacts from China, Africa, India, Asia, Native America, and the Middle East...

Vatican Gardens - You can only visit the pope's personal pleasure grounds on two-hour guided tours booked in advance—but it can be worth it for a glimpse at the self-contained world of this smallest of global city-states...

The Vatican Museums
Pinacoteca (Painting Gallery)
Papal Apartments
     Raphael Rooms
    Borgia Apartments
    Chapel of Nicholas V
Sistine Chapel
Pio-Clementine Museum
Modern Religious Art
Chiaramonti/New Wing
Gregorian Egyptian Museum
Gregorian Etruscan Museum
Gregorian Profane Museum
Pio Christian Museum
Missionary-Ethnological Museum
Vatican Gardens

Tips

Planning your day: Spend all day at the Vatican. Two days if you can swing it. Even on a tight schedule, expect to pretty much spend one full day seeing the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's together. They're worth it. Warning: The ticket office closes 2 hours before the museum, with the last entry at 4pm.
Book ahead: You can book entry tickets ahead of time at www.vatican.va to help avoid the lines, which can last for up to an hour or so in the summer. However, this adds a €4 fee to the already steep admission of €15.
Book a Vatican tour: There are two-hour tours of the museums and Sistine Chapel available (in English usually at 10:30am) for €30–€35 per person. For more info: tel. +39-06-6988-3145 or www.vatican.va. If you prefer a private guided tour of the Vatican and its museums, book one via our partner site Viator.com.

     • Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour including Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's
     • Skip the Line: Vatican in One Day
     • Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Tickets
     • Private Tour: Vatican Museums Walking Tour
     • Private Viewing of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums
     • Private Tour: Vatican Museums and St Peter's Art History Walking Tour
     • Skip the Line: Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel Tour
     • Skip the Line: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica Half-Day Walking Tour
The Vatican Museums are closed Sundays—except on the last Sunday of the month...
The Vatican Museums are free on the last Sunday of each month, when they are intensely crowded and stay open until 2pm (last entry: 12:30pm). They're also free on Sept. 27 (World Tourism Day). If the Sunday falls on a church holiday, however, they're closed (see next tip).
The Vatican Museums are closed on all church holidays: Jan. 1, Jan. 6, Feb. 11, Mar. 19, Easter Sunday and Monday, May 1, May 21, June 11, June 29 (Feast of St. Peter and Paul—major Roman holiday), Aug. 14–15 (everything is closed in Rome on Aug. 15; head to Santa Maria Maggiore for mass with a "snowfall" of rose petals), Nov. 1, Dec. 8, Dec. 25 (Merry Christmas!), Dec. 26 (Santo Stefano—huge in Italy).
Note that the Vatican Museums close surprisingly early (last entry 4pm, doors close 6pm). So see them first, then walk around the walls to visit St. Peter's.
Dress code?: Recently, the Vatican (or at least some guards) seems to have decided that you must dress "appropriately" to visit any part of Vatican City—including the museums—and not just St. Peter's, where a dress code has long applied. Err on the side of caution and make sure you arrive with no bare shoulders, knees or midriffs. (If it's hot and you want to wear a tank top around town that day, just bring a light shawl to cover your shoulders while inside; on packing the right items for an Italy trip.)
How to get to the Vatican Museums: Cipro-Musei Vaticani is the closest Metro stop (on the A line, about 7 blocks northwest of the entrance; just follow the crowds). Otherwise, bus 49 stops right in front of the museum entrance (you can catch it from Piazza Cavour, or anywhere along Via Cescenzio, which passes the very northern tip of the piazza around Castel Sant'Angelo)

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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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The Rest of the Vatican

The Vatican Museums encompass a dozen collections; beyond the most famous are sections devoted to Egyptian, Etruscan, and Ethnological holdings, early and modern religious art, plus the Vatican Gardens

Tips

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