Vatican City, Europe

In May 2025, 133 cardinals entered conclave to elect a new Pope following the death of Francis. On 8 May they elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a Chicago-born Augustinian friar, who took the name Leo XIV, becoming the first American to lead the Catholic Church. His election drew global attention, and the subsequent Jubilee Year 2025 saw over 33 million pilgrims visit Rome, roughly double the expected annual visitor figure for the city. That background matters for planning a Vatican visit in 2026: demand for timed-entry slots at the Vatican Museums is exceptionally high, and tickets sell out weeks ahead during peak season.

The state itself

Vatican City covers 44 hectares, making it the smallest internationally recognised state in the world. It was established as an independent entity by the Lateran Treaty of 1929, which resolved a decades-long dispute between the Holy See and the Italian state over sovereignty. Before 1929, the Pope had not left the Vatican grounds since 1870, when Italian forces annexed Rome and ended the Papal States. The entire perimeter can be walked in about an hour.

What to visit

The Vatican Museums, which include the Sistine Chapel, are the primary draw and one of the most heavily attended museum complexes in the world. The collection spans ancient Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman artefacts, Renaissance paintings, maps, tapestries, and the papal apartments. The route through to the Sistine Chapel is approximately five kilometres; most visitors see roughly a third of what is available.

Michelangelo accepted the commission to redesign St. Peter’s Basilica at age 71, refused any payment for the work, and died at 88 in 1564 having completed only the drum below the dome. The dome itself, 136 metres high with an internal diameter of 42 metres, was finished in 1590 by Giacomo della Porta, who raised it in 22 months using 800 labourers. The bronze canopy inside the basilica, designed by Bernini, is made partly from bronze taken from the Pantheon’s roof. Michelangelo also found that construction workers were mixing ten or twelve parts sand to one part cement (the correct ratio is three or four to one) and had to personally intervene to correct the method.

In early 2026, restoration work on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo’s Last Judgement covers 200 square metres, was completed. The scaffolding came down on 26 March 2026. The cleaned fresco now shows colour saturation not publicly visible for decades. If you have seen the Last Judgement before, visiting now gives you a genuinely different experience.

St. Peter’s Basilica is separate from the Vatican Museums and does not require the same ticket. Entry is free, though access to the dome costs around 8 euros (stairs) or 10 euros (lift for part of the climb). The queue for free entry can be long in summer; arriving before 9am reduces wait time significantly.

Tickets and booking

Vatican Museums tickets cost 20 euros at the door or 25 euros online (the additional 5 euros covers the pre-sale fee and provides a timed-entry slot). The timed slot is 30-minute windows and is enforced, with a grace period of approximately 15 minutes. Tickets become available 60 days in advance on the official museums website (museivaticani.va). For July and August, 60-day advance booking is not merely advisable; it is effectively necessary for standard entry slots.

The museums are closed on Sundays except the last Sunday of every month, when entry is free. The free Sunday draws very large crowds and is not recommended if you want a manageable visit.

Night tours of the Vatican Museums run on select evenings and provide smaller-group access to the collections after regular hours. These require separate booking and are popular; check the official site for the current schedule.

The Papal Audience

Pope Leo XIV holds a General Audience on Wednesday mornings, typically at 9am in St. Peter’s Square (or in the Paul VI Audience Hall in poor weather). Attendance is free but requires tickets booked through the Prefecture of the Papal Household via the Vatican website. This is different from the Pope’s Sunday Angelus address, which requires no ticket and is open to anyone standing in the square.

Practical dress and access

Both the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica enforce a dress code: shoulders and knees must be covered. Vest tops, shorts, and short skirts will result in being turned away from entry or offered a disposable covering. Scarves and lightweight trousers packed in a bag are the standard practical solution for summer visitors.

Where to eat nearby

The streets immediately around the Vatican tend toward overpriced tourist restaurants. Walking ten minutes south to the Prati neighbourhood changes the options significantly. Il Sorpasso on Via Properzio is a well-regarded wine bar and cicchetti spot popular with Romans, with small plates running 3 to 8 euros each. Fatamorgana on Via Giovanni Bettolo makes some of the better gelato in Rome (including unusual flavours like basil and tomato or saffron) at non-tourist prices.

Where to stay

Prati is the most convenient neighbourhood for Vatican visits: it sits between Piazza del Popolo and Castel Sant’Angelo and has a range of mid-range hotels within fifteen minutes’ walk. The Trastevere neighbourhood, across the Tiber and about 25 minutes on foot, is worth considering for visitors who want to combine Vatican visits with a wider Rome stay; it retains more neighbourhood character than the hotel-heavy areas immediately around the Castel.

The Vatican area is also a short metro ride from Termini station (line A), which connects to the rest of Rome efficiently if you want to stay elsewhere and make day visits.

One logistical detail that saves time

The Sistine Chapel exit leads directly into St. Peter’s Basilica through a door that bypasses the main square queue. Many visitors do not realise this exit exists and instead leave the museums via the main entrance, then walk around to the basilica queue. If you want to visit both on the same day, go through the chapel exit.