Vatican City Guide - tips by travel authority Howard Hillman

Vatican City
wins 4 Hillman travel medals

Vatican City

wonder map

an impartial

Vatican City Guide by

a travel authority

Travel

wonders of

the Vatican City

St. Peter's Basilica

Artistically and architecturally, the Basilica of St. Peter's is a masterpiece. It is the central church to 500 million Roman Catholics.

Sistine Chapel

This relatively large chapel houses Michelangelo's world famous frescos: "Genesis" and "The Last Judgment". The Sistine Chapel is also renowned as being the venue where popes are chosen.

Vatican Museums

The sprawling network of galleries collectively called the Vatican Museums is home to many artwork masterpieces and historical documents, including from ancient Egypt and the Renaissance. One room (the Sistine Chapel) wins my gold medal.

St. Peter's Square

This immense o

pen space is the public entranceway to the Vatican City - and is sometimes packed with a half million people. St. Peter's Square is impressively flanked by Bernini's 17th century classical colonnades - and is centered by an Egyptian obelisk.

Vatican City

tips & insights

Late Spring and early Fall are the best times to visit. The weather is pleasant and the Vatican City is not overwhelmed with tour groups.

Avoid crowds by visiting the Vatican City (and especially its Sistine Chapel) when doors first open in the morning.

Expect thick crowds throughout the day during the Easter and Christmas periods - and during pontifical blessings, funerals and elections.

The Vatican City (also called the Holy See) is the ecclesiastical and administrative seat of the Roman Catholic Church. It has nearly a billion followers around the world.

It is a relatively small enclave lying inside the city limits of Rome, but is an independent state.

The Vatican City is the smallest independent nation state in the world in area and population. It is also the richest state on a per capita and per square area basis.

It issues its own postal stamps and has a newspaper.

The Vatican partially sits on a hill that the Romans called Vaticanus. That's how it derived its name.

For 455 years (1523-1978) all the popes were Italian. That string was broken when a Pole, John Paul II, became pope. And, his successor, the current pope, Benedict XVI, is German.