A must see! – Vatican Museum

The most common item found in everyone’s travel bucket list is Vatican Museum. Giant, magnificent, spectacular, amazing this is how people describe it. We planned an 8 day multi city tour of Italy in 2016 which included visiting Vatican City as well. This is the place you so often see on TV and in films(like Angels and Demons) but nothing can prepare you for the size and grandeur of it, truly spectacular!!!.

Paintings, sculptures, mummies and portraits name something which it does not have. Apart from everything in there, the building itself looks like a big artwork of Michelangelo and Stanze di Raffaello.

Though Vatican City is officially the smallest country in the world, it can be tiring to walk around. Even the distance from St. Peter\’s Square to Musei Vaticani(Vatican Museum) is about 1 mile.

The main objective of writing this post is not to tell you about what to see or the history behind some artifacts. But I am here writing down some pointers to tell you what you can do in terms of preparedness before you enter. Preparedness? Must be wondering.

Yes!! Vatican Museum is one of the biggest and most crowded sites I have seen so far. Maybe not in world but in Europe at least. To get maximum out of your visit and to best utilize the time here are some thoughts which can help you.

• Tickets – Hmm!! This is one of the most discussed subject about Vatican Museum. I won\’t suggest going for guided tour or purchase tour in advance. Only thing you need to do is buy ticket online before your Vatican visit and carry printout. You will see massive queues starting from Vatican Museum may be stretching till St. Peter’s Online ticket is the best escape route and saves tons of time. You can jump the entire queue and reach at the gate directly.
• Arrive early – we started early but it was St. Peter’s which there first in agenda. Plan Vatican Museum first as it is bit less crowded in early hours.
• Time – Vatican Museum took roughly about 4 hours for us yes it huge. If planned properly, some study, articles etc in advance. Depending upon your interest plan which sections to check and what is there to skip.
• Audio tour – this gives more elaborated information compared to information written in display sections. Available in various languages as well.
• Camera – Camera, mobile, selfie stick is allowed in building. But do not carry big bags along with you. This will waste lot of time in locker and scanning.
• Clicking – Clicking pictures is allowed in most of the sections except Sistine Chapel. Talking and clicking is not allowed there. Spend some time in Sistine Chapel. It\’s a masterpiece of Michelangelo which cannot be defined in words.
• Walking – Wear your most comfortable walking shoes and clothes. There is lot of walking involved within the museum and even more if St. Peter’s is the next one to be covered in same day.
• Breakfast – Enter in museum with full stomach, it should be enough for next 3-4 hours. Snacks shops near Vatican are expensive. It will be a good idea to carry some quick ready to eat snacks.
• Most imp 👉- Buy a selfie stick before going to Vatican so that on the way you won\’t get hassled by loads of roadside sellers.

Thanks for reading. Happy traveling!!! 👋

Statistics –

Started from	Piazza navona
∑ Places covered	2
∑ Miles walked	2
∑ Time spent	7hrs