Unofficial visitor guide · Vatican City
Musei Vaticani · Google Maps
Official audio guide · English Yes · 12 languages · €8
The Vatican Museums rent an audio guide in twelve languages. Two things to know before you rely on your phone: there is no visitor Wi-Fi, and phones and photos are forbidden in the Sistine Chapel.
Independent guide by the makers of Tales of Museums. Not affiliated with the Vatican Museums.
Checked on 14 October 2026 from the sources linked above. Museums change their guides and rules; confirm on the official Vatican Museums website before you go.
Checked on 14 October 2026 from the sources linked above. Museums change their guides and rules; confirm on the official Vatican Museums website before you go.
Swipe for the works and stories worth knowing before you go.
The vault was probably repainted because it was failing: a long crack opened in May 1504, and Bramante fitted tie rods above it. Michelangelo's 1508 contract asked only for twelve apostles and ornament. He called that a 'poor thing', so Julius II let him plan the whole scheme, ready for Mass on 1 November 1512.
museivaticani.va: Sistine Chapel ceiling · museivaticani.va: History of the Sistine Chapel
According to Vasari, the Master of Ceremonies Biagio da Cesena said so many nudes belonged in taverns, not a pope's chapel. In 1564 Daniele da Volterra was told to paint drapery over figures judged obscene, earning the nickname 'braghettone', the breeches-maker. The fresco also wiped out Perugino's altarpiece on that wall.
museivaticani.va: The Last Judgement · museivaticani.va: History of the Sistine Chapel
The Carriage Pavilion holds the steering wheel of the 2003 Formula 1 Ferrari driven by Michael Schumacher. Ferrari's president Luca di Montezemolo gave it to Benedict XVI on 6 December 2005, inscribed to the 'pilot of Christianity'. The pope likened its complicated technology to the complexity of guiding the Church.
In December 2019 serious structural problems led conservators to fit a carbon-fibre brace at the Apollo's back, anchored to the plinth; the museums credit Canova with a similar prop in 1816. Montorsoli's 1530s left hand was swapped for a cast of the 'hand of Baia', from a Roman plaster copy of the Greek original.
This striding young woman gave her name to Wilhelm Jensen's 1903 novella Gradiva, Latin for 'she who walks'. Freud studied the story in 1906 as if it were a psychiatric case, and in Rome he bought a cast of this very relief to hang in his study, near his famous couch.
Found in 1864 under the courtyard of Palazzo Pio Righetti, this gilded bronze lay flat in a trench beneath a travertine slab cut with the letters F C S, for Fulgur Conditum Summanium. Lightning had struck the statue, so following Roman custom it was given a ritual burial with the remains of a lamb.
Cardinal Joseph Fesch, Napoleon's uncle, came across this unfinished panel by chance. Tradition says it was in two pieces; according to the museums it had in fact been cut into five. After his death it was auctioned and sold on several times, until Pius IX bought it for the Vatican Pinacoteca in 1856.
In 2026 restorers removed a whitish film, almost invisible to the eye, that dulled Michelangelo's colours. Tests found lactic acid, which the body releases in sweat, in the chapel air; it had reacted with calcium in the paint to form calcium lactate. Japanese paper and distilled water removed it, with the chapel open throughout.
Her snake-shaped bracelet made people think she was Cleopatra, who died by an asp's bite. Only at the end of the 1700s did Ennio Quirino Visconti identify her as Ariadne, asleep on Naxos. Julius II bought her in 1512 and made her part of a fountain; the Egyptian motifs once painted behind her now lie under a red wash.
Julius II despised his predecessor Alexander VI Borgia and would not live among his memories, so he moved to the rooms upstairs. Raphael and his school painted them between 1508 and 1524: the Raphael Rooms. The abandoned Borgia apartment, decorated by Pinturicchio, now houses modern and contemporary art.
museivaticani.va: Borgia Apartment · museivaticani.va: Raphael's Rooms
Tales of Museums reads the label in front of you aloud in your language, in the galleries where photos are allowed. You'll need mobile data, because the museums have no Wi-Fi, and it cannot be used in the Sistine Chapel.
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No. The museums say that for security reasons no area has Wi-Fi coverage, so use mobile data. museivaticani.va
No. Photos, filming and phone use are forbidden there, and guards may ask you to delete pictures. Elsewhere, personal photos without flash are allowed. museivaticani.va
Twelve: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Ukrainian and Polish. museivaticani.va
In the centre, Plato points upward beside Aristotle. According to the museums, Heraclitus is a portrait of Michelangelo, and the figure on the far right in a black beret is Raphael's self-portrait. museivaticani.va
Yes. Sleeveless or low-cut clothes, shorts above the knee, miniskirts and hats are not permitted. museivaticani.va
Yes: the last Sunday of each month, 9 am to 2 pm (last entry 12:30 pm), unless it falls on a major feast such as Easter or 29 June. On other Sundays the museums are closed. Children under 7 always enter free. museivaticani.va: opening hours · museivaticani.va: tickets and prices
Book on the official site: a full ticket is €20, or €25 with the €5 'Skip the Line' online booking, and it is valid only for the day booked. The museums say to buy only from the official portal, because look-alike scam sites charge more. They open Monday to Saturday, 8 am to 8 pm, with last entry at 6 pm. museivaticani.va: tickets and prices · museivaticani.va: opening hours
Take Metro line A (direction Battistini) to Ottaviano or Cipro. Bus 49 stops in the square in front of the museums, and buses 32, 81 and 982 stop at Piazza del Risorgimento. museivaticani.va: how to reach us
Yes. Most spaces are accessible, the museums publish a barrier-free route map, and wheelchairs are lent free at the cloakroom, subject to availability, for an ID and a deposit. Visitors with a certified disability of at least 67% enter free and skip the line, with a companion if needed; collect those tickets at the entrance hall desk, since they cannot be booked online. museivaticani.va: services for visitors with disabilities · museivaticani.va: tickets and prices
Yes. The Vatican Museums welcome families with children and strollers: guards will show you the easiest route and the dedicated lifts, and along the itinerary there are baby-changing facilities and a nursing room, with highchairs in some refreshment areas. Children under 7 always enter free, and seated rest areas are in the Courtyard of the Cuirasses, the Courtyard of the Pinacoteca, the Square Garden and the Courtyard of the Pinecone. museivaticani.va: useful information for visitors (families, relaxation areas) · museivaticani.va: prices and tickets
Yes, the Vatican Museums have several along the route: a self-service restaurant with the Caffetteria Centrale beside it, a pizzeria, the Bistrot La Pigna in the Courtyard of the Pinecone, the Caffetteria Il Forno for visitors leaving the Sistine Chapel, and the Caffetteria Le Carrozze at the exit of the Carriage Pavilion. Food and drink are not allowed in the exhibition halls, but you can leave your own food in the free cloakroom and collect it before closing time. museivaticani.va: flavours to savour (cafés and restaurants) · museivaticani.va: useful information for visitors (food and drink)
The Vatican Museums have a free cloakroom, and before you enter the exhibition spaces you must leave there any luggage, suitcases, rucksacks, packages or containers that staff judge unsuitable because of their size or nature, along with medium and large umbrellas, tripods, video cameras, knives, scissors and metal tools. All visitors pass a metal-detector security check, so take such items out of your hand baggage beforehand. If you plan to go on to St Peter's Basilica, do not leave your bags in the Museums. museivaticani.va: useful information for visitors (luggage, bags and rucksacks; cloakroom regulations)
Tales of Museums is an independent app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the Vatican Museums. Translations, narration and the extra facts use AI and can contain mistakes, so for anything important, check the museum's official information and the linked sources. Please follow the museum's photography rules.