This is your complete guide to Vatican City. What to see, what to do, and how to avoid
those stupidly long queues and crowds. Advice on how to see the Pope himself,
and how to have an amazing stress-free time when you're visiting the smallest country in the world.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Vatican City!
This is the spiritual home of the Catholic Church and one of the holiest places on the planet.
Over 1.3 billion Catholics will probably visit this place at some point in their lives.
Entering Vatican City is simple enough, even though technically it's a separate
country. You don't need a passport to enter, and you can walk freely in and
out of the place at will. There are four main things to do here in Vatican City.
Saint Peter's Square: this is the public square directly outside Saint Peter's Basilica.
It's funny that it's called Saint Peter's Square given that it's largely round,
but when you're here you'll notice that this place is absolutely amazing. Especially with all of
these carved columns, there are lots of statues, the Obelisk right in the middle, and the fountains
are pretty cool as well. And overall, especially if you come first thing in the morning like right
now, you'll get the best photos and videos of Saint Peter's Square and Saint Peter's Basilica.
This is also one of the places where you'll be able to see the Pope.
Believe it or not, it is possible to see the Holy Father, and you can do this in one of two ways.
The first, usually on a Wednesday, is where you can have an audience with the Pope. Tickets for
this are officially free. To apply for them; all you need to do is fax the Vatican office.
I'm honestly not joking, these guys; they still use fax machines! I'll leave the details on the
screen here and if you're approved, you'll need to collect your tickets
at the bronze door of the Apostolic Palace. Once you have your ticket you'll probably
join this mile long queue and be security checked before you're admitted to see the Pope.
Wait does this guy have a plastic tuba? Huh, I think it is a plastic tuba!
The other way generally on a Sunday is if you hang around Saint Peter's Square. He'll
generally address the public from this window right here. If you wish to attend a service
where he's holding Mass, once again you'll follow the ticket system as mentioned before.
Let's say you've done Saint Peter's Square and you've seen the Holy Father. The second
thing to do whilst you're here is actually go inside Saint Peter's Basilica itself.
When you go in the middle of the day, the queue typically looks like this.
Very long and not moving very fast at all. To avoid waiting in this long queue and dying of
sun or heat stroke, there's a much better way. If you come really early in the morning your
queue will look like this. Notice the difference!
Yes, Saint Peter's Basilica is officially open from 7 a.m., and if you come at the crack of
dawn like I did, you literally won't be queuing at all, and you'll have free reign of the place.
“As you can tell, guys, there's absolutely no queue here first thing in the morning. If you
do want to visit Saint Peter's Basilica, I highly recommend that you get here nice and
early to avoid all the queues, the security and all the hassle that goes with that.
Pretty cool when it's quiet!” And when you finally step foot
inside Saint Peter's Basilica, you will honestly be stunned! Because this is the largest church
in all of the world. It definitely shows!
This place is probably one of the largest buildings that you'll ever step foot in.
It's so expansive that it's almost dizzying. There is so much to see here at Saint Peter's Basilica,
but the main things you're looking for are; the many sculptures by Bernini.
The Dome ceiling painted by Michelangelo.
The ceiling itself which is actually painted in gold leaf. Real gold leaf!
The many tombs including that of Pope Innocent XI, and yes he's actually in there and on display.
Boy these Italians really do like to display dead bodies?!
Saint Peter's throne, which is this big gold thing, you really can't miss it?!
Possibly Michelangelo's most famous sculpture, the Pieta.
And the literal elephant in the room, it's this 10-story High Altar,
that's built over the tomb of Saint Peter himself. This is also the staircase that
leads to the underground crypt where all of the former Popes are now buried.
Seriously, guys, you will be mesmerised at the sheer level of detail in this place.
And if you're a Catholic or a historian, you could literally spend most of the day here.
But it's not just a tourist attraction. Saint Peter's Basilica is obviously a working church,
and at various times of the day you can actually attend Mass here.
They literally post the details on their website and outside, so you generally know when they are.
If you're visiting Saint Peter's Basilica, either go there at the crack of dawn or at
around 6pm when they're just about to close after the evening service.
If you're leaving during the day you'll probably see the Swiss guard on display,
and at various times they have their own changing of the guard ceremony.
It's not as good as the one in London of course, but it's still pretty fun to watch. And you
can send postcards back home via the Vatican Official Post Office. Oh boy how exciting (!)
The third thing to do whilst you're here in Vatican City is to visit the Vatican Museum
and the Sistine Chapel. Now you can't actually access this via Saint Peter's Square. You'll
literally have to follow the city walls and access via the north gate of the city.
I recommend that you book tickets in advance, but for the love of God don't fall for this website!
It looks like the official website of the Vatican Museum, but it's not.
They'll give you access tickets and a guided tour that you probably don't
need. And admittedly I fell for this one and literally overpaid their inflated prices.
To get basic tickets to the Vatican Museum, without a needless tour go to this website.
But if you are here in quiet season, you can literally walk into the ticket office right
here and buy the tickets without needing to queue excessively. If you haven't already figured out
what the Vatican museum is, it's basically the Catholic Church's collection of art. And some of
the most famous art pieces that you'll have heard of reside here in the Vatican Museum.
It also happens to be one of the largest museums on the planet. There's so much stuff here that is
actually overwhelming. It's very similar to the Louvre in Paris, there's so much to see that is
spread over several wings, and even then you don't get to look at absolutely everything.
You can find everything from Roman sculptures to some of the more famous ones. This is
possibly the most famous one that you'll have seen, another one by Michelangelo of course.
There's various Courtyards with various pieces of art on display. And overall it's
actually quite a lot to take in. If you're not a big history buff or if you're not into art,
most of this will probably be lost on you. The other thing that I forgot to mention is
that it's incredibly crowded. If you're at all claustrophobic this is probably a bad
idea. Because there's lots of people cramming into the same spaces to take the same photos.
So please bear that in mind. Especially if you did choose a guided tour, you'll probably be funnelled
into big rooms like this, in and amongst other guided tours. And it can get quite uncomfortable.
For me this was the most interesting piece. One of the most famous paintings in the
world: Van Gogh’s Pieta. Definitely pretty cool to see once in your life.
The best part of the entire museum is to actually go in the Sistine Chapel itself.
Now, you can't actually take any photos or videos of anything in the Sistine Chapel,
and their security guards will immediately pounce on you and order you to delete your footage.
The reason why is very long-winded, but long story short, it's all their fault!
Like most people I assume, I tried to take some sly footage of it. But to be honest, it definitely
isn't worth it. It's definitely cool to see in person, but don't bother trying to take your
own photos and videos because you can get better quality stuff literally for free on the internet.
When you leave the Vatican Museum you'll come across this rather cool spiral staircase.
And this is actually more interesting than the Sistine Chapel itself, well I think so anyway?!
If you haven't already sent your postcards home there's
another Post Office. Oh boy, how exciting (!)
I mentioned that there's a fourth thing to do here in Vatican City. You see this big Dome
right at the top of Saint Peter's Basilica? Well you can actually climb to the top of it!
When you enter Saint Peter's Basilica, instead of turning left to go inside the Basilica,
go right to the Dome entrance. Now you can either pay to go up the stairs or pay for the elevator.
But the elevator only cuts out the first 200 or so steps.
If you are unfit or if you suffer from heart problems, for the love of God don't do this!!!
Because the climb up is incredibly difficult. It's long, it's narrow, it's really hard on the legs.
And even though you could stop off at the halfway point, where you can look down
into the inside of Saint Peter's Basilica, the views up here are pretty damn awesome.
Admittedly that's when it gets incredibly difficult. The walkways are now incredibly narrow
it's a struggle to get to the top. But once you do, you're rewarded with some of the best
views of Rome that you'll possibly ever get. Including this; possibly the most iconic shot
over Saint Peter's Square (which is round!). And unfortunately what goes up, must come down.
And you'll be facing a lengthy stair climb down, but it's nowhere near as painful as climbing up.
Overall guys if you do come to Vatican City you won't be disappointed. You could literally spend
all day here, but even if you don't, you can walk freely in and out of it if you want to.
If you're a Catholic, or you like churches, or art, or history, this is definitely a
bucket list worthy attraction. Definitely book your trip and visit Vatican City!
Okay Ninh, I’m sold. What do I need to do? Well you need to come here to the Vatican City.
Now even though technically it's the world's smallest country, you don't need your passport,
there's no passport control, and you can freely walk in and out of the city at will.
You could do this at one of two places; #1 Saint Peter's Square which funnily enough is round,
and at the Vatican Museum. Depending on what you want to do depends on which entrance you
go into. The easiest way to get here is to use the Rome Metro, and get off at a stop called
Ottaviano. Once you get off at Ottaviano, it's literally a four-minute walk down the street.
Alternatively many buses and trams will take you here directly, and you'll need to get off
at a stop called ‘San Pietro’, which will take you out here to Saint Peter Square.
The cost? To access Saint Peter's Basilica, it's absolutely free of charge. If you want to see the
Pope, that's free too, but you will need a ticket. And the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel ticket
together cost around €17. Please book directly with the Vatican website, which I'll leave on
the screen there, and as earlier mentioned in the video, please, for the love of God,
don't book with a third party company! Because more often than not you'll be paying for a guided
tour that you probably didn't want. And it robs you with the flexibility to do what you want,
where you want, and how you want to view it. So, in my opinion, get just a standard ticket
for €17 and you'll be happy with that. And to climb the Dome is anywhere between €8 and €10.
Is there anything else I need to know? Yes, as mentioned in the video,
to avoid the excessively long queues, I recommend that you come to Saint Peter's
Basilica for about 7am, when they officially open. You'll find that there's no queues,
you'll have the place to yourself, and you can do all of this stuff before people actually arrive.
As this is a place of worship, there's a strict dress code. In general shoulders and knees should
be covered. If you're dressed inappropriately, you will be denied entry. They don't care how
long you've been waiting in the sun. If you're not dressed appropriately, you won't get in.
Between the months of March and October it's considered high season. And is incredibly
busy here! So be prepared to queue, be prepared to stand in line for security,
be prepared to be elbowed out of the way by a lot of tourists. And
please be patient guys because once you do I guarantee you'll have an amazing time here.
Also because this is probably the holiest place of worship in the Catholic world,
there's quite a lot of areas whereby silence is required, and also photography and videography
is prohibited, particularly at the Sistine Chapel, so bear that in mind. And finally,
please be sure to check out my Rome City Guide. This is possibly the most helpful video guide
that you'll ever find, if I do say so myself! So be sure to check that out when you get a sec.
Overall guys a visit to the Vatican City does come highly recommended. If you have enjoyed
this episode, please be sure to like, share, and subscribe. If you've got any questions, ask
them in the comment section below, and if you've got any other suggestions, you know what to do:
tweet them at me. But guys, thanks very much for watching, and we'll see you in the next episode.
Ninh Ly - www.ninh.co.uk - @NinhLyUK