How to visit the Vatican, from what to wear to what to see first

A day at the Vatican is easier to plan once you know it has two separate entrances for visitors. The museums, with the Sistine Chapel at the end of the route, are entered from Viale Vaticano, and the basilica from St Peter’s Square after a security check. You walk between the two along the street, so what you wear and carry has to work for both.

What to wear to the Vatican

At the Vatican Museums, vests, strappy or low-cut tops, shorts that stop above the knee, miniskirts and hats are all turned away, and the same rule applies to the Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s Basilica and the gardens. It even stretches to visible tattoos or other signs that could offend morals or the Catholic faith. The basilica spells it out more precisely, saying men need long trousers, women trousers or a skirt reaching below the knee, and everyone covered shoulders. The dome and the necropolis ask for the same, shoulders and knees covered.

In practice the basilica sets the bar for the whole day, so I’d dress for it from the start. Knee-length shorts technically pass at the museums but not at St Peter’s, where men are expected in long trousers. In summer a light shirt or scarf in your bag solves the shoulder problem, and you can put it on just before each entrance.

What you can’t take in

Think about the whole day before you pack. At the museums, rucksacks, suitcases, medium and large umbrellas, tripods, knives, scissors and alcohol all have to go into the cloakroom, which is free. Photos are allowed for personal use everywhere except the Sistine Chapel, always without flash and without a selfie stick, and inside the chapel you can’t use your phone at all. The catch comes later, because the basilica has no cloakroom and the dome only lets small bags through. That’s why the museums themselves advise anyone heading on to St Peter’s not to leave luggage with them. There’s no wifi anywhere in the museums either, and eating or drinking in the galleries isn’t allowed.

Getting there by metro, bus, tram, train or on foot

Metro line A, towards Battistini, is the most direct option. For the museums the official site gives Ottaviano and Cipro, and for the basilica, Ottaviano-San Pietro. By bus, the 49 stops on the forecourt right in front of the museums, the 32, 81 and 982 stop at Piazza del Risorgimento, and the 492 and 990 at Via Leone IV and Via degli Scipioni. Tram 19 also runs to Piazza del Risorgimento, and there’s a taxi rank outside the museum entrance.

From Termini station, buses 40 and 64 depart from bay A at the Piazza dei Cinquecento terminal, which opened on 15 January 2025. The regional train is another option, with lines FL3 and FL5 calling at Roma San Pietro station.

On foot from the centre, the obvious route crosses the Tiber to Castel Sant’Angelo. Since 23 December 2024 the new Piazza Pia has linked the castle with Via della Conciliazione as a pedestrian area, with the traffic sent through a tunnel, and the avenue brings you face on to St Peter’s Square. On audience Wednesdays, expect queues to get in along Via del Mascherino from Piazza del Risorgimento, as there were on 23 September 2026.

A one-day plan, and what to cut if you only have a morning

With a full day, this is how I’d do it. Museums in the morning, booked for the first slot, which is 08:00 on a weekday. The Vatican Museums have a seven-kilometre exhibition route and the official guided tour takes about two hours, so allow most of the morning to reach the Sistine Chapel without rushing. The museums’ website doesn’t mention any direct passage from the chapel to the basilica, so I’d plan on leaving by the normal exit and walking round to the square.

After lunch, St Peter’s Basilica, where the official site suggests one to two hours, and the climb up the dome, which adds about an hour. Until 25 October 2026 the dome is open from 07:00 to 18:00, so I wouldn’t leave it until late afternoon. If you book it online, the ticket includes the basilica and assigns you one of two routes, basilica first and then the dome, or the other way round. The Grottoes are free and open until 18:00, so they fit into the same afternoon.

With only half a day you have to choose. If the Sistine Chapel is the point, give the morning to the museums and save the basilica for another day. If you’d rather have architecture and views over Rome, the basilica and the dome fit into about three hours, and the climb is the only thing you pay for. Prices, concessions and free days for each part are in the guide to Vatican tickets and prices.

Opening hours and closures for the rest of 2026

The museums open Monday to Saturday from 08:00 to 20:00, with last entry at 18:00, and the galleries begin emptying half an hour before closing time. On Sundays they only open on the last one of the month, free, from 09:00 to 14:00. For the rest of 2026 they’re also closed on 8, 25 and 26 December, and on 24 and 31 December tickets are only sold from 08:00 to 13:00. On 29 September the Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum doesn’t open until 11:30.

The basilica opens from 07:00 to 20:00, although access can be limited at Christmas and Easter because of services. Wednesdays, with the general audience, and Sundays, with the Angelus at noon, are the busiest days, and the security check in the right-hand arc of the square feels it. Pope Leo XIV held the audience of 23 September 2026 in the square, but there’s no official audience calendar for the rest of the year, and he travels to France from 25 to 28 September and to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from 6 to 17 November. If you want to plan around him, or avoid the crowds, the page on how to see the Pope covers the free tickets and how to apply.

Wheelchairs, pushchairs and step-free access

The museums lend wheelchairs free of charge from the cloakroom, while stocks last, in exchange for an ID document. Most of the route is accessible along a step-free itinerary with adapted toilets, and mobility scooters and powered chairs are allowed, although in some areas you have to switch to a standard wheelchair. The official guided tours don’t take wheelchairs, with the exception of the «Giardini Vaticani senza barriere» tour. Visitors with a disability of 67% or more get in free, with a companion if needed and without queuing. Pushchairs are welcome too, and there are baby-changing facilities and a nursing room.

The basilica has ramps and lifts. The dome is only partly accessible, because the lift stops at the roof terraces and 320 steps remain from there, with a very narrow final stretch that the official site advises against for anyone with vertigo, claustrophobia, heart problems or limited mobility. The necropolis isn’t accessible, because of its steps and uneven ancient floor.

Do you need a passport, and can you get it stamped?

You don’t need a passport to cross into the Vatican, because there’s no border control between Rome and Vatican City. Carry photo ID all the same if you’ve booked museum tickets online, since it’s checked with your ticket on the day. As for the stamp, no official website, whether Poste Vaticane or the museums, offers to stamp passports. What you can take home is a Vatican postmark on a postcard. Poste Vaticane has an office in the left-hand arc of the square, open daily from 08:30 to 18:30, another inside the museums, Monday to Saturday with the same hours, and a third on the dome’s terrace. The postcode is 00120 Città del Vaticano.