St Peter's Square in Vatican City

There is no ticket office at St Peter’s Square, no gate and no opening time. You walk in from Rome and, without noticing, you have crossed into another country. Most people hurry across it on their way to the basilica, which is a shame, because this is one of Bernini’s works that makes sense without a guide. Give the colonnade and the obelisk ten minutes of proper attention.

Is it Rome or the Vatican?

It is the Vatican. The State describes its own boundary in the square as a line of travertine laid in the paving, which most visitors step over without a second glance. There is no passport control and no customs.

There is one twist, and it explains why you’ll see Italian police inside the square. The Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, keeps the square normally open to the public and subject to the policing powers of the Italian authorities, which stop at the foot of the basilica steps. That is why the security check for the church is run by Italy’s Polizia di Stato, on the right-hand side of the colonnade, looking towards the façade.

Bernini’s colonnade and the vanishing columns

Alexander VII commissioned the square and Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed it. Work began in 1656 and ended in 1667. The result is a three-centred oval, 196 by 149 metres, enclosed by the colonnade in two curving arms.

There are 284 columns, 16 metres high, standing four deep. Along the top run 140 statues, each more than 3 metres tall. Some websites say 162, but the Fabbrica di San Pietro gives 140, and that is the figure I use.

The best trick is one the official site confirms. From a particular spot in the square, the four rows of columns line up so neatly that they look like a single row. Guidebooks place that spot on two discs in the paving between the obelisk and each fountain; the official site confirms the effect but doesn’t say where to stand. It’s worth hunting for.

Above the square you’ll also spot a mosaic of the Mater Ecclesiae, a copy of a 15th-century icon venerated inside St Peter’s Basilica.

The obelisk Caligula brought to Rome

At the centre stands the obelisk, which is Egyptian and was brought to Rome by Caligula. It stood in the circus of Caligula and Nero until Sixtus V had it raised in the square, and it now carries a cross.

You’ll find very precise heights quoted for it, but none come from an official source and they don’t agree with each other, so I leave them out. Its origin is the part that matters. The official site places St Peter’s tomb in a grave on the slope facing Nero’s circus, directly beneath today’s high altar, so the obelisk and the tomb both lead back to the same Roman circus.

The post office, the security check and the two colonnades

The two arms of the colonnade do different jobs. On the right is the basilica’s security check, where the queues build in high season. On the left is the Vatican post office, a wooden, step-free building opened on 19 December 2024 to replace the mobile unit that had served since 2010. It is open every day from 8.30am to 6.30pm.

If you want a souvenir that actually comes from the Vatican, this is where to get it. A postcard with a Vatican stamp and the square’s own postmark beats any fridge magnet. What you can’t get is an official passport stamp, because there isn’t one. If the square’s office is busy, there is a second Vatican post office inside the Vatican Museums, open Monday to Saturday from 8.30am to 6.30pm.

Also on the left, through the Via Paolo VI entrance, is where people booked on the Vatican necropolis tour go in.

Wednesdays and Sundays

Two moments in the week transform the square. Wednesday is the day of the Pope’s general audience, held in the square or in the Paul VI Hall unless he has other commitments. The one on 23 September 2026 was led by Leo XIV in the square, and that morning the approaches backed up from Piazza del Risorgimento along Via del Mascherino. On Sundays at noon the Pope leads the Angelus from his study window in the Apostolic Palace, with the crowd below.

If you want to be there, my guide to attending an audience or the Angelus explains how tickets work. If you don’t, those are the two times I’d avoid.

Walking in from Castel Sant’Angelo

The nearest metro station is Ottaviano-San Pietro on line A. The walk from Castel Sant’Angelo got better on 23 December 2024, when the new Piazza Pia opened as a pedestrian area linking Via della Conciliazione to the castle, with traffic diverted into a tunnel. Coming up Via della Conciliazione with the dome ahead of you is the best first approach.

Piazza del Risorgimento, where the Wednesday queues begin, is served by tram 19 and by buses 32, 81 and 982. From Termini, the 40 and 64 buses start at bay A of the new terminus in Piazza dei Cinquecento. For the reverse view, the whole square laid out beneath you, climb St Peter’s Dome.