Where to stay near the Vatican

Plenty of people search for a hotel in the Vatican and find there isn’t one. The state had 882 residents at 31 December 2024, according to its Governorate, and citizenship comes with a job or a role, so there are no hotels or restaurants inside the walls for visitors. Everything that shows up as accommodation by the Vatican is in Rome, in the two districts that wrap around the state to the east and north. Which one you choose shapes the trip more than the map suggests.

Why there are no beds inside the walls

Vatican City is a country of 0.44 km², taken up by the basilica, the palaces, the Museums, the gardens and the offices of the Holy See. The people who live there do so because of their work, the Swiss Guard and some of the cardinals among them, and they lose their citizenship when that work ends. There is simply no provision for visitors.

That’s why, when a listing puts “Vatican” in its name, it pays to look at the actual address. It will almost always be in Borgo or Prati, and the real difference between the two is transport rather than distance. If you’re still working out what to see, our Vatican City guide gives you the full picture before you choose a bed.

Borgo, the pilgrims’ quarter

Borgo is Rome’s rione XIV. Pope Sixtus V made it a district of the city on 9 December 1586, and the name comes from the Saxon word “Burg”, a small fort or walled village. It fills the strip between St Peter’s Square and Castel Sant’Angelo, and it has been tied to pilgrims from the start. The Santo Spirito in Sassia complex was founded around the year 727 to take them in.

Above its streets runs the Passetto di Borgo, an 800-metre raised corridor between the Apostolic Palace and Castel Sant’Angelo, which Clement VII used to escape during the Sack of Rome in 1527. It reopened for guided visits on 23 December 2024. The same day saw the opening of the new Piazza Pia, a pedestrian space joining Via della Conciliazione to the castle, with the traffic sent through a tunnel. On Borgo Pio, at the corner with Via del Campanile, there’s still a circle carved into the stone that once set the minimum size of a loaf of bread in times of famine.

Borgo suits anyone coming to Rome mainly for the Vatican. You step out of the door and walk to the square, which is a real advantage on a Wednesday audience morning, when the security gates fill up early. If you’re planning to see the Pope, it’s the easiest base. The drawback is that it has no metro station of its own, so getting around the rest of Rome means buses or a fair amount of walking.

Prati, avenues and the metro

Prati is rione XXII and much younger. It became a district on 21 August 1921, and its name recalls the meadows beside Hadrian’s Mausoleum, the “Prata Neronis” that later became the “Prata Sancti Petri”. It looks nothing like Borgo. The streets are broad, lined with late-19th-century Umbertine and modernist architecture, with the neo-Baroque Palace of Justice on Piazza Cavour (nicknamed the “Palazzaccio” by Romans) and Via Cola di Rienzo, which Turismo Roma calls one of the most important shopping streets in the city.

Where Prati meets the Trionfale district is the Mercato Trionfale, at Via Andrea Doria 41, with more than 270 stalls. It opens Monday to Saturday in the mornings.

Prati works for anyone seeing the Vatican on one day and the rest of Rome on the others. It has metro line A at Ottaviano, one of the two stops the Vatican Museums suggest for reaching their entrance, and the same line takes you into the centre.

Getting about from either district

From Roma Termini there are three ways in. The most direct is metro line A towards Battistini, getting off at Ottaviano or Cipro. Buses 40 and 64 leave from bay A of the new Termini bus terminal on Piazza dei Cinquecento, which opened on 15 January 2025. According to unofficial sources, the 40 terminates at Borgo Sant’Angelo by Castel Sant’Angelo and the 64 at San Pietro station, so both work for Borgo. There are also regional trains on lines FL3 and FL5 to Roma San Pietro, which ticket comparison sites put at 17 to 19 minutes from Termini.

For the Museums entrance on Viale Vaticano, bus 49 stops right outside, while Piazza del Risorgimento has tram 19 and buses 32, 81 and 982. From Borgo, most things are within walking distance.

What to check before you book

A few checks I’d make before paying.

• The real address, not the name. “Vatican” or “St Peter” in a hotel’s name guarantees nothing.
• Which entrance it’s close to. Being next to the square is not the same as being next to the Museums entrance on Viale Vaticano.
• How far the metro is, if you’ll be exploring Rome, because Borgo has no station of its own.
• On a Wednesday audience day, that your route to the square avoids the early-morning queues on Via del Mascherino and Piazza Risorgimento.

The Booking box on this page searches Borgo directly. If you’d prefer Prati, change the destination and compare places by how close they are to Ottaviano. And if you haven’t settled the plan for the day, our guide on how to visit the Vatican has the rest of the opening times.