The Roman-age archaeological excavations which extend below the whole of the Vatican hill are again accessible to the public – extended, refurbished and transformed into a museum replete with walkways and multi-media educational apparatus. It is now possible to walk through the burial chambers, accompanied by an expert multi-lingual guide, among small mausoleums, finely sculpted sarcophagi, statues, moldings, mosaics, frescoes and bas-reliefs with epigraphs describing the lives of those who repose at the foot of the ancient hill.
Info & Booking
The Roman-age archaeological excavations which extend below the whole of the Vatican hill is again visible to the public – extended, refurbished and transformed into a museum replete with walkways and multi-media educational apparatus.
It is now possible to walk through the burial chambers, accompanied by an expert guide, among small mausoleums, finely sculpted sarcophagi, statues, moldings, mosaics, frescoes and bas-reliefs with epigraphs describing the lives of those who repose at the foot of the ancient hill.
- Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes
- Language: English
- Touch-screen monitors available in eleven locations
- The ticket also enables the visitors to continue, on their own, a tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel.
The archaeological site is not currently accessible for strollers, wheelchair users or visitors with limited mobility. Visitors are advised to wear comfortable shoes without high heelsm replete with walkways and multi-media educational apparatus.
The Vatican Museums include:
- Egyptian Museum
- Chiaramonti Museum
- Museum of Popes Clement XIV and Pius VII
- Gregorian Museum of Etruscan Art
- Antiquarium Romanum
- The Vase Collection
- The Biga Room
- Gallery of the Candelabra
- Gallery of the Tapestries
- Gallery of the Maps
- Apartment of St. Pius V
- The Sobieski Room
- The Room of the Immaculate Conception
- Raphael's Rooms and Loggias
- Collection of Modern Religious Art
- Sistine Chapel
- The Apostolic Library
- The Vatican Picture Gallery
- The Gregorian Museum of Profane Art
- The Christian Museum
- The Missionary Museum of Ethnology
- The Carriage Pavilion
Book your Vatican Museum Tickets with Weekend in Italy – and avoid waiting in line!
The admission ticket to the Vatican Museums is valid for visiting the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel only on the date indicated on the voucher.
IMPORTANT:
The Vatican Museums require the names and birth dates of all participants in your group. Once you have added the reservation to your shopping cart, please enter the names and birth dates in the provided field on the order form.
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION CAREFULLY:
- Reservation guarantees a place on the waiting list as the museum confirms the visit approximately two months before the requested date.
- Credit card charge is made on the business day after the reservation request.
- The reservation allows you to enter the Vatican Museums without queuing up at the time and date confirmed on the voucher.
- Late arrivals will not be admitted. We strongly suggest that you to be at the meeting point 15 minutes before the time indicated on the confirmation voucher.
- Your admission time may be delayed due to the large number or visitors entering the museums every day. Weekend a Firenze is not responsible for possible delays caused by the Vatican Museums.
- After the payment is confirmed, you will receive an e-mail with the confirmation of the booking, the voucher containing the reservation code, and the tour information. Please print out the voucher for presentation on the day of the tour.
- The reservation will be checked by means of the bar code on the voucher. To access the museums, you will be required to present the voucher together with a valid identification document.
- In case of loss of the voucher please consult the Customer Care Staff.
- Rooms closed at the time of the visit will be indicated at the entrance.
- Access to the Vatican Museums is permitted only to visitors with proper attire.
- All the reservations, dates, and times may be changed or cancelled by the Vatican Museums due to unforeseen circumstances related to activities of the Pope.
- Reservations can be made up until 4 days before the visit.
Save time ordering! Add all the museum tickets you want into your basket, then fill in the form and send your request.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The time you select on the order form is your preferred time. The museum will automatically confirm the closest available time, which can be any time during opening hours on the selected date, if your preferred time is no longer available.
Please read the Ordering Information page before placing your reservations.
Also available:
Guided tour of the Vatican Gardens, which includes access (without guide) to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel
or
Audio Guided Tour of the Vatican Museums and Saint Peter's Basilica.
For all the guided tours you may stay inside the museums at the end of the guided visit, until closing time.
Guided tours are available in the following languages: English, Italian, Spanish, French, Russian, Swedish, and Portuguese.
PLEASE NOTE: Immediately after submitting an order, you will receive an email with your order summary plus a second email confirming your successful payment. A confirmation email with links to the vouchers will be sent one business day after you place your order (Monday afternoon for orders submitted on Friday and during the weekend). Please make sure that your anti-spam filter does not block automatic emails from [email protected].
Cancellation Policy:
Tickets CANNOT be cancelled and are NOT refundable.
If you need to modify your voucher, you must present yourself at the Vatican Museum’s "Reception Desk" in order to request a new voucher. Reservation changes can be made, once only, up to one hour before the intended visit. It is not possible to make modifications to the number of participants taking part in the visit.
Opening Hours:
From Monday to Saturday; the Ticket Office is open from 9:00am to 4:00pm. The Museums close at 6:00pm.
Entrance times will be indicated at the time of the reservation.
The Vatican Museums are closed on the following days:
Sundays (except for the last Sunday of each month, excluding Easter, June 29 and December 25 and 26)
January 1 and 6 (Epiphany)
February 11 (Lateran Pacts Anniversary)
March 19 (St. Joseph), Easter and Easter Monday
May 1 (Ascension Thursday) and May 22 (Corpus Christi Day)
August 14 (Assumption Vigil) and 15 (Assumption Day)
November 1 (All Saint's Day)
December 8 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception), 25 (Christmas Day) and 26 (St. Stephen's Day)
Deposits at the Cloakroam
- The cloakroom staff will accept from the visitors their bags and personal belongings (irrispective of the form, material or dimension of th object), with the exception of clothing items, hats, portable umbrellas.
- It is obligatory to deposit in the cloakroom suitcases, backpacks and containers with dimensions larger than cm 40 x 35 x 15.
- It is obligatory to deposit in the cloakroom bags and bagpacks which are cumbersome, except those small-sized, that carried on shoulder, don't jut out by 15 cm from the body's shape in its highest point.
- It is obligatory to deposit in the cloakroom any umbrella with a spike tip, umbrellas of medium and large size, walking sticks (except those required by disabled visitors to facilitate their movement), tripods for cameras and video cameras, signage of any kind (except signs used by official guides for their identification).
- It is obligatory to deposit in the cloakroom knives, scissors, any tools thai could be harmful to other persons ora damage works of art in the Museums.
- It is not possible to deposit in the cloakroom, fiirearms of any kind or other dangerous objects. It is strictly forbidden to enter the Museums with any kind of weapon.
- Access to the Museums by armed visitors is not permitted. Non exception to this rule is made for visitors holding a firearm permit, or if the weapon forms part of a uniform (police, military or others).
Necropolis of Via Triumphalis and Vatican Museums
THE NECROPOLIS OF THE VIA TRIUMPHALIS
The Roman-age archaeological excavations below the whole of the Vatican hill are again accessible to the public – extended, refurbished and transformed into a museum replete with walkways and multi-media educational tools.
Walk through the burial chambers, accompanied by an expert multilingual guide, among small mausoleums, finely sculpted sarcophagi, statues, moldings, mosaics, frescoes and bas-reliefs with epigraphs describing the lives of those who repose in the depths of the ancient hill.
The Vatican Museums are pleased to open the extension of the archaeological area of the Necropolis along the Via Triumphalis again to the public, complete with a new visitors' itinerary.
Consult touch-screen monitors in eleven locations, each of which illustrates the entire archaeological area and offers a detailed view of the specific surrounding area, with virtual reconstructions and informative notes on the tombs. The educational tools also include a series of information panels and two films – an historic documentary and another offering three-dimensional reconstructions.
The new itinerary unfolds throughout the Necropolis, offering the visitor the opportunity to admire the burial ground in its entirety, and also to appreciate the many decorative elements close-up – marbles, mosaics, moldings and frescoes recently restored to new splendour. Among the many new features of the excavation there is the discovery of an area destined for cremations (ustrino), rarely conserved in complexes of this type.
Two new display cabinets have been furnished according to thematic criteria, regarding the burial goods used for funeral rites, personal objects belonging to the deceased, and the different preparations undertaken for cremation or for earth burial.
A third new display cabinet illustrates the excavations carried out from 2009-2011 according to the stratographic archaeological method, in order to demonstrate a synthetic "cross section" of the excavation site. Along the visitors' itinerary there are also archaeological finds from no longer visible areas near the Necropolis (Annona Sector) or sites that are not currently open to the public (Galea Sector).
The Vatican Museums are the largest, richest, most compelling and perhaps most comprehensive museum complex in the world. Many treasures of the city's history are here, from both classical and later times, and many of the Renaissance's finest artists were in the employ of the Pope.
The Vatican Palace holds a collection of museums on very diverse subjects: displays of classical statuary, Renaissance painting, Etruscan relics,Egyptian artifacts, not to mention the furnishings and decoration of the palace itself.
The Vatican Museums are the Egyptian Museum, the Chiaramonti Museum, the Museum of Popes Clement XiV and Pius Vi, Gregorian Museum of Etruscan Art, Antiquarium Romanum, the Vase Collection, the Biga Room, the Gallery of the Candelabra, Gallery of the Tapestries, Gallery of the Maps, the Apartment of St.Pius V, the Sobieski Room, the Room of the Immaculate Conception, Raphael's Rooms and Loggias, the Collection of Modern Religious Art, the Sistine Chapel, the Apostolic Library, the Vatican Picture Gallery, the Gregorian Museum of Profane Art, the Christian Museum, the Missionary Museum of Ethnology, and the Carriage Pavilion.
Justly known as one of the most famous places in the world, the Sistine Chapel is the site where the conclave for the election of the popes and other solemn pontifical ceremonies are held. The ceiling as well as the wall above the altar bear the magnificent frescoes by Michelangelo. Pope Julius II commissioned the Florentine master sculptor and painter to decorate the ceiling between 1508 and 1512. Much later, from 1537 to 1541, Michelangelo was again called to create The Last Judgement on the wall above the altar, a fresco which would change the course of Western art.
Built according to the architectural design of Baccio Pontelli by Giovannino de Dolci between 1475 and 1481, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who commissioned it. A large rectangular room with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, it is divided into two unequal parts by a marble screen. The screen and the transenna were built by Mino da Fiesole and other artists.