Likely to sell out
MVSEI VATICANI OFFICIAL TICKETS
Discover the masterpieces of Italian art with direct access
- Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel
- Duration 90 minutes
- Audio guide; ENG, SPA, FRA, DEU, POR, ITA, RUS, JPN, ZHO
- Guided Tour
- Minimum age +18
- The voucher is accepted on the mobile
- Wheelchair accessible
- Discount for children under 18 years old
Welcome to the Vatican Museum
Official tickets to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel
Give you access to impressive art collections, including the world-famous Sistine Chapel. Explore centuries of history and masterpieces in one of the most visited museums in the world.
Entrance to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel ticket and Audio Guide
Offers you the opportunity to tour its incredible art collections at your own pace, with detailed explanations of each work. A comfortable and enriching experience.
Entrance to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel ticket and Official Guide
Allows you to discover its art collections accompanied by an expert who will provide you with detailed and enriching information about each work. A more in-depth and personalized visit.
+70 000 works of art
Enjoy each of these wonderful works of art.
Main art gallery and historical heritage
International prestige
+ 6 million visitors per year
Eenjoy a unique museum in the world
Get your tickets for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel with Audioguide. These spaces are among the most visited throughout the year, and for good reason. The beauty of the buildings themselves is complemented by the artistic, historical, and cultural richness within their walls.
With our tickets for the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel with audioguide, you can enjoy these architectural marvels without missing a detail. Our comprehensive audioguide will help you discover all the secrets and important facts about these monuments during your visit.
Delight in major works of art history such as La Pietà (Michelangelo), Laocoön and His Sons (Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodoros of Rhodes), Raphael’s Rooms, the Belvedere Torso, the Transfiguration of Christ (Raphael), or the Entombment of Christ (Caravaggio), among many other iconic pieces.
Discover the secrets of the Vatican Museums and marvel at the details of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel at your own pace without missing a beat, thanks to our audioguide tour.
NICHOLAS V (1447-1455) and ALEXANDER VI (1492-1503)
“The Vatican, the Museum of Museums,” not only houses the extensive collections of art, archaeology and ethno-anthropology gathered by the Popes over the centuries, but also contains some of the Apostolic Palace’s most extraordinary and artistically significant rooms.
Any history of the museums’ collections should rightly begin with the history of the rooms that the Popes over the ages chose as places of residence or private prayer and reflection. The first ones, in chronological order, are the Niccoline Chapel and the Borgia Apartment.
In the first year of his papacy, Pope Nicholas V (Parentucelli), one of the greatest humanists of the time, called on Fra Angelico to decorate the private chapel of his apartments in the Apostolic Palace with a cycle of frescoes dedicated to St Stephen and St Lawrence. Fra Angelico, a renowned artist as well as a Dominican friar, depicted scenes from the saints’ lives, drawn from the “Acts of the Apostles.”
The decorations, richly detailed and full of meaningful allusions, make the Niccoline Chapel a perfect example of the link between religious and humanistic thought in fifteenth-century painting.
A masterful restoration of Fra Angelico’s works was carried out in 1995 and 1996.
Nicholas V’s successor, Pope Alexander VI (Borgia) elected to live in the Apostolic Palace’s most exclusive wing, and commissioned its decoration by Bernardino di Betto, better known as Pinturicchio. In 1494 the work was complete, a stunning cycle of frescoes decorating the various interconnecting rooms. The rooms were left empty following the Pope’s death, and it was not until the end of the nineteenth century that the Borgia Apartment was open to the public.
Today most of Pope Alexander VI’s rooms are used to display the Collection of Contemporary Art inaugurated personally by Paul VI in 1973.
Online Catalogue
The Online Catalogue of the Vatican Museums presents essential information regarding the mobile works of art on display along the tour itinerary as well as the collection of images housed in the Vatican Photo Library.
The buildings, spaces as well as their decorations, may instead be accessed and visited by means of the numerous virtual tours.
Opening days and times 2025
From Monday to Saturday
08.00 a.m. – 08.00 p.m. (final entry 06.00 p.m.)
Every last Sunday of the month
09.00 a.m. – 02.00 p.m. (final entry 12.30 p.m.
Clothing
Entry to the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Gardens is permitted only to appropriately dressed visitors.
Sleeveless and / or low-cut garments, shorts above the knee, miniskirts and hats are not permitted. The requirement of decorum extends also to any visible personal objects as well as similarly visible distinctive personal signs (such as, for example, tattoos) that may offend Catholic morality, the Catholic religion and common decency.
Security checks by metal detector
To facilitate and speed up security checks by metal detector, visitors are advised to remove inadmissible items from their hand baggage beforehand, and to inform staff in advance (see sections Umbrellas, Knives, Weapons).
Food and drink
It is not permitted to bring alcoholic and super alcoholic beverages inside the Vatican Museums (these must be left in the cloakroom for the duration of the visit).
It is forbidden to consume food and drink inside the exhibition halls. Visitors can however store any type of food and/or drink in their possession in the cloakroom free of charge. (This must be reclaimed before the closing time of the day of the visit; unclaimed food and beverages will be destroyed).
Along the museum itinerary several vending machines and refreshment areas with cafeteria, self service and pizzeria services are available to the public.
Mobile phones
Endeavouring to ensure the best possible experience for visitors, the Vatican Museums strongly discourage the use of mobile phones inside the exhibition spaces.
Visitors are required to activate the silent function of their mobile device.
The use of mobile phones is forbidden in the Sistine Chapel.
Where to leave the backpacks in the Vatican?
Visitors continuing their visit to the Vatican Basilica are advised not to leave their luggage in the Vatican Museums. The checkroom service is free of charge. Suitcases, bags and packages larger than 40 x 35 x 15 cm must be left in the checkroom.
Photography at the Vatican Museums
It is permitted to take photographs, for personal and domestic use only, of the works in all areas of the Vatican Museums, apart from the Sistine Chapel. Flash photography is strictly forbidden.
The use of tripods, stands, drones and/or professional equipment is not allowed; any eventual use must be authorised by the Directorate of the Museums and Cultural Heritage.
The use of telescopic “selfie sticks” is forbidden.
In the Sistine Chapel it is forbidden to take photographs or films with any type of electronic equipment. The guard staff is authorised to request the immediate cancellation, in their presence, of video or photographic material produced in contravention of this rule.
Visits to the the Sistine Chapel
With respect for and in view of the sanctity of the location, during the visit to the Sistine Chapel visitors are kindly requested to observe absolute silence.
Guided tour groups, although equipped with radio headsets, will receive all the relevant art-historical information prior to their entry in the Sistine Chapel. For this purpose, totem touch screens are available to authorised educational guides to illustrate to visitors what they will subsequently admire in silence.
A number of informative panels rich in details on the sacred Chapel and other areas of the Museum are available to individual visitors or tour guides along the exhibition itinerary (Courtyard of the Pinecone and Square Garden).
