What I would see in Vatican City, from 1 to 16

Most lists of things to do in Vatican City give you the same places in the same order, and I find that a bit thin. They get the sights right, but they never tell you which ones they would pay for, which you can skip and which need booking weeks out. So here is mine, with a score, the 2026 price of each thing and the reason for every position.

How I scored them

I studied Tourism, then did a master’s in tourism planning, and I have weighed three things in this order. First, what you see that you cannot see anywhere else in the world. Second, what it costs you, in euros and in time spent queuing. Third, how easily it slots into the day without wrecking everything else.

That is why a few places land where you might not expect. St Peter’s Square is free and enormous, yet it only makes sixth, because you cross it in twenty minutes and see it anyway. The Swiss Guard turns up in every photo and still sits near the bottom, because it is a picture rather than a visit. The scores are mine and you are welcome to argue with them, which is exactly why they have decimals.

Why the top three sit in that order

The Sistine Chapel is my number one without any real contest. Michelangelo signed the contract for the ceiling on 8 May 1508 and finished it in October 1512, then came back to paint the Last Judgement on the altar wall between 1536 and 1541. Having both in one room happens nowhere else. I hold back the last tenth because you cannot go in on its own. It comes at the end of the Vatican Museums, with a paid ticket and a strict no-photo rule.

St Peter’s Basilica is a close second. It took twenty pontificates, from 1506 to 1626, and inside is the Pietà, the only work Michelangelo ever signed, carved from a single block of marble when he was 23. In 2026 it also marks 400 years since its consecration, with the celebrations closing on 18 November with a Mass led by the Pope. Being free, with a security check and nothing else, is what puts it where it is.

The dome completes the podium because it is the best possible ending to a visit. It is 551 steps, or 320 if you pay the extra €5 for the lift to the terraces, and at the top the whole square is laid out beneath you. I give it 9.3 for a practical reason. The last section is narrow and steeply sloped, and the basilica itself advises against it for anyone with vertigo, claustrophobia or mobility problems.

Places four to eight, mostly under one roof

Notice that four of the top eight are inside the same building. The Raphael Rooms, the Gallery of Maps and the Pio Clementino all come with the ticket that gets you into the Sistine Chapel, which is why I say the €25 timed Museums ticket is the best money you will spend here. Raphael and his workshop painted the Rooms from 1508 to 1524, while Michelangelo was working next door. I rank them above the Gallery of Maps, which is gorgeous but walked through, whereas the School of Athens makes you stop.

The Vatican Necropolis is the big exception. It is not part of the Museums, costs €20 with a guide, admits only over-10s, and the office assigns your date and time, which may not be the ones you asked for. With about 250 places a day it is the hardest thing on this list to get, and I still put it fifth. Walking down between Roman tombs to the spot tradition links with Peter’s grave feels nothing like anything upstairs.

What can you see for free in Vatican City?

More than people think. Of my sixteen places, five cost nothing, namely the basilica, the square, the Grottoes, the Wednesday audience and the Sunday Angelus. The Vatican Grottoes are the most underrated of them. They open daily from 9.00 to 18.00, lie beneath the basilica floor and Pius XII and Benedict XVI are buried there.

The Museums, Sistine Chapel included, are also free on the last Sunday of each month, between 9.00 and 14.00, and nobody new gets in after 12.30. In the last quarter of 2026 that means Sundays 25 October, 29 November and 27 December. Whether I would go depends on who you are, and I go through it properly in the guide to the free and cheap Vatican.

Famous names I rank lower

The Vatican Gardens take up half the country, about 22 hectares, and I love them, but I cannot put them near the top. You can only see them on an official tour sold together with the Museums (€45 for the guided walk, €40 for the open-top bus), and they close on Sundays and holy days. They are for people who already have the Sistine Chapel in the bag.

Castel Gandolfo has a similar problem. The Papal Palace and Secret Garden cost €12, or €8 if you show a Museums booking, but they are 24 km from Rome and shut on Tuesdays. With one day I would never do it; with two, I would, and that is how I have built the two-day Vatican itinerary.

As for the Swiss Guard, on duty for the popes since 1506, it is one of those things you see in passing. They guard the state’s entrances, so you will come across them without looking.

What should you see first at the Vatican?

This is where plenty of people go wrong, by trying to work down the list from the top. The Sistine Chapel is number one, but it is at the end of the Museums route, and the Museums open at 8.00. The basilica opens earlier, at 7.00, yet the security check under the colonnade fills up as the morning goes on, especially on Wednesdays and Sundays.

I would do the Museums first, on the 8.00 slot, and St Peter’s and its dome once lunch is done. The dome keeps summer hours, closing at 18.00, until 25 October 2026. After that a winter timetable kicks in that nobody has published yet, and the previous one shut the dome at 17.00, so I would go up early in the afternoon rather than last thing. The timings are worked out in my Vatican day plan.

What didn’t make the list

The basilica’s Treasury Museum is closed for works and I do not know when it reopens. The Gregorian and Clementine domes, announced for the anniversary, still have no price or date on sale. And the night openings of the Museums that some websites advertise are in neither the official 2026 calendar nor the official ticket office, so I have left them out.

Castel Sant’Angelo does not make it either, even though it stands at the end of Via della Conciliazione and plenty of visitors assume it is Vatican. It is in Rome, and so in Italy, like every restaurant and hotel you will use. The last piece of a good visit is knowing what not to buy, and that is covered in the Vatican scams to avoid.