Vatican City and Sistine Chapel tour: Skip the line!

VATICAN CITY HIGHLIGHTS AND SKIP THE LINE TOURS

The Vatican State, the world’s smallest independent sovereign State, was founded in 1929 under a treaty with Mussolini known as “La Conciliazione”. It was the papacy’s consolation price for having lost its temporal power in 1870 when Italy united and became a secular country. Italy gave to the Vatican 750 million lire and the income from a thousand million lire worth of State bonds, free from taxes and duty on imported goods, and agreed to adopt canon law in marriage and make Catholic teaching compulsory in all schools. Vatican City State has the singular characteristic of being an instrument of the independence of the Holy See and of the Catholic Church, from any earthly power. In a way, it is a sign of the Church’s supernatural character insofar as the structures of Vatican City are reduced to the minimum necessary to guarantee its functions.The Vatican City covers a territory of 44 hectares (roughly 100 acres). It is partly surrounded by walls and stretches into St Peter’s Square as far as a strip of travertine stone that corresponds with the furthest end of the colonnade. This marks the boundary of the State and the edge of the Square which is normally open to everyone. There are five entrances to the Vatican City, each of them guarded by the Pontifical Swiss Guards and by the Gendarmes Corps of Vatican City State. Because Vatican City is so small, several Departments and offices belonging to the Holy See are situated in buildings around Rome (in Piazza Pio XII, Via della Conciliazione, Piazza San Calisto, Piazza della Cancelleria and in Piazza di Spagna). According to the Lateran Treaty, these buildings enjoy the same status, recognized by international law, as embassies and foreign diplomatic missions abroad. The population of  Vatican City is about 800 people, of whom over 450 have Vatican citizenship, while the rest have permission to reside there, either temporarily or permanently, without the benefit of citizenship; The Pope lives in Vatican City.

The Vatican City contains two huge sights: Vatican Museum, with Michelangelo’s amazing Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica with Michelangelo’s masterpiece “La Pietà”

Vatican City Top Sights:

St. Peter’s Square

St. Peter’s Basilica

•    The Dome

•    Vatican Grottoes

•    Papal Tombs

Vatican Gardens

Vatican Museum:

•    The Egyptian Museum

•    The Chiaramonte Gallery

•    Pio- Clementino Museum

•    The Etruscan Museum

•    Galleria dei Candelabri and Arazzi

•    Galleria delle Carte Geografiche

•    Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael’s rooms), la Loggia di Raffaello, Cappella di Nuccolò V

•    L’aappartamento Borgia- Borgia Rooms

•    The Sistine Chapel