When you’re in Rome, you really should visit Vatican City. It’s a city-state surrounded by Rome. To be clear Vatican City State is an independent city-state. This state is ruled by the pope who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church.
It’s possible to see this in half a day or you can spend a whole day here. You can’t access the whole city, but you can visit the St. Peter’s Basilica for free and you can pay for the Vatican Museum, it’s really impressive.
At the St. Peter’s Basilica you can see the changing of the Swiss Guards. This ceremonial change of guards takes place every hour on the hour and is definitely worth waiting for when you’re around.
Another thing you should visit is the Vatican Museum. Make sure to order your tickets online for Vatican Museum from the official website but keep in mind that you pay extra if you pay with Visa. If you don’t order your tickets online you need to wait in line and the line can be really long.
The museum is definitely worth a visit. The Sistine Chapel is most known part of the museum but it’s way bigger than only this chapel. The Sistine Chapel is known for its ceiling. Michelangelo Buonarroti painted the ceiling and on the upper part of the walls (the lunettes). The creation of Adam is a part of the fresco painting of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling.
In the museum you also find a lot of statues and paintings. Further, there is also the statue of Laocoön and his sons (Laocoön Group). In the statue you see the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons. The priest had warned his compatriots against the wooden horse (Trojan Horse), left by the Greeks as ‘an offering to the city of Troy’. This angered Athena, who sent serpents to kill Laocoön. Another beautiful thing in the museum is a painting from Wezel Peter called Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
So, if you like museums, go there.
Tip: buy your ticket for the Vatican Museum online from the official website.
When you’re in Vatican City you should also visit Rome. You can read about Rome in this blog.
