VA · Curated travel guide
St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Square and 7 more — what each one is, and why it is worth the detour.
Chosen from everything Wikidata knows about Vatican City and ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions describe them, which is about as close to "famous" as open data gets.
Roman Catholic basilica and landmark in Vatican City
Properly the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, an Italian Renaissance church in Vatican City, an independent microstate surrounded by Rome, Italy. In the 15th century Pope Nicholas V, and after him Pope Julius II, planned it as the replacement for Old St. Peter's Basilica, which the Roman emperor Constantine the Great had built in the fourth century and which was growing old.
Photo: Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 4.0
Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, Vatican City
Named after Pope Sixtus IV, who had it built from 1473 to 1481, and first called the Cappella Magna: a chapel inside the Apostolic Palace, where the pope officially lives, in Vatican City.
Photo: The original uploader was Snowdog at Italian Wikipedia ., CC BY-SA 3.0
Piazza in Vatican City
A large plaza directly before St. Peter's Basilica, in Vatican City, the papal enclave within Rome, lying due west of Borgo, a Roman neighbourhood (rione). The square and the basilica both take their name from Saint Peter, the apostle of Jesus whom Catholics regard as the first pope.
Photo: Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0
Museums of the Vatican City
The public museums of Vatican City, showing works from the huge collection the papacy and the Catholic Church have built up over the centuries, including several of the most famous Roman sculptures and some of the most important masterpieces of Renaissance art anywhere.
Photo: user:Lalupa, CC BY-SA 3.0
Official residence of the Pope in Vatican City
Also called the Papal Palace, the Palace of the Vatican or the Vatican Palace, the official residence in Vatican City of the Pope, head of the Catholic Church.
Photo: Burkhard Mücke, CC BY-SA 4.0
Guest house in Vatican City
A building beside St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, finished in 1996 under Pope John Paul II and named after Martha of Bethany, sister of Lazarus and Mary of Bethany.
Photo: Johannes Müller, CC BY-SA 3.0
Hill in Rome where St. Peter's Basilica is located
A hill in Rome on the Tiber's right bank, across from the city's traditional seven hills, which also gave Vatican City its name.
Photo: Workshop of Pieter van Aelst / After Raphael, Public domain
Astronomical observatory of the Holy See
An astronomical research and teaching institution supported by the Holy See. First based at the Roman College in Rome, it now has its headquarters at Castel Gandolfo, Italy, and runs a telescope at the Mount Graham International Observatory in the United States.
Photo: Rb85, CC BY-SA 3.0
Park in Vatican City
Informally the Vatican Gardens, private urban gardens and parks owned by the Pope, covering more than half of Vatican City, in the west of its territory. A few buildings, such as the Governor's Palace and Vatican Radio, stand within them.
Photo: Stefan Bauer, http://www.ferras.at, CC BY-SA 2.5
Former church in Rome
The church buildings standing, between the 4th and 16th centuries, where St. Peter's Basilica now stands in Vatican City. Building began under the Roman Emperor Constantine I, over the historic site of the Circus of Nero.
Photo: Debole, CC BY-SA 4.0
Officially the Vatican City State, and often just the Vatican: a sovereign, landlocked city-state in Southern Europe under the pope's rule, an enclave inside Rome, Italy, and the Catholic Church's administrative centre. The See of Rome, usually called the Holy See, governs it; the Holy See is sovereign in its own right in international law, and retains its own temporal authority, government, diplomacy and independence in spiritual matters.
Officially The Holy See. Known locally as Holy See.
Based on the Wikipedia article, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0: the facts are Wikipedia's, the wording is this site's.
This guide lists 10: St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Square and Vatican Museums and others.
By machine, from open data, with no human ranking them and nobody able to pay for a place on the list. Everything Wikidata records in Vatican City that is a building, a landform, a protected area or a tourist attraction, has coordinates, a photograph and an English Wikipedia article, is ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions wrote about it. Provinces, cities, airports, stations and stretches of sea shared with the neighbours are filtered out.
Latin, Italian. The currency is EUR.
A travel eSIM is usually the cheapest way, and avoids a roaming bill. The plans suggested at the foot of this guide start at $2.15 for 2GB per day. The eSIM is data-only and sits alongside your normal SIM, so calls, texts and WhatsApp keep working on your own number.
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| Plan | Data | Valid | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2GB per day Cheapest | 2 GB | 1 day | $2.15 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 15 days | 3 GB | 15 days | $2.69 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 30 days | 3 GB | 30 days | $2.86 | Get it → |
| 3GB per day | 3 GB | 1 day | $3.04 | Get it → |
| 5GB per day | 5 GB | 1 day | $3.67 | Get it → |
| 5GB for 30 days | 5 GB | 30 days | $4.26 | Get it → |
No app needed. Install by QR code before you fly, keep your own number for calls, and it connects the moment you land.
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