Vatican Museums

 We had a half day at the Vatican Museums & LOVED it. We are hoping to go back for more. Here are some of our photos.

Nero’s Bathtub

The drapery and columns are painted, as is the ceiling.

The ceiling of the map room is stunning

The map room and the Sistine Chapel were our favourites (you can’t take any photos in the Sistine Chapel)

This wheelchair lift takes you onto the Sistine Chapel level, and is as dodgy as it looks (but it was worth it to get into the Sistine Chapel). The Sistine Chapel was mind blowing in it’s execution and artistic creativity. We really loved sitting in the chapel and discovering all the little details. You can’t take any photos in the chapel (or talk).

This is a moving sculpture in the Pinecone Courtyard.

 

Official photo from the Vatican Museums website. We were lucky enough to be able to sit on a bench against this screen and admire the chapel for about 20 mins. It was breathtaking.

 

We read a lot of Rick Steves guides to get information on the Vatican Museums. Unfortunately we couldn’t use his audio guide because the disabled access doesn’t go on the same route as everyone else. the disabled route goes in the opposite direction to the normal route about 50% of the time (maybe a bit more), which means you are fighting against the crowds a lot of the time, but the staff are super helpful, which makes up for it).

Vatican Museums Disabled Access Map

The official website of the Vatican Museums (there are a lot of fake websites to avoid, this is the official website) https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html