Vatican City Tour: A Worthwhile Time

When one says Italy, what’s comes to mind? Sure, there’s Romans, Italian food and drinks, amazing countryside and infrastructures, historical sites and artifacts. But there’s also Vatican City, is it not? Whether you are religious or not, an art enthusiast or not, a trip to Vatican City is definitely worthwhile.

Officially known as Stato Della Città del Vaticano in Italian or Vatican City State, this famed city was established as an independent territory within Rome in 1929. With the Lateran Treaty of 1929, an independent city named The Vatican came to be under the sole jurisdiction and sovereign authority of the Papa See.

It became the smallest city-state in the world both in population and area. Its unique economic setup is being financed by the donations of the faithful, entrance fees to the museums and such, sale of souvenirs, postage stamps, and publications.

Although the city features around 121 hectares of land area, it will still take a few days to cover the whole ground, so to speak, when someone wants to sightsee. The topmost destinations in Vatican City are, naturally, St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican Museums, and the Sistine Chapel. Seems like a short visit? It seems so but actually not.

Vatican is well-known for its massive collections of various forms of arts from famous artists from paintings, sculptures, murals, monuments, among others, to historical writings and artifacts. With so much history within a considerably small space, travelers need to properly plan their outings to the featured spots in order to get the most of the experience.

A good tip for travelers to the Vatican? Popular destinations in the city would require long lines to fall into. This is to be expected, of course. You can mitigate this by going to your desired destinations at a very early start with a pre-arranged tour, go for a “fast track” ticket, take the Skip The Line option available, or go for a private tour for a more intimate experience of Vatican’s topmost sites.