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Vatican City
Enclaved Holy See's independent city-state

Vatican City

Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State, often shortened as the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state in Southern Europe.

Plan a trip to Vatican City→From Perugia (PG)

Ruled by the pope, it is an enclave within the city of Rome, Italy, and serves as the administrative centre of the Catholic Church. Vatican City is governed by the See of Rome, commonly known as the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity under international law, which maintains its temporal power, governance, diplomacy, and spiritual independence. Vatican is also used as a metonym for the Holy See, which is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City, comprising the pope and the Roman Curia. The independent state of Vatican City came into existence in 1929 via the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy, which spoke of it as a creation, not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States (756–1870), which had previously encompassed much of Central Italy.

Get in

Getting to Vatican City

Although the Vatican City is an independent country, it does not issue visas or residency permits to visitors; it has open borders with Italy. Since Italy is a part of the Schengen area, its common visa policy applies. There are three road entrances to Vatican City: from Via della Stazione Vaticana, Via Paolo VI and Borgo Pio.

  1. 01
    Ottaviano A for St

    To go from Cipro to the museums, go east through Via Candia and then turn right at Via Santamaura.

See

Worth seeing

There is a lot of artwork to see in Vatican City.

  1. 01
    The Vatican Museum

    Viale Vaticano (Main (outside) entrance at Viale Vaticano e Via Tunisi.

  2. 02
    Castel Sant'Angelo

    Perhaps the most fascinating building in Rome.

  3. 03
    Passetto di Borgo

    Pope Nicholas III connected Castel Sant'Angelo to St.

  4. 04
    Palazzo di Giustizia

    Wandering around the shopping and residential district of Prati, close to the Vatican, you may notice rather a lot of lawyers' nameplates outside buildings.

Do

Things to do

While guidebooks do their best to provide an aid for viewing the collections inside the Vatican, a guided tour is a far better way to make sure you get the most out of your visit. Guided tours are provided by the Vatican itself for the cost of €30. These may be requested in advance by fax from one month to one week before the requested tour date, or online from two months before the requested tour date.

How locals move

Getting around Vatican City the local way

  • Get inFor example, a sedan, usually a Mercedes E-class, from Fiumicino Airport to Rome Centre and hotels can be booked for €45 or a minivan for €55.
  • Get inProvides ferry service to/from Barcelona, Tunis, Toulon (France), Porto-Vecchio (Corsica).
  • Get aroundSome of the main rental shops: There is the possibility to hire any kind of bike in Rome: from tandem, road bikes, children bikes to trekking bikes.
  • Go nextConsider a day trip to Tivoli to see the Villa d'Este with its famous and glorious fountains.
  • Go nextCivitavecchia, the port of Rome, is the point of arrival and departure of hundreds of ships, cruises, and ferries travelling all around the Mediterranean.
  • Go nextEspecially if you have a rail pass, making Pompeii a day trip, while it is a very full day, is very doable.

From Wikivoyage: Rome, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Livioandronico2013 (CC BY-SA 4.0), Wikimedia Commons.