When we planned to spend five days in Rome at the end of our ten days in Italy, a day in Vatican City was at the absolute top of our must do list. The Pope resides in Vatican City in Italy, which is generally considered as the center of the Catholic Church. As Catholics, this was a unique religious pilgrimage. Vatican City may be the world’s smallest country, but it is chock full of religious, architectural and artistic wows that make it a must-see destination, even for families with young children. We loved visiting Vatican City with kids.
The Vatican City attractions are the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square. The Vatican Museums are the fourth most visited art museum in the world with 6.4 million visitors in 2017 and the fifth largest art museum in the world. The Sistine Chapel is part of the Vatican Museums and the chapel of the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope (although Pope Francis chose to live in the Vatican guest house instead). St. Peter’s Basilica is the world’s largest church and considered the most renowned example of Renaissance architecture. The key-hole shaped St. Peter’s Square was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and can hold a whopping 300,000 people.
A Day in Vatican City With Kids
Getting to the Vatican With Kids
The night before our trip to Vatican City, we wondered if passports were necessary. A quick Google search clearly indicated they were not, and we were relieved to leave them hidden in our Airbnb. We took the Metro from Barberini to Ottaviano, which was a quick five-stop journey on Line A of the Metro. From Ottaviano, the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica are each about a 10 minute walk but in different directions. We had no problem following the crowds toward the Vatican Museums. Along the way, we were approached by seemingly dozens of tour guides offering tickets and packages but were fortunate to have prebooked our Vatican City ticket and did not have to chance the legitimacy of these tours.
Vatican City Tickets
There are many options for Vatican Museum skip the line tours. We prebooked our Vatican Museums tickets (which included a guided tour and Sistine Chapel entry) directly through the Vatican Museums’ website, as recommended by our friends at Two Traveling Tots. Our kids generally enjoy guided tour, and we were not concerned that this wasn’t specifically a Vatican tour for kids. We arrived in Vatican City more quickly than expected and uncharacteristically one hour early for our 11 a.m. tour. When we arrived at the Vatican City entrance, we showed our booking voucher to the customer care staff outside the entrance and were told to return at 10:30 a.m., 30 minutes before our 11:00 am tour. So, we found a bit of shade and stood with all the other early tourists and were grateful that we weren’t standing in the line for visitors arriving without tickets that stretched around the corner and down the street. A couple at the front of the line told me that they had been waiting for two hours.
At 10:30 a.m., we presented our vouchers for the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel tour and were vaguely directed inside to collect our tickets. We first tried an automated machine in the lobby, but found that it did not work because we had ordered reduced price tickets for our sons. We stood in line at the ticket counter on the left side of the lobby but discovered that was also wrong. We ended up finding the correct counters by the door leading from the lobby into the Museums, collected our tickets and headed to the designated meeting point not long before our 11 am tour.
Our tour guide, Patrick, gave us each a headset. After the group had assembled, he explained that the tour would be an hour and a half to two hours and end at the Sistine Chapel. Because silence is required in the Sistine Chapel and tour guide narration is strictly prohibited, Patrick spent about 15 minutes in front of a diagram of the Sistine Chapel located outside of the Vatican Museums describing in detail what we would see when we did reach the Chapel.
Our first official stop on the tour was the Cortile della Pigna where Patrick talked about the Fontana della Pigna. This sculpture of a pine cone and peacocks dates back to the 1st or 2nd century and used to be a fountain. The Pigna was located near the Pantheon until the Middle Ages.
We then proceeded into the Vatican Museums, which contain four miles of displays of one of the world’s best art collections from antiquity to Renaissance. Our visit to the Louvre, the mother of all art museums, less than two weeks earlier, in no way prepared us for the massive crowds that piled into the Vatican Museums. With a family of five, including a stroller, it was often a challenge to stay together and with our tour group among the shoulder to shoulder crowd that made me feel like I was perpetually in the Mona Lisa room. The Tapestry Gallery was particularly crowded, likely because it was air-conditioned to protect the tapestries. Tapestries from Raphael’s workshop are displayed on the left wall, and the sculpted reliefs on the ceiling are breathtaking.
The Gallery of Maps features a series of topographic maps commissioned by Pope Gregorius XIII. The 40 panels were completed by geographer Ignazio Danti between 1580 and 1583. The ceiling was colorful and memorable. Apparently, the windows provide a great view of Vatican City, but there was clearly no ability to stop on the day we visited.
Raphael’s Rooms are four galleries that were previously papal apartments and contain frescoes by Raphael and his assistants completed between 1508 and 1524. The second room, Stanza della Segnatura, features Raphael’s famous School of Athens, which depicts Aristotle and Socrates. Leonardo da Vinci appears as Plato, and Raphael appears as himself. Raphael painted School of Athens while Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and added Michelangelo at the front.
As we left Raphael’s Rooms, our tour guide instructed the group that we would go down a few staircases and then reconvene. My husband and I somehow got separated in the crowd and each thought the other was in front. All three kids, including my daughter, who was soundly sleeping in her stroller, were with me. The two boys and I made sure that she was tightly buckled into her stroller and carefully carried it down several staircases, all absolutely packed with people not particularly willing to give us the extra space we needed. For some time, I could still hear Patrick talking through my headset but never found him again. I managed to stay calm during those chaotic 20 minutes even though I did not have cell service, WiFi wasn’t available, and we had no backup plan for meeting if we got separated. While the art was definitely spectacular, it was my husband who was the most welcome sight when we entered the Sistine Chapel. We recommend a visit to the Vatican for kids. The tour was informative, but we will likely arrive with a detailed map and go the self-guided route next time or take a private Vatican tour with kids.
Visiting the Sistine Chapel With Kids
The Sistine Chapel is the Pope’s personal chapel and where new popes are elected during the Papal Enclave. It is world-renowned for its ceiling, a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512. We were glad that Patrick provided historical background and details of the paintings before our tour of the Vatican Museums began. Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the flattened barrel vault ceiling and envisioned each of the 12 triangular pendentives to contain the image of one of the apostles. Michelangelo first declined, insisting he was a sculptor rather than a painter, but eventually accepted on the condition that he have artistic license. Michelangelo was in his mid 30s when he painted these ceiling frescos, which depict nine panels illustrating the Book of Genesis. He completed the 5,900 square feet of painting almost entirely on his own (in contrast to Raphael, who employed assistants to complete his designs). The famous center panel features The Creation of Adam and depicts God reaching out to give life to the first human.
Twenty-three years after completing the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo returned to the Sistine Chapel to paint his Last Judgment. Patrick described how Michelangelo placed Jesus in the center and incorporated the image of an archbishop who was critical of his work naked and in hell. These memorable stories stayed with us even though we had to wait until the very end of the tour to see the Chapel first-hand.
While Pope John Paul II was Pope from 1978 to 2005, there have been two Papal Enclaves since his death. Pope Benedict XVI was elected during the Papal Enclave that occurred in the Sistine Chapel following Pope John Paul II’s death. After Pope Benedict XVI retired in 2013, Pope Francis was elected during the second Papal Enclave held inside the Sistine Chapel in eight years.
Photography is strictly prohibited in the Sistine Chapel as is talking, and covered shoulders were a must. Guards regularly repeat, “Silence” to remind awe-struck visitors that this is a high holy chapel. After we spent about 20 minutes oohing and aahing, we left the Sistine Chapel and were happy to find both bathrooms and a souvenir shop before continuing to St. Peter’s Basilica about 30 minutes later.
- Napping in the Sistine Chapel: As full disclosure, my three-year old daughter slept through our entire visit to the Sistine Chapel. She never laid eyes on Michelangelo’s ceiling or Last Judgment, and we weren’t concerned. At age three, she had visited six of the eight most visited art museums in the world and countless cathedrals, basilicas and chapels. We can’t control when she needs to sleep and wouldn’t dare to purposely wake her in the middle of the Pope’s chapel. It wouldn’t be a pretty sight for anyone. She did wake up on her own to fully enjoy St. Peter’s Basilica.
- Pro tip: Follow the exit at the back of the Chapel directly to St. Peter’s Basilica. It is officially for Vatican guides and their groups only and not 100% reliable and meant we missed the stunning double helix Brumante Staircase, but it saved us from waiting in another security line outside of St. Peter’s.
Visiting St. Peter’s Basilica With Kids
St. Peter’s Basilica is the world’s largest church and the site of St. Peter’s tomb, which is believed to be directly underneath the main altar. St. Peter was one of the 12 Apostles and moved to Rome and became the first Pope after witnessing the resurrection of Jesus. He was crucified in about A.D. 65 under Emperor Nero Augustus Caesar. Emperor Constantine built a church on the site where St. Peter was martyred in the fourth century, but by the 16th century, the Old St. Peter’s church was falling apart. Construction of St. Peter’s Basilica took about 120 years, 20 popes and 10 architects to complete and then it took another 200 years before the interior decorating was finished.
For visitors who do not arrive at St. Peter’s from the special Sistine Chapel exit, there is no admission to enter St. Peter’s, but the security lines can be lengthy at times. At the far-right entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica, we saw the Holy Door, which is opened in designated Jubilee years that occur every 25 or 50 years (last of which was in 2000) or as specially designated by the Pope. Pope Francis designated 2015-2016 an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy and opened the Holy Door out of cycle. My friend and his wife were able to walk through it during this exciting year. Because 2018 is not a Jubilee Year, it was closed and even boarded up from the inside but still beautiful to see. I’m not sure why I’m so fascinated by this door, but I’m secretly planning for Spring Break 2025, the next Jubilee Year. I am already planning the 2-3 perfectly timed days we’ll spend in Rome when we will secure tickets for a papal audience or papal Mass, visit the Pantheon early in the morning, fully explore the Vatican Museums, show my daughter the Sistine Chapel and find a way to check out the Spiral Staircase and use the secret exit connecting the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter’s Basilica.
We entered St. Peter’s directly from the Sistine Chapel and were overwhelmed by the immense size. We had just been wowed in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo’s painting of the ceiling and Last Judgment, and it’s hard to believe that Sistine Chapel masterpieces could be considered as a prelude to Michelangelo’s work in St. Peter’s. Michelangelo’s sculpture, Pieta, is a representation of Mary holding Jesus’ body that shows his skills as a master sculptor. It is unbelievable to me that he completed Pieta, his first major commission that is now displayed at St. Peter’s, at age 24.
Michelangelo not only created paintings and sculptures that would be recognized among the most notable works of art 500 years after his death but also designed St. Peter’s Basilica dome, which rises 448 feet (longer than the length of a football field). Michelangelo was named lead architect in 1546 and studied the domes of the Pantheon and Florence‘s Duomo before designing his plans. Michelangelo continued working on the dome until his death in 1564.
The Basilica’s main altar is made of a marble slab and surrounded by Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s impressive seven-story bronze canopy and located below the dome. My eight year old photographer made sure to capture the view.
Bernini’s dove window was one of my favorite ever. It may not be as intricate or as colorful as medieval stained glass, but I couldn’t take my eyes off this alabaster window.
The Tomb of Pope John Paul II is located in St. Peter’s below St. Sebastian, his favorite saint. Pope John Paul II was the Pope of my young life and sainted in 2014.
Our last stop in St. Peter’s was to visit the crypt, which contains the tombs of many popes, but photography is not permitted, and we also did not sneak any unauthorized pictures. We spent approximately 45 minutes in St. Peter’s before heading outside into St. Peter’s Square.
St. Peter’s Square With Kids
St. Peter’s Square is one of the world’s most famous squares. It was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and includes 284 Doric columns, each 56 feet tall and topped with sculptures of 140 saints. The square is an elliptical shape to symbolize the arms of the Church welcoming all people.
In the center stands an Egyptian obelisk, which is 2,000 years old and 90 feet tall. It is made of granite and weighs about 300 tons.
We spent some time wandering through the covered walkway around the Square, desperate to stay in the shade as long as possible. We found one of the many Roman water fountains and used it to hydrate and cool off. After spending about 30 minutes in St. Peter’s Square, we headed off in search of lunch.
Why We Loved the Vatican For Kids
Our visit to Vatican City was certainly one of the most educational parts of our trip. We all gained a much deeper understanding of Renaissance art and architecture, developed a newfound appreciation for Michelangelo and learned quite a bit of Catholic history. It would have certainly been easier to visit without a stroller, but even my three year old enjoyed her time in Vatican City, particularly St. Peter’s Basilica. We definitely recommend Vatican City for kids. To find out more about family travel to Italy, check out our other blog posts about Rome, Florence and Venice and our listing of all destinations in Italy.
Photo credit: Marissa Mayer
Outside on the cobbled street, we saw a performance by contortionist Kenneth Greenaway who is popularly known as Yogi Laser. We also watched part of Laser’s mesmerizing performance next to the River Thames earlier in the trip.
