Vatican Museums & Pinacoteca

where: Viale Vaticano
getting there: bus 49 stops in front of the Vatican Museums
open: Monday to Thursday 8:30-18:30, Friday to Saturday 8:30-20:00, closed Sunday
cost: €20 at the ticket office or “Skip the Line”(€20 + 5 online booking fee)
information: wear appropriate clothing, no shorts/mini skirts/sleeveless tops
there is a security checkpoint
definitely NO photos in the Sistine Chapel

free cloakroom
website: www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html

It is said that the Vatican Museums are among the finest museums in Europe and it's hard to explain how exciting and overwhelming it is to visit, as the Vatican Palace holds one of the largest art and archaeological collections gathered by Popes over the centuries.

The Vatican Museums were founded in the 16th century by Pope Julius II after the discovery of the ancient sculptures of the Laocoön and the Belvedere Apollo. 

Pope Julius II commissioned the Sistine Chapel ceiling decoration by Michelangelo and the room frescoes by Raffaello Sanzio known as the Raphael Rooms.

The museums' vast collection includes Egyptian, Etruscan, early Greek and Roman sculpture (some from Hadrian's Villa), mosaics and glassware, early Christian inscriptions from the catacombs and ancient cemeteries of Ostia, Porto and Rome.

Laocoön 

The highlights for me were the Art Gallery (Pinacoteca), the Borgia Apartments by Pinturicchio, the Apartments of Pius V by Giorgio Vasari, the Raphael Rooms by Raphael, the Hall of Maps and the Hall of Tapestries.

The collection takes many hours to see and I ended up walking about eight kilometres around the many, many halls and floors.

I'd recommend booking tickets for as early as possible as I booked my ticket for opening time, even then the crowds were huge and it got even more crowded as the morning went on into the early afternoon. 

Make the Sistine Chapel your last place to visit as there is no way to return to the museums once you've entered.

The Pinacoteca (Art Gallery) was opened in 1932. Eighteen rooms hold 460 paintings that are displayed in chronological order and school ranging from the 12th to the 19th century.

For me, the important artworks to see were Raphael's Transfiguration, Crowning of the Virgin and Madonna of Foligno in Room VIII, in Room IX Leonardo's Saint Gerome and in Room XII Caravaggio's Deposition, Guido Reni's Crucifixion of Saint Paul and artworks by Giotto, Perugino, il Baciccio, Tiziano, Fra Angelico and Carracci.

Raphael

Raphael

Caravaggio

Bernini

Artists in the Pinacoteca Vaticana

Giotto

Fra Angelico

Perugino

Raphael

Leonardo

Caravaggio

Pietro da Cortona

Bernini

Filippo Lippi

Titian

Ludovico Carracci

Domenichino

Guercino

Guido Reni

Orazio Gentileschi