Vatican City

St Peter’s Square (Piazza San Pietro — the greatest urban space in the world, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1656–1667 as a symbolic embrace of the Catholic Church: two curved colonnades of 284 columns enclosing an ellipse of 240m, with the Egyptian obelisk brought from Heliopolis by Caligula in 37 AD in the centre, and the white line on the paving showing the shadow of each column at midday — a sundial on the grandest scale).

💡 Bernini’s colonnade for St Peter’s Square took 11 years to build (1656–1667) and required 284 columns and 88 pilasters of travertine marble. The two curved arms were designed to represent the Church “embracing Catholics, welcoming heretics, and enlightening unbelievers” — Bernini’s own description. The Egyptian obelisk at the centre was brought from the Circus of Nero in 37 AD; it is the only obelisk in Rome that has never fallen since antiquity.

St Peter’s Basilica — the largest church in the world (20,000 standing capacity, 15,160m² floor area, the 136m dome by Michelangelo dominating the Rome skyline for 450 years) — with Michelangelo’s Pietà (carved at age 25 in 1499, the only signed work in his oeuvre — he carved his name on the strap across Mary’s chest after overhearing visitors attribute it to another sculptor) and the climb to the dome summit for the finest view of Rome.

💡 The dome of St Peter’s (designed by Michelangelo from 1547, modified and completed by Giacomo della Porta in 1590) was the largest dome in the world when completed — surpassing the Pantheon at 43.3m internal diameter. It remains the largest dome constructed using traditional masonry. The gilded ball at the summit (2.3m in diameter, accessible through a trapdoor) has been climbed by Michelangelo himself and by numerous subsequent artists and architects.

The Vatican Museums (the largest art collection assembled by a single institution — 54 galleries, 20,000 works on display from 1.5 million in the collection, the product of 500 years of papal patronage and acquisition) — the Gallery of Maps (a 120m corridor with 40 topographical maps of Italy painted 1580–1583, the most ambitious cartographic painting project in history) and the Sistine Chapel (Michelangelo’s ceiling, painted 1508–1512 on 500m² of curved surface, lying on his back on scaffolding 20m above the floor).

💡 Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling (500m², 300 figures, the Book of Genesis in nine scenes) between 1508 and 1512 — a total of approximately 4 years, largely alone. He did not paint lying on his back (a persistent myth) but standing with his neck bent sharply backward, a position that caused permanent damage to his eyesight and spinal posture. He was 33 when he began and 37 when he finished.

The Vatican Gardens (23 hectares of the western half of Vatican City, accessible only by guided tour and closed to the general public — including the Ethiopian College, the Vatican Radio Tower, a replica of the Lourdes Grotto and the Casino of Pius IV designed by Pirro Ligorio in 1560, considered one of the finest Mannerist buildings in existence) — the part of Vatican City that 99% of visitors never see.

💡 The Vatican Radio transmission towers (built by Guglielmo Marconi himself in 1931, who personally designed the Vatican Radio system at Pope Pius XI’s request, making Vatican Radio the second radio broadcasting organisation in the world after the BBC) still stand in the Vatican Gardens. Vatican Radio broadcasts in 47 languages; the transmission towers are the oldest continuously operating broadcast towers in the world after the BBC transmitters.

The Scavi (Vatican Necropolis — a 1st–4th century AD Roman cemetery directly below the high altar of St Peter’s, excavated 1939–1950, containing the Aedicula of St Peter (the monument the Vatican asserts marks the actual burial site of the apostle Peter — bones found nearby in 1941, identified in 1965 by Pope Paul VI as probably belonging to a robust male of about 60–70, of the 1st century AD) — maximum 250 visitors per day; advance booking essential).

💡 The Scavi excavation (1939–1950, authorised by Pius XII) confirmed that the high altar of St Peter’s Basilica stands directly above a 1st-century Roman cemetery — exactly where early Christian tradition placed the burial of Peter. The “Graffiti Wall” near the aedicula contains a 2nd-century Greek inscription that the Vatican’s epigraphers translate as “Peter is here”, the closest physical evidence for the apostle’s burial location.

Castel Sant’Angelo (originally built as the mausoleum of Emperor Hadrian in 139 AD, converted into a fortress and then a papal residence, connected to the Vatican by the Passetto di Borgo — a secret elevated corridor 800m long used by popes to escape during sieges, most famously by Clement VII during the Sack of Rome in 1527 — with the finest panoramic view of the Tiber and Rome from the Angel terrace at the top).

💡 The Passetto di Borgo (the elevated walkway connecting the Vatican to Castel Sant’Angelo) was used in genuine emergency on 6 May 1527 during the Sack of Rome — when Charles V’s unpaid troops (partly Lutheran Swiss mercenaries) went on an uncontrolled rampage through Rome, killing 12,000 people. Pope Clement VII fled through the corridor in his nightgown while the attack was in progress, the last time the passetto was used for its intended purpose.

The Papal General Audience (held every Wednesday at 10am in St Peter’s Square when the Pope is in Rome — free to attend with a ticket from the Prefettura della Casa Pontificia, distributed free on Tuesdays or available online — the Pope addresses the 10,000–80,000 assembled faithful in multiple languages, blesses objects brought for the purpose, and is driven through the square in the Popemobile). Fly from Rome (FCO or CIA).

💡 The Papal Audience tickets (free, distributed by the Prefettura della Casa Pontificia via their office at the Bronze Door of St Peter’s on Mondays and Tuesdays, or online at www.vatican.va) are one of the most extraordinary free experiences in the world — sitting in Bernini’s colonnade while the Bishop of Rome addresses 30,000 people in seven languages simultaneously, from a platform 50 metres from the Apostolic Palace where every pope since 1903 has lived.