Vatican Museums I

Vatican Museums:

Visit Rules: These rules apply to individual / family visits NOT to group visits.

1. What is included: Basically, there are two destinations with two distinct  tickets: Vatican Museumes and Vatican Gardens. Each one needs  a separate ticket.

Vatican Museums ('Musei Vaticani') include the 'big 3' - St Peters, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums. All of them in one ticket. The Saint Peter's Basilica is, actually, not included in the admission ticket. Admission to the Basilica is free of charge.

Vatican Gardens - can be visited ONLY with GUIDED TOUR - under another ticket.

2. Types of Vatican Museums' visits: You may choose if you'll be visiting as part of a guided tour (accompanied by an official and knowledgeable tour guide), or as individuals (making your own way around). All the 'big 3' are included in both of them.

• The guided tour MAY include sites not open, regularly, to the public.

• The guided tours are more expensive.

•  The guided tours are limited in time of visit. But, after the guided tour you are allowed to stay, on your own, as long as you wish.

3. Times: Hours for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel are Mon - Sat from 8.30 in the morning until 18.00 in the evening. Last entrance at 16.00. Sundays - Close. During the last Sunday of every month - FREE ADMISSION BUT IT IS OPEN ONLY DURING the FIRST HALF OF THE DAY. You may stay as long as you wish within these hours - with any type of ticket.

4. Online Book in advance: There are huge queues for entrance. Wait of several hours is very common. Availability, both for straightforward tickets and for tours is limited. We recommend you to book as far in advance as is possible. It is only possible to make reservation up to 60 days in advance of your EXACT DAY visit,

5. Online tickets / vouchers reservation: http://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?aaaamm=20145&numeroPartecipanti=2&step=3&action=booking

• You must decide on exact visit date.
• You can change your date of visit after making the reservation. No charge for change. Click 'Change of Reservation' in the left-side menu.
• Your payment is non refundable. You cannot cancel your reservation.
• Take sandwiches / fruits as the visit/tour can last for hours.
• No children.

6. Payment: By making the online reservation  - your credit card is charged. With some agencies - you pay ALSO online handling fees. An email is sent to you containing a link to a page from where you'll be able to print out your voucher. One voucher is printed for whole of your family or number of individuals. Again, ONE VOUCHER FOR ALL YOUR VISITORS. The voucher will be in Adobe PDF format. Note: The voucher amount does not include the online handling fees.

7. Entrance: The Voucher you got by email MUST BE ACCOMPANIED together with a valid identification document and must be presented at the entrance of the Vatican Museums. There is a dedicated entrance for 'pre-booked' visitors. On the day of your visit you will join the special 'pre-booked' queue located to the right hand side of the main entrance. You need to present your voucher and some ID (passport is always best). Next you  pass security. Then you swap your voucher for entrance tickets. Vouchers can only be used for the date and time specified. Please adhere to a religious dress code. Dress appropriately. No weapons or dangerous items. Even with pre-booked ticket - you may expect queuing inside the Vatican sites.

8. Concessions: Children under 6 years - FREE. Those of 6 - 18 are entitled to reduced priced tickets.  Students under 26 years (valid student ID required) are entitled to reduced priced tickets.. Those under-18 are allowed entrance only with at least one person over the age of 18.

9. Disabled access: Yes. There are wheelchairs around. Only with individual or private visits. No possibility with guided tours.

10. Vatican Gardens: See clause no. 1. Only as part of a guided tour. Tickets are for a guided, two hour tour of the Vatican Gardens. Once the tour is over, you are free to explore St Peters, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums at leisure - and they are included in the price of the garden tour. Vatican Museums ticket - DOES NOT INCLUDE the Vatican Gardens visit.

11. Photography & Mobile phones: It is forbidden to use flashlight photography inside the Museums. No photography or filming is permitted in the Sistine Chapel. The use of mobile phones is allowed, except in the Sistine Chapel.

12. Facilities: Plenty of toilets and 3 restaurants to meet every taste and budget. Refreshment
The main refreshment area is accessed from the top of the entrance escalator. There are two cafes - the first offering pasta meals, but walk past this and you come to the pizzeria, which has wonderful views of St Peter's dome and reasonable pizzas. There is also a tiny, little-known and slightly scruffy outdoor snack bar, accessible from the steps by the Sistine Chapel. A restaurant with a self-service, pizzeria and coffee bar is located one floor down the Atrium of the Four Gates (Atrio dei Quattro Cancelli): go down the stairs near the Picture Gallery (Pinacoteca) or at the top of the escalators turn right and then follow the indications.

13. Prices:

Individual Visit:

Full price ticket: Euro 16,00. Reduced ticket: Euro 8,00.
Every ticket reserved online has a reservation fee of Euro 4,00.
Audioguide (optional): Euro 7,00.
Family Tour for children between 5 and 12 years old (optional): Euro 5,00.

Guided Tours:

• Vatican Gardens:

Full price ticket: 32,00 Euro. Reduced ticket: 24,00 Euro.
Admission Ticket included. The ticket also enables the visitors to continue, on their own, a tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel.

• Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel

Full price ticket: 32,00 Euro. Reduced ticket: 24,00 Euro.
The tour includes: the Pio Clementino Museum, the Gallery of the Candelabras, the Gallery of the Geographical Maps, and the Gallery of the Tapestries (Renaissance art), the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel. Duration of the tour is about 2 hours.

• Vatican Gardens and Necropolis Via Triumphalis

Full price ticket: 37,00 Euro. Reduced ticket: 29,00 Euro.
At the end of the tour of the Gardens visitors continue their guided tour to the Via Triumphalis discovered, in 2003, during the construction of the new parking lot of Santa Rosa in the Vatican City State. The tour includes the marvellous fountain of the Galea recently restored. Duration of the guided tour is about 3 hours.

• Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica

Full price ticket: 37,00 Euro. Reduced ticket: 29,00 Euro.
Admission Ticket included.

The tour includes: the Pio Clementino Museum, the Gallery of the Candelabras, the Gallery of the Geographical Maps, and the Gallery of the Tapestries (Renaissance art), the Raphael Rooms, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. Duration of the tour is about 3 hours.

• Necropolis of the Via Triumphalis only

Admission ticket: 10,00 Euro.
The tour to the Via Triumphalis allows visitors to observe the Roman Necropolis discovered, in 2003, during the construction of the new parking lot of Santa Rosa in the Vatican City State. Duration of the tour is about 90 minutes. The ticket does NOT include the admission to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel.

• Necropolis of the Via Triumphalis and the Museums

Full price ticket: 26,00 Euro. Reduced ticket: 20,00 Euro.
The tour to the Via Triumphalis allows visitors to observe the Roman Necropolis discovered, in 2003, during the construction of the new parking lot of Santa Rosa in the Vatican City State. Duration of the guided tour to the Necropolis is about 90 minutes. The ticket also enables the visitors to continue, on their own, a tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel.

TIPS:

• Be careful what you actually take with you. Do NOT leave anything with security at the beginning of your tour as you will have to walk hundreds of meters back to collect it.

• Make sure you go to the toilet before you go in.
• Many items you buy in the Vatican are cheaper than in Rome City (no tax).

Vatican Museums - General: Open Monday to Saturday. Ticket Office is open from 9.00 - 16.00. The Museums are open 9.00 - 18.00. Exit from rooms half an hour before closing time. Sundays - closed. Last Sunday of every month, FREE entrance from 9.00 - 12.30. Closed: January 1, 6, February 11, March 19, April 20, 21, 27, May 1, June 29 (St. Peter and Paul), August 14, 15, November 1, December 25, 26.

11km of museums and is the largest in the world.

Entrance: Tickets, Information, Toilets, Elevators, Cloakroom, Audioguides, Bookshop, general wooden model of the whole Vatican Museums complex.

The Entrance:

Here are the Vatican's top sections (roughly in the order you're likely to visit them):

Pinacoteca (Painting Gallery) ★★★- An all-star painting gallery with works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Giotto, Titian, Fra' Angelico, and many more. (Vatican Museums I trip).

Egyptian Museum - Museo Egisio.

Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael Rooms) ★★★ - The former private papal apartments of Julius II were frescoed by Raphael and his assistants with some of the Renaissance master's best works, including the renowned School of Athens. Also in the Papal Suites sector of the Vatican are the Borgia Apartments and the Chapel of Nicholas V. The Raphael Rooms take about 25–40 minutes (more if you're a true fan). (Vatican Museums II trip).

Here are the rooms in the order (generally) that you visit them, with each one's relative interest indicated by the number of stars:

• Stanza dell'Incendio - Includes the Borgo Fire.
• ★★★ Stanza della Segnatura - Includes the famous School of Athens.
• ★★ Stanza di Eliodoro - Includes the Expulsion of Heliodorus.
• Stanza di Constantino - Includes the Vision of the Cross.

Sistine Chapel ★★★ - The iconic fingers-almost-touching detail of Michelangelo's God creating Adam takes up merely a few square inches of ceiling in a chapel 132 feet long by 46 feet wide by 70 feet tall nearly every inch of which is swathed in some of the greatest frescoes of the Renaissance. (Vatican Museums III trip).

The Pio-Clementine Museum ★★ - Some of the greatest statuary to have survived from Ancient Rome, including the Laocoön group and the Apollo Belvedere. (Vatican Museums I trip).

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Pinacoteca: The art gallery was housed in the Borgia Apartment, until Pope Pius XI ordered construction of a proper building. The new building was inaugurated on October 27, 1932.[4] The designer was Luca Beltrami. The Vatican picture gallery (Pinacoteca), spectacularly good, and massively under-visited, is a prime candidate for the best smallish (15 main rooms) gallery in the world. Arranged in chronological order of western art from Giotto to Pompeo Batoni. Taking in Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Raphael (a roomful), Giovanni Bellini, Titian, and Caravaggio, Leonardo along the way.

Room I. 12th-15th cent. (Nicolaus and Johannes)

Room II. 13th-15th cent. (Giotto)

• Stefaneschi triptych - front side.

• Stefaneschi triptych - back side.

Room III. 15th cent. (Beato Angelico)

• Beato Angelico, Stories of St Nicholas of Bari.

Room IV. 15th-16th cent. (Melozzo da Forlì)

• Melozzo da Forli', Angel playing the lute.

Room V. 15th cent. (Ercole de' Roberti)

Room VI. 15th cent. (polyptychs)

Filippo Lippi - Coronation of the Virgin:

Room VII. 15th-16th cent. (Perugino)

San Francesco al Prato Resurrection - Pietro Perugino:

Room VIII. 16th cent. (Raphael)

• Raphael, Crowning of the Virgin (Oddi altarpiece).

• Raphael, Transfiguration

Room IX. 15th-16th cent. (Leonardo)

• Giovanni Bellini, Lament over the dead Christ.

• Leonardo da Vinci, St Jerome.

Room X. 16th cent. (school of Raphael and Venetian painting)

• Tizian - Ritrratto del Doge Nicollo Marcolli:

Raffaellino del Colle - The Adoration of the Magi:

Room XI. 16th cent. (Barocci)

• Barocci, Rest during the Flight into Egypt.

• Jacopo Zucchi - Miracle of the Snow:

Room XII. 17th cent. (Caravaggio)

Caravaggio, Deposition from the cross:

Room XIII. 17th cent. (Pietro da Cortona)

• Pietro da Cortona, David killing the giant Goliath.

Room XIV. 17th cent. (Carlo Maratta)

•  David Ryckaer - The return of the Old philosopher and Alchemist:

• Carlo Maratta, Portrait of Clement IX.

Room XV. 18th cent. (Crespi)

• Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Portrait of Benedict XIV.

Room XVI. 19th cent. (Wenzel Peter)

• Wenzel Peter, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Room XVII. 17th cent. (Bernini) - Models for St Peter's Chair:

Room XVIII. 15th-19th cent. (icons)

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Atrium of the Four Gates, Atrio dei Quattro Cancelli:

Once you come up the escalator and show your ticket, you walk over to the Atrio dei Quattro Cancelli (Atrium of the Four Gates of the Vatican Palace). A little ahead is a junction; you turn right to visit the Museo Chaiaramonti founded by Pius VII and organised by the sculptor, Antonio Canova in 1807. There are over a thousand exhibits here of Roman busts, Roman gods, Roman Emperors. It houses Greek and Roman antiquities. The atrium of the Four Gates is the main hub from which you can choose the routes to go inside the Vatican Museums. They are, however, reported from different colors, with special arrows, guiding tourists through a "forced". From here you can begin the visit starting from the Courtyard Pigna or if you prefer from the four gates can climb the ladder Simonetti - a helical ramp two cordonate - and access to the plan that leads to the Gregorian Egyptian Museum and the Museo Gregoriano Etruscan. A restaurant with a self-service, pizzeria and coffee bar is located one floor down the Atrium of the Four Gates (Atrio dei Quattro Cancelli): go down the stairs near the Picture Gallery (Pinacoteca) or at the top of the escalators turn right and then follow the indications.

See more details and photos on Cortile del Belvedere - in the end of this blog.

See more details and photos on Cortile del Belvedere in the end of this blog.

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Chiaramonti Museum. This gallery of sculptures is named after its creator, Pope Pius VII (1800-23) whose family name was Chiaramonti. It has two wings designed by Bramante that connect the pontifical palace with the Belvedere Pavilion of Innocent VIII, which encloses the huge Belvedere Courtyard, also by Bramante. The Courtyard has three parts: Cortile del Belvedere, Cortile della Biblioteca (Courtyard of the Library), and, to the north, Cortile delle Pigna (Courtyard of the Pine Cone, or Fir-cone). There are 59 sections to this museum, all with Roman numerals, even numbers are on the right, odd on the left. Of special interest to me was in Section XXXI, from the 1st century A.D., a relief of The Three Muses, among a vast number of other artifacts. concept of a museum: busts and statues lined up as if for military inspection on either side of a corridor stretching as far as the eye can see.

It also contains the Lapidary Gallery (which houses a multitude of pagan and Christian inscriptions, sarcophagi, and the like), and The New Wing, which houses many ancient sculptures. One piece that stands out above all the rest in my mind is a marble statue of Augustus of Prima Porta, which was found in Livia's villa at Gallinas Albas on the via Flaminia in 1863. What stands out in the hemicycle is the gigantic Statue of the Nile, which was found in 1513 near St. Maria sopra Minerva on the site of the Temple of Isis.

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Egyptian Museum - Museo Gregoriano Egizio:

Located at the northern end of the lower floor. The Museum occupies nine rooms divided by a large hemi-cycle that opens towards the terrace of the "Niche of the Fir Cone", in which there are numerous sculptures. The last two rooms house finds from ancient Mesopotamia and from Syria-Palestine.

The Gregorian Egyptian Museum, was inagurated by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839 and was set up by Giuseppe Fabris and dall'egittologo Louis Marie Ungarelli. The museum is composed of ten rooms, where you can admire epigraphic collections, documents funerary customs, mummies, several furnishings, Egyptian statues found in Rome and Villa Adriana in Tivoli. Egyptian original works are the statue of Queen Tuia and bust of King Menthotep, which is the oldest regional portrait of the Museum. Also within this museum you can also admire the Assyrians reliefs.

• Room I. Hieroglyphic inscriptions on stelae and statues (2600 BC-600 AD).
• Room II. Funerary customs in ancient Egypt (2600 BC-200 AD).

• Room III. Reconstruction of the Serapeum of Villa Adriana (approx. 131 AD).

• Room IV. Egypt and Rome (1st-2nd century AD).
• Room V. Masterpieces of pharaonic statuary (2000 BC-100 AD).
• Room VI. Votive bronzes of the 1st millennium BC.
• Room VII. Bronze and clay figurines from Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.

• Room VIII. Cuneiform tablets and seals from Mesopotamia; vases and bronzes from Syria-Palestine (3rd-1st mill. BC) Reliefs from Palmira (1st-3rd cent. AD).
• Room IX. Reliefs and inscriptions from Assyrian palaces (883-612 BC).

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The Etruscan Museum:

Gregory XVI (1831-1846) founded the Etruscan Museum (1837) with archaeological finds discovered during excavations carried out from 1828 onwards in southern Etruria. Later, he established the Egyptian Museum (1839), which houses ancient artifacts from explorations in Egypt, together with other pieces already conserved in the Vatican and in the Museo Capitolino, and the Lateran Profane Museum (1844), with statues, bas-relief sculptures and mosaics of the Roman era, which could not be adequately placed in the Vatican Palace. The Lateran Profane Museum was expanded in 1854 under Pius IX (1846-1878) with the addition of the Pio Christian Museum. This museum is comprised of ancient sculptures (especially sarcophagi) and inscriptions with ancient Christian content. In 1910, under the pontificate of Saint Pius X (1903-1914), the Hebrew Lapidary was established. This section of the museum contains 137 inscriptions from ancient Hebrew cemeteries in Rome mostly from via Portuense and donated by the Marquisate Pellegrini-Quarantotti. These last collections (Gregorian Profane Museum, Pio Christian Museum and the Hebrew Lapidary) were transferred, under the pontificate of Pope John XXIII (1958-1963), from the Lateran Palace to their present building within the Vatican and inaugurated in 1970. After the Villa Giulia, this is the most important Etruscan collection in Rome. On April 4, 2013, the latest version of the Etruscanning 3D application was inaugurated in the Museo Gregoriano Etrusco in the Vatican Museums. The installation consists of a non-interactive film that is displayed in Room 2 where the Regolini-Galasssi objects are displayed.

The Mars of Todi Statue, Bronze. 4th century B.C. Total height of statue - 1.69 m:

Etruscan cinerary urn, Polychrome terracotta. First half of the 2nd century B.C:

Sarcophagus from the “Tomb of the Sarcophagi”, from Cerveteri,

Limestone. End of the 5th—beginning of the 4th century B.C.:

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Museo Pio Clementino:

Main hall of the Museo Pio-Clementino:

Rooms and Courts by order:

Square Vestibule and Cabinet of Apoxyomenos

Cortilio Ottagono - Octagonal Court

Hall of Animals

Gallery of Statues and the Hall of Busts

Cabinet of Masks

Hall of the Muses

Round Hall (Sala Rotonda - below)

Greek Cross Hall

Hall of the Chariot

Gallery of the Candelabra.

Cortilio Ottagono - Octagonal Court:

Arno - God of Rivers:

Laocoön and His Sons:

Pope Clement XIV founded the Pio-Clementino museum in 1771, and originally it contained the Renaissance and antique works. The museum and collection were enlarged by Clement's successor Pius VI. Today, the museum houses works of Greek and Roman sculpture. Some notable galleries are:

Greek Cross Gallery: (Sala a Croce Greca): with the porphyri sarcophagi of Constance and Saint Helen, daughter and mother of Constantine the Great:

Detail from the sarcophague of Constantine:

The Belvedere Appolo sculpture:

Sala Rotonda: shaped like a miniature Pantheon, the room has impressive ancient mosaics on the floors, and ancient statues lining the perimeter, including a gilded bronze statue of Hercules:

Bronze statue of Hercules in the Round Room:

Braschi Antinous. This colossal sculpture was found in excavations in 1792-1793 in an area presumed to have been the villa of Hadrian at Praeneste, today Palestrina:

So-called “Zeus of Otricoli”. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from the 4th century:

Gallery of the Statues (Galleria delle Statue): as its name implies, holds various important statues, including Sleeping Ariadne and the bust of Menander. It also contains the Barberini Candelabra.

Statue of Perseus:

Sleeping Ariadne:

The Hermes of the Museo Pio-Clementino, part of the Vatican collections, Rome, was long admired as the Belvedere Antinous, named from its prominent placement in the Cortile del Belvedere. It is now inventory number 907 in the Museo Pio-Clementino:

Gallery of the Busts (Galleria dei Busti): Many ancient busts are displayed.

Cabinet of the Masks (Gabinetto delle Maschere): The name comes from the mosaic on the floor of the gallery, found in Villa Adriana, which shows ancient theater masks. Along the walls, several famous statues are shown including the Three Graces.One wove the thread of life,second nurtured it, third cut it. They were created by Zeus. The name comes from the mosaic in the floor of the gallery, found in Villa Adriana, which represents several masks. Along the walls, several famous statues are shown like the Three Graces. Here is the photo of the Three Graces:

Sala delle Muse: Houses the statue group of Apollo and the nine muses, uncovered in a Roman villa near Tivoli in 1774, as well as and statues by important ancient Greek or Roman sculptors. the center piece is Belvedere Torso, revered by Michelangelo and other Renaissance men.

The Belvedere Torso:

Bust of Euripides:

Plato:

Sala degli Animali: So named because of the many ancient statues of animals.

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Borgia Apartments:

From the Stanza dell'Incendio del Borgo ("The Room of the Fire in the Borgo") there is staircase leading to the first floor to The Borgia Apartments. They are a suite of rooms in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, adapted for personal use by Pope Alexander VI (Rodrígo de Borgia) (that devilish guy played by Jeremy Irons in the Borgias TV series). In the late 15th century, he commissioned the Italian painter Bernardino di Betto (Pinturicchio) and his studio to decorate them with frescos. Recent cleaning of Pinturicchio's fresco "The Resurrection" has revealed a scene believed to be the earliest known European depiction of Native Americans, painted just two short years after Christopher Columbus returned from the New World. When the Borgia family fell out of favor after the 1503 death of Pope Alexander VI, the apartments were little used for centuries. Only in 1889 did Pope Leo XIII have the rooms restored and opened for public viewing. The works in the apartment are now considered part of the Vatican Library.

There are five rooms completed by Pinturicchio:

The Hall of the Mysteries of the Faith:

Nativity:

The Descent of the Holy Spirit:

The Hall of the Saints:

The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara:

The Visitation:

The Hall of Trivium and of Quadrivium:

The Arts of the Trivium: Music:

The Arts of the Quadrivium; Geometry:

Ceiling of Apartamenti Borgias (Borgia Apartments):

Most of the rooms are now used for the Vatican Collection of Modern Religious Art, inaugurated by Pope Paul VI in 1973. The collection includes about 600 accumulated works of painting, sculpture and graphic art; donations of contemporary Italian and foreign artists and includes works by Braque, Dalí, Chagall, Gauguin,  Kandinsky, Klee,  Lipchitz, Henry Moore, Morandi and Van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh, Pietà, after Delacroi:

Marc Chagall, White Crucifixion, 1938, Oil on canvas:

Sala Matisse:

Salvador Dali:

Francis bacon:

Vatican Library:

The Vatican Library (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana) was founded by pope Nicholas V in 1450, when it contained about 340 books. Today it is one of the world's most important libraries with more than half a million books and over 60,000 manuscripts. Some of the most valuable pieces are displayed in the Sistine Hall (Salone Sistino), a magnificent vaulted hall built in 1588 by Domenico Fontana. The eighty meter-long and fifteen meter-wide hall (appr. 260x50ft) is magnificently decorated with colorful wall and ceiling paintings.

Sistine Hall - Vatican Library:

Hall of Addresses:

Salla dei Papiri:

Frescoes in the Vatican Library:

Cortile del Belvedere:

The Cortile del Belvedere, (the Belvedere Courtyard) designed by Donato Bramante from 1506 onward, was a major architectural work of the High Renaissance.

Cortile della Pigna:

Sphere Within Sphere by Pomodoro in the Cortile della Pigna:

The Pine cone monument. Built by the Romans, this 1st century Roman bronze sculpture, called the “Pigna” (“pine cone”), was once an ancient fountain. The Pigna sculpture sits in a Vatican courtyard called the Court of the Pine Cone, and is today considered the largest pine cone statue in the world. This 1st-century Roman bronze Pigna ("pinecone") in front of the exhedra, gives the name Cortile della Pigna to the highest terrace; it was an ancient fountain.

Details of Cortile della Pigna decorated with the heraldic symbols of Pope Clement XI (three mountains and a star); (inset) coat of arms of Pope John Paul II:

(left) Fontana del Cortile del Belvedere by Carlo Maderno; (centre/right) Fontana del Vascello by Giovanni Vasanzio: