Visiting The Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel With Kids

After visiting The Colosseum during our trip to Rome, the next place we wanted to tick off our Rome bucket list was Vatican City. There’s no way we could miss seeing St Peter’s Square and The Sistine Chapel within the smallest country in the world! We’re not Catholic and my husband is a straight up Atheist but we encourage the children to respect all religions so we were keen to explore what Vatican City had to offer.

Location and Getting There

There are two different metro stations close to Vatican City and both are on the A line. Cipro is closest for the Vatican Museums whereas Ottovania is closer to Piazza San Pietro (St Peter’s Square). We arrived from Roma Termini and decided to alight at Ottovania rather than the next stop Cipro. We had allowed plenty time before our booking at the Museums so we wanted to explore the area first. It’s a pretty straight road to St Peter’s Square so very easy to find, and both the piazza and the museums were well signposted. It was an approximate ten minute walk from Ottovania train station to St Peter’s Square and then another ten minutes from there to the museums.

Booking The Vatican Museums

As with the Colosseum, we had read about the huge queues that can gather at the Vatican Museums. We therefore decided to book online a couple of days before we planned to visit. Unfortunately the date we wanted had sold out on the official ticket website, so we instead booked through Tiqets. It worked out more expensive to book through Tiqets (around €5 per person) but they had plenty of times available. We got the Tiqets app and the tickets were downloaded onto there so the whole process was really simple.

It was free for under 6s so our youngest went for free. There’s also discounted rates for under 18s. Prices start at €17 for adults and €8 for 6-18 year olds if you don’t want to prebook and our happy to join the queue. However with three kids, this really didn’t appeal to us! It’s an extra €4 per person to book ahead on the official website.

Vatican City : Our experience

The beauty of St Peter’s Square cannot be underestimated. The famous obelisk, the fountains and St Peter’s Basilica are so instantly recognisable there’s a sense of familiarity about them. It’s a similar sensation to how I felt when I stood in front of the Statue of Liberty for the first time, or The Rialto Bridge. They’re so familiar and yet you don’t realise until you’re up close to them just how impressive and awe-inspiring they are. The exquisite detail that perhaps goes unnoticed in photographs or videos instantly becomes apparent when you’re looking right at it.

It was 34°c when we visited and the majority of the piazza is completely exposed to the sun. We had some time to kill before our visit to the museums (but not long enough to join the enormous queue for the basilica!) so we found some shade and sat in the gaps between the columns. It allowed the kids to rest their legs while we sat and had a drink.

After refuelling we followed the signposts to the Vatican Museums. As we had prebooked we walked through the separate entrance and collected our tickets. We booked for the last entry of the day, 3:30pm and while it was busy, it wasn’t unbearably so. The building had air-conditioning which was more than welcome!

If St Peter’s Square is beautiful, the Vatican museum is just something else! The outdoor areas are beautifully maintained as you’d expect and you can’t help but feel the significance of where you are.

I’m not artistic or creative in the slightest. I could walk around Art Museums twiddling my thumbs. However even I was taken aback by the the artwork on the interior walls and ceilings. The intricate details in each room were astonishing.

I wasn’t sure what to expect within the museum and we booked it predominantly for the access to the Sistine Chapel. However the museums are so much more than the grandeur that immediately meets the eye. The Ancient Egpyt collection was fascinating and our eldest delighted in reading about the many artefacts.

I was concerned the children would be bored as the younger two in particular didn’t understand the significance of where we were. However there was so much to see that we managed to find plenty to point out to them and they only started to become restless towards the end when the majority of the rooms contained more artwork than artefacts.

We arrived at the Sistine Chapel towards the end of our visit and obviously weren’t permitted to take photographs. There is a dress code in place considering the religious nature of the chapel. They ask for knees and shoulders to be covered so I ensured we were all dressed appropriately. However there were many who either were oblivious to the dress code or simply disregarded it completely. There were plenty of visitors in shorts and sleeveless tops. I even saw one lady wearing a crop top and mini skirt so the rule obviously isn’t strictly adhered to.

The Sistine Chapel was just mesmerising. We admired Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam and pointed the famous painting out to the kids (who were pretty underwhelmed!)

Vatican City Summary

Beautiful, exquisite, grand. I ran out of superlatives to describe Vatican City. The museums were interesting and the kids particularly enjoyed the physical aspects such as the sculptures, statues and carvings. The Sistine Chapel was an absolute must do for us and we can now tick that off the bucket list! All in all it was a really successful trip. We found as long as we were mindful to balance what we wanted to do with the children’s enjoyment of it all, it worked out well. Let’s face it if the kids aren’t having fun, none of us are!