Prices and tickets Vatican Rome: Entrance fee to St. Peter’s, St. Peter’s Square & Vatican Museums

on 7. September 2021   /   7   /  

Prices & tickets Vatican Rome: Entrance fees to St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Peter’s Square and Vatican Museums. A visit to the Vatican is very popular with tourists in Rome. If you want to prepare well for your holiday in Rome, you should inform yourself in advance about the current admission prices for the Vatican in Rome. How high is the entrance fee to the Vatican including St. Peter’s Square, St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, you will learn in this article!

Prices & Tickets Vatican Rome: Entrance fees to St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Peter’s Square and Vatican Museum

The Vatican, also called Vatican City has many special features. It is not only the smallest state in the world, it is also considered the state with the fewest inhabitants worldwide.

Pope's visit Rome

It is also very unusual that the pope is the head of state and the official language is Latin. I practised Latin in school for 4 years, but even with the big Latinum in my pocket, I would certainly have communication problems 🙂

Prices & Tickets Vatican Rome: How much is the entrance fee to the Vatican?

The Vatican is located on the Vatican Hill in Rome, the highest point in the Italian capital. In the Vatican City, Rome visitors can visit St. Peter’s Square with St. Peter’s Basilica (including the dome, treasury, grottos and necropolis), the Vatican Museums, the Apostolic Palace and the Vatican Gardens. The gardens of the Vatican occupy most of the 0.44 square kilometer area of ​​the Vatican City.

View over the St. Peter's Square from dome of Basilica

In addition to the public areas just mentioned in the Vatican, there are other parts that have restricted access. These include the office of the papal household, the main post office and the pharmacy, the mosaic studio of the factory of St. Peter’s, the audience hall and the Campo Santo Teutonico, the German cemetery in the Vatican. The rest of the Vatican is closed to the public. The Vatican also has other extraterritorial infrastructures in Rome, in Castel Gandolfo and the rest of Italy. These are mainly the pope basilicas, hospitals and universities as well as the summer residence.

ROME_Piazza-St_Peter's_Basilica_sunset_l

The largest attraction in the Roman Vatican is probably St. Peter’s Basilica. It is considered one of the largest churches of Christianity. When I first visited St. Peter’s Basilica, I was deeply impressed by its imposing size. It has room for 20,000 people and has been repeatedly modified by various architects for a long time, until it was finally completed under Bernini (1598-1680).


1. Prices & tickets Vatican Rome: Admission fee for St. Peter’s Square in Rome

St. Peter’s Square is open 24 hours a day and admission to St. Peter’s Square in Rome is free. However, due to various events or ceremonies, access may be limited. For example, during the papal audiences on Wednesday mornings, a large part of St. Peter’s Square is closed and you have to pass a security check like at an airport. Security checks for access to St. Peter’s Square are also available on Sunday mornings for the Pope’s Angelus prayer. You can take drinks and umbrellas without problems, but pocket knives or other sharp objects are not allowed.

Dome of St. Peter's

If you want to enjoy a beautiful view of Rome, you can climb up into the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. More information can be found in my article “The best viewpoints in Rome”. St. Peter’s Dome is open from 8am to 6pm every day from April to September, and from 8am to 5pm from October to March.

St. Peter's in Rome

The caves of St. Peter’s Basilica are open from April to September every day from 8am to 6pm, from October to March from 8am to 5pm. However, the grottos are closed to the public when they host fairs. Therefore, the caves are generally closed to the public in the morning before 9 or 10 am. Access to the caves, as well as to the treasury and the sacristy can be found directly in St. Peter’s Basilica.


2. Entrance fee St. Peter’s Basilica: How high is the admission fee to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome?

The entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is free, as in all other churches in Rome. So you do not need a ticket for access to St. Peter’s Basilica.

Entrance fee St. Peter’s Basilica at a glance:

Entry fee VaticanChildrenAdolescentsAdults
St. Peter's Basilicafreefreefree
St. Peter's Basilica preferred entry with Audioguide Appfree14,50 Euro19,50 Euro
Dome of St. Peter's Basilica with elevator (320 steps)10 Euro (from 1 meter in size)10 Euro10 Euro
Dome of St. Peter's Basilica on foot (551 steps + 320 steps)8 Euro (from 1 meter in size)8 Euro8 Euro

Visits to the Vatican Grottoes are free, while for the Vatican necropolis you can book tours lasting 2.5 hours. Young people under the age of 15 are not admitted to the necropolis. The mosaic studio can only be visited as part of a guided tour.

ROME_St_Peter's_Basilica_waiting_line_l

In order to avoid the often very long waiting times at the security check of the St. Peter’s Basilica, you can book the preferred entrance “Skip the line”. This service includes an app that guides you through St. Peter’s Basilica.

Entrance fee Vatican: How high is the admission to the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome?

You have to pay for the ascent to the dome in St. Peter’s Basilica. For adults, the tickets cost 10 euros if you want to go up byelevator and 8 euros by foot. As you can see from the table, you have to master a few steps to enjoy the magnificent view of Rome. For people with claustrophobia and people with less endurance and breath, a visit to the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica is not recommended. On pictures in another article you can see how narrow the ascent to the dome of St. Peter’s is.

Visit the Dome of St. Peter's Basilica Rome

Incidentally, the dome of St. Peter’s was designed by Michelangelo. It is double-shelled and is considered the largest self-supporting brick building in the world. Not bad, right? If you climb the dome, the path in the upper section runs between the two bowls of the dome.

Opening hours St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome: When can I visit St. Peter’s Basilica?

St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is open from 7am to 7pm from April to September and from 7am to 6:30pm from October to March. You can visit the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica from 8am to 6pm from April to September and from 8am to 5pm from October to March. During the ceremonies, access to the dome is prohibited.

How to get to St. Peter’s Basilica: How to get to St. Peter’s Basilica?

St. Peter’s Basilica can be reached by metro line A from the stop “Ottaviano”. Take tram number 19 to the final stop “Piazza Risorgimento”.

ROME_St_Peter's_Basilica_exit_l

There is also a very good bus service, line 64. It runs from Termini Station to the Vatican and through the center with stops at Piazza Venezia, at Torre Argentina, between Piazza Navona and Campo de ‘Fiori. Bus 64 runs every few minutes. This popular tourists line is unfortunately also attractive for pickpockets. You should be particularly careful when entering and exiting, as well as in the bus itself and carrying valuables on your body and not in your backpack.


3. Entrance fee Vatican Museums: What is the entrance fee for the Vatican Museums?

In addition to St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square in Rome, the Vatican Museums are a popular destination for Rome tourists. They offer a huge collection of art and architecture. For a long time the museums were reserved for popes’ art collections and solely for them and their followers.

Exit Vatican Museums

The Vatican Museums today comprise 11 different museums with 5 galleries and 1400 exhibition halls. For more information about the Vatican Museums (for example admission to the Vatican Museums and their opening hours), check out this article: Vatican Museums in Rome: Tickets, guided tours, admission and opening hours.

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7 Reader Comments

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  1. Vangjel says:

    Hi, we are a family 5 persons and like to visit Vatikan. Is enything you can help us with,. Thank you

  2. sue says:

    Looking for group rates for September 2023

    • Solene HelpTourists says:

      Hey Sue,

      wich site exactly do you want to visit ? The church or the museums? It’s still possible that the vatican makes some small changes with the fee, we can’t say now for sure how is it going to be.

      Have a nice day !
      Solène

  3. Jacqueline A. says:

    Thank you for the explicit information. 🙂

  4. Melissa says:

    Very helpful for our first trip to Rome. We are visiting the Vatican today and you have helped to Male this as stress free as possible x

  5. Jill says:

    Very helpful. Many thanks.

  6. Mukesh says:

    I dont need to read any other blog after reading this fantastically explained blog.Thanks a lot.

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