How to Buy Tickets to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel

A visit to Vatican City and its museums is one of the “must-do” during your trip to Rome. However, since there are always many tourists in the Eternal City, it is better to buy tickets to the Vatican Museums in advance.

Important things to know before purchasing Vatican Museum tickets

How to Purchase the Admission Ticket at the Lowest Price

Here I describe how to buy tickets to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel online without endless queues and in a time-savvy way. The price of the ticket is 17 euro. Languages in the Vatican online office are English and Italian.

You can book your ticket on the official website www.museivaticani.va

First, you have to select the kind of ticket you want (usually “Musei e Collezioni” – Museums and Collections). If you plan to visit the Vatican Museums by yourself (without a big group tour), choose the “Singles” option. Try to plan your trip 1-2 days in advance. Moreover, if you visit Rome during the high season (May-September, Christmas holidays), there will be no slots available for your date if you don’t purchase tickets at least 1-2 weeks in advance.

Choose “Admission tickets”:

Now choose the best time appropriate for your visit. Again, the choice is huge: time slots are available every 15 minutes.

Reduced tickets info:

Also, you can pre-book the audio guide (you can even do it once you are in the museums). There are ten languages available in audio guides: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Korean, and Portuguese.

Now time to fill out a form with personal data:

The website only accepts Visa and Mastercard

Finally, you will have to accept the Conditions and insert the security code. Then, click on the “Accept the Estimate and Proceed with the Reservation” button.

Once you have completed your online purchase, you will receive two e-mails:

1. You have to confirm the payment
2. An e-mail with the voucher for your ticket to the Vatican Museums. Print the first page of each ticket you purchased or save a PDF file on your smartphone.

During the day of your visit, come on 15 minutes earlier and show your voucher at the entrance of the Vatican Museums. Once you pass through security, you have to go to the left, where you will see the “cassa” and change your voucher into an actual ticket.

Don’t forget that the Vatican Museums open its door for free on the last Sunday of every month (if it is not a religious holiday). However, it works from 9 am to 2 pm only, with the last entrance at 12.30 pm. This option is attractive just if your budget is tight, but in another case, you should better avoid such days because of a massive crowd of people. There is a chance that you will stay in a queue so long that you don’t even get in by 12.30 pm.

Some specifics about discounts for the Vatican Museums tickets:

• Everyone aged from 6 to 18 years old (including 6 y.o. and 18y.o.) pays 8 euro instead of 17 euro
• There is a 50% discount for international students (not all universities)
• Members of the clergy also pay 8 euro instead of 17 euro

Children under 6 y.o, museum directors, journalists and academics, people with disabilities, and their companions go inside for free. However, there is no discount for seniors of any age.

If you purchase a ticket at a reduced price, you will need to show proof of eligibility for the discount. And if it turns out that the evidence is not eligible, you will have to buy a new-full price ticket, while your discounted ticket will not be refunded.

You can stay inside the museums as long as you prefer, before the closing time. On average, a visit lasts from 2 to 5 hours. The basic ticket does not include the audio guide or any other tour. So that, there is another option to buy a group tour with a guide for 27 euro or to reserve a private tour at dawn for 3-4 people on our website.

• You have a chance to change the date and time of your reservation by following this link tickets.museivaticani.va/support

If you can’t visit the Vatican Museums, there is no chance to return a ticket, but in theory, you can resell or pass-on to someone your ticket because documents are checked very rarely

Vatican Museums’ collections include paintings from some of Italy’s greatest artists like Raphael, Michelangelo, and Caravaggio. Also, there is an extraordinary collection of Egyptian antiquities, including papyruses and mummies in their sarcophagi.

Many tourists visit the Vatican Museum to see only the famous Sistine Chapel without knowing what else to see there – it is a big mistake!

I urge you to read more about the Vatican Museums before attending it because there are many exciting things that you won’t see anywhere else in the world.

St. Peter’s Basilica is not included in the Vatican Museums’ ticket. It is a church, and there is no fee to go inside. It is closed on Wednesday mornings during the Papal Audience and reopens around 12-1 p.m. on that day. If you are on a group tour, there is a privileged passage directly from the Sistine Chapel to the Basilica.

Plan B – Last Minute Vatican Museums Tickets & Tours

If there are no more tickets on the official website of the Vatican Museums, you can purchase one on the website of our partners www.tiqets.com

Undoubtedly, you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to visit the Vatican Museums. It will be one of the most impressive adventures of your life.

Author: Kate Zusmann

I have lived in the Eternal City for the past 12 years. They say every angle of Rome has its history, and I'm here to tell you about the most intriguing historical facts and city legends. :)