Buy from one place only. The museums sell tickets online at tickets.museivaticani.va and at the ticket office in the entrance hall on Viale Vaticano. Their own notice says this is the only official site for buying tickets online, and warns about scams and sites using domains similar to the official one, which may charge significantly higher prices. Look at the address bar before you pay. Tickets are non-refundable and valid only on the day they're issued.
The full ticket: €20 at the door, €25 online. It covers the whole museum route and the Sistine Chapel. Booking online adds a €5 fee, which the museums call 'Skip the Line': you arrive with your ticket instead of queuing to buy one at the office. Everyone, booked or not, still goes through the metal detector. Buying at the door saves €5 but means queuing for the ticket office. For most visitors, the €5 is worth paying.
Reduced tickets: €10, or €15 online. For children aged 7 to 18, for students up to and including 25 with a document from their school or university confirming enrolment for the current year, and for priests, religious, seminarians and novices with documents. Bring the proof: if you can't show it, you have to buy a new full-price ticket, and the reduced one is cancelled. Schools and seminary groups pay €5, and there are separate rates for pilgrim and university groups. Children under 7 go free.
Free entry. Visitors with a certified disability of at least 67%, and a companion if they aren't self-sufficient, go free and skip the queue. These tickets can't be booked online; they're issued at the 'Special Permits' or welcome desks in the entrance hall. ICOM and ICOMOS card holders also go free.
Guided tours, the Gardens and the extras. The same official portal sells the museums' own guided tours, visits to the Vatican Gardens (including an open-bus tour with an audio guide), the Necropolis of the Via Triumphalis, and packages that add breakfast, happy hour or lunch in the museum restaurants. Their prices are shown on the portal when you choose a date. For independent small-group tours, see the best tours in Rome. The museums' published hours for 2026-27 list no evening openings. If you want commentary without a group, the museums' own audio guide handset costs €8 to hire at the entrance turnstiles or with your booking, and the new official app, Musei Vaticani Official, is also €8 on your own phone; both have more than 400 commentaries in 12 languages.
How far ahead to book. The museums don't publish a fixed release date for tickets. Book as soon as your dates are fixed, to get the day and time you want; the ticket is valid only on that day.
Opening hours. Monday to Saturday, 8am to 8pm, with final entry at 6pm. Visitors are asked to leave the halls 30 minutes before closing. On the last Sunday of the month they open 9am to 2pm, free, with final entry at 12.30pm. On 24 and 31 December they close early: 8am to 3pm, final entry 1pm.
Closing days. Every Sunday except the last one of the month. The museums also close on holy days. Their official calendar lists 8, 25 and 26 December 2026, and for 2027: 1 and 6 January, 11 February, 19 and 29 March (Easter Monday), 1 May, 29 June, 14 and 16 August, 1 November, and 8 and 25 December. There's no free Sunday in March 2027, because the last Sunday is Easter Sunday. Some sectors close early on particular days: the Sistine Chapel closes at 6pm on 4 and 18 December 2026 (last entry 5.30pm), and the whole museum opens at 9am instead of 8am on 10 November 2026. Check the museums' 'Days & Hours of closure' page before you book.
Free last Sundays. Entry is free on the last Sunday of every month, unless it falls on Easter Sunday, 29 June (Saints Peter and Paul), or 25, 26 or 31 December. The next ones are 29 November 2026, 27 December 2026, 31 January 2027 and 28 February 2027. It's free and open for only five hours, so expect it to be at its busiest. If saving €20 isn't the point, pay and go on a weekday.
Dress code. Entry to the museums, the Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Gardens is only for visitors 'appropriately dressed': no sleeveless or low-cut tops, no shorts above the knee, no miniskirts and no hats. The rule also covers visible items or tattoos that could offend. Carry a scarf or light layer in summer.
Bags and security. Everyone goes through a metal detector. Large bags, rucksacks, suitcases, medium and large umbrellas, tripods, video cameras and any knives, scissors or metal tools must go in the cloakroom, which is free and sits just after security. Alcohol has to be checked in too. You can't eat or drink in the galleries, but there are cafés, a self-service restaurant and a pizzeria along the route. If you plan to walk on to St Peter's, travel light: the museums tell visitors continuing to the basilica not to leave bags in the cloakroom.
The Sistine Chapel rules. No photos and no filming with any device, and no phones. The chapel asks for absolute silence, so guided groups get their explanation before they go in, from touch screens and panels in the Courtyard of the Pinecone. Guards can make you delete photos on the spot. Elsewhere in the museums, photos for personal use are allowed, but not with flash, tripods or selfie sticks. Michelangelo's Last Judgement was cleaned between 1 February and 27 March 2026, removing a whitish film that had dulled the colours, and the chapel stayed open throughout.
