The world’s smallest nation has some astonishing sights

Seven wonders of Vatican City

The world’s smallest nation has an outsized history as the seat of the Catholic Church, and an astonishing collection of artistic and architectural masterpieces. See museivaticani.va

1 Treasure hunt in the Vatican Museums

The ornate ceiling of the Gallery of Maps.Credit: Alamy

Twenty-six museums and seven kilometres of galleries and corridors make up the Vatican collection, so everyone will find their favourites amid the sculpture, paintings and tapestries. Crowds are dense in the Raphael Rooms, but tour groups usually skip the Pinacoteca, which has works by Bernini, da Vinci and Raphael. Travellers will surely love the Gallery of Maps, a 120-metre showcase of imaginative 16th-century cartography in fabulous blues and greens, topped by one of the world’s most ornate ceilings.

2 Flee crowds into the ancient past

Escape the crowds at the Gregorian Egyptian Museum.Credit: Alamy

Two overlooked museums will get you away from the tourist tumult while still providing treasures from a time long before popes. The Gregorian Egyptian Museum has remarkable sculptures and figures in bronze and clay – kids will love the mummified humans and cats. Meanwhile, the Etruscan Museum has 2700-year old vases, jewellery, silver vessels and bronzes. Don’t miss the vase showing Greek heroes Achilles and Ajax playing dice, a masterpiece you might well enjoy all to yourself.

3 Ponder life in St Peter’s Basilica

Looking over the Tiber River to St Peter’s Basilica at sunset.Credit: iStock

The sheer size of this basilica and its piazza make you feel like a Lilliputian: columns rise like skyscrapers, and the dome is gigantic. Just as gobsmacking is the art inside, including Michelangelo’s incredible Pieta sculpture. Everything is designed to awe and intimidate, but the embalmed, 17th-century corpse of Innocent XI laid out for all to see in red slippers, plus the plain tombs of the popes in the crypt, are a reminder that all is vanity.

4 Crick your neck in the Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo’s “Last Judgement”.Credit: Alamy

While many visitors stand in the middle of the chapel’s floor, your neck will be less challenged and the view better from the eastern end, from which you get the full impact of Michelangelo’s Last Judgement on the opposite wall, and his Creation-depicting frescoes on the ceiling. The blue, aquarium-like luminosity is stunning. Bring binoculars for the detail. Don’t ignore the south and north walls, daubed by top Renaissance artists such as Botticelli and Perugino.

5 Get some fresh air in the gardens

The Vatican gardens, seen from St Peter’s Basilica.Credit: iStock

A fraction of Vatican visitors see the manicured gardens that are glimpsed from museum windows. Gardens in the Italian, French and English styles are graced with flowerbeds, statuary and structures such as Renaissance terraces, fountains (one with resident turtles), Roman ruins and a grotto. Most people take the open-bus tour which however doesn’t allow you to alight, so consider the two-hour, summer Saturdays guided tour for families, which includes a treasure hunt and other child-oriented experiences.

6 Clamber around Castel Sant’Angelo

The fortress known as Castel Sant’Angelo.Credit: iStock

Roman emperor Hadrian’s mausoleum, later converted into a chunky papal fortress with a distinctive round keep, rises beside the Tiber River and is best viewed from Ponte Sant’Angelo bridge in the early morning. Although technically just beyond the Vatican’s border, the seven-storey fortress is intimately connected to papal history. You can see the Renaissance-era apartments of the notorious Borgias and several floors of sculpture, painting, ceramics and weaponry. Its terrace has fabulous views over Rome.

7 Spot the pope

Pope Francis delivers a Christmas message from the balcony of St Peter’s.Credit: iStock

Even if you aren’t Catholic, take the chance to see one of the world’s most influential people. You’ll catch Pope Francis at the window of the Vatican Palace every Sunday at noon, when he mumbles into a microphone in multiple languages and blesses the crowd. He also holds audiences at around 10.30pm in St Peter’s Square (or in Aula Paolo Sesto during winter) and attends masses on special occasions such as Easter and Christmas, for which you’ll need free tickets in advance.

The writer has visited Rome courtesy of Insight Vacations, several cruise lines and at his own expense.