Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel & St Peter Early Entry Small Group

With 20,000 works are on display, the Vatican Museums display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of the most well-known Roman sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world.

Founded in 1771 Clement XIV and enlarged by his successor Pius VI, Pio-Clementino Museum houses works of Greek and Roman sculpture.

Commissioned in 1580 by Pope Gregory XIII, Gallery of the Maps contains a series of painted topographical maps of Italy based on drawings by friar and geographer Ignazio Danti.

Built between 1473 and 1481, the Sistine Chapel it is the site of the papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected. The fame of the Sistine Chapel lies mainly in the frescoes that decorate the interior, most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment, both by Michelangelo.

The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter is a church of the Italian High Renaissance. It was initially planned in the 15th century by Pope Nicholas V and then Pope Julius II to replace the ageing Old St. Peter's Basilica, which was built in the fourth century by Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Construction of the present basilica began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626. Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, and Carlo Maderno, with piazza and fittings by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St. Peter's is one of the most renowned works of Italian Renaissance architecture and is the largest church in the world by interior measure. St. Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines.