A first visit through the Vatican Museums

Begin before the Vatican Museums entrance on Viale Vaticano. How did sculptures and papal rooms become a museum? This visit follows that question from the courtyard collection through ancient bodies, a gallery of maps and Raphael's painted room, before the Sistine Chapel. After admission and security, follow the museum's signs towards the Pinecone Courtyard and Pio Clementino. Laocoön and Apollo bring you into the collecting history of Julius II. The Belvedere Torso gives you a fragment to read through its surviving movement. The Gallery of Maps and School of Athens then shift attention from collected objects to rooms painted for papal surroundings. The route crosses floors. The ancient collections are on the first floor, the upper galleries and Raphael Rooms on the second, and the Sistine Chapel on the first. Follow current signs and ask staff for the lift or route you need. Plan roughly two and a half to three and a half hours for looking, reading, walking and pauses, with entry queues additional. Prepare the chapel's three observations before entering, then put your phone away and look in silence.