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- TRAVEL
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- Europe
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- Italian Peninsula
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- Vatican City
HOLY SEE
The independent Vatican City-State is politically separate from but surrounded by the city of Rome, Italy. The main attractions are the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and Saint Peter’s Basilica, but there are also wonderful, lesser-known experiences available in the 109-square-acre city.
For more information, read the Travel Guide: Vatican City.
- Home of the Pope
- Metro, tram, bus, and local train passes — at the train station (24-, 48-, 72-hour, 7-day passes)
- Vespas are popular forms of transportation
- Vatican City is safe, but be aware of Rome’s fast-moving traffic and pickpockets, particularly in tourist areas and public transit areas, especially Termini Station
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Basics
Know Before You Go
Italian + French + Latin
official language
Euro €
currency
5274
square feet
Vatican City
microstate
Rail
- TrenItalia‘s high-speed FRECCE trains from Rome take just under 1-1/2 hours to Florence and just over 1 hour to Naples, with service to all other major cities, like Milan and Venice. I found this “Walks of Italy” rail GUIDE to be very helpful.
- TrainLine rail app is a good resource for making reservations.
- Rail Europe is also a great source for making necessary train reservations—more travel information can be found in my post on an earlier trip: Northwestern Europe
- Our Eurail passes covered our train travel between cities and villages within our selected countries on the continent
- For local transport throughout Rome, we purchased unlimited 7-day journey passes at the train station, which includes metro, bus, tram, and local trains—information guide HERE
- Metro maps were stored on our phones for quick-reference, such as this one for Rome—get to Vatican City on Line A (toward Battistini from center), get off at Ottaviano or Cipro:
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Travel Guide: Vatican City
The world’s smallest country is also home to the Pope. However, not only Catholics make their pilgrimage to the Vatican, but people from around the world come in droves. Vatican City is a city-state politically separate from, but geographically surrounded by the city of Rome. The Vatican’s 3 main attractions Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and…