The Vatican Museums are a group of art museums and Christian museums located within the walls of the Vatican City. The collections of the Vatican Museums consist of over 70,000 paintings and sculptures, exhibited in over 54 galleries, one of the most impressive collections of Renaissance art in the world. The museums house a number of classical sculptures, tapestries and paintings by great Renaissance artists such as Raphael, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Bernini and Leonardo da Vinci. The Vatican Museums also present a collection of Modern Religious Art with paintings and sculptures by artists such as Carlo Carrà, Vincent van Gogh, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Gauguin, Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso.

The Raphael Rooms: The Raphael Rooms are a group of rooms located in the portion open to the public of the Vatican Palace and are famous for the frescoes painted by Raphael inside them, one of the most important Renaissance works in Rome. The rooms that make up the Raphael Rooms include the Constantine Room, the Heliodorus Room, the Segnatura Room and the Borgo Fire Room. A visit to the Vatican cannot be complete without a tour of Raphael’s rooms.

Galleria Delle Carte Geografiche: The Galleria delle Carte Geografiche is a 120-meter-long gallery of the Vatican Museums, covered with maps of Italy painted and created by the friar and geographer Ignazio Danti. It took Danti 3 years to complete the 40 panels that make up the Gallery of Geographical Maps, currently regarded as the largest pictorial geographic studio in the world.

Spiral staircase: The spiral staircase of the Vatican Museums is inspired by the famous double helix staircase by Bramante at the Pio-Clementino Museum. Also known as the Spiral Staircase, this structure was designed by the Italian architect Giuseppe Momo in 1932. Like the original, the staircase consists of two separate ramps that allow you to go up and down without the two flows of crowds crossing each other along the way. . The main purpose of the project was to allow uninterrupted passage in every direction. A guided tour of the Vatican Museums will inform you about the history of this and other architectural elements.

Gallery of Statues and Hall of Busts: One of the 54 galleries of the Pio-Clementino Museum of the Vatican Museums, the Gallery of Statues and the Hall of Busts, houses numerous Greek and Roman sculptures. Originally this space was covered with frescoes depicting landscapes and cities, while the images of Cupids painted by Pinturicchio decorated the most isolated corners of the walls. The gallery exhibits works such as the Sleeping Ariadne, the bust of Menander and the Barberini candelabrum.

Gregorian Etruscan and Egyptian Museum: The Gregorian Etruscan Museum was founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836 and has 8 galleries dedicated to Etruscan antiques and artifacts found in important centers of ancient Etruria. The historical finds of the Etruscan Museum include vases, bronzes, sarcophagi and the famous collection of the Guglielmi di Vulci marquises. The Egyptian Museum houses a large collection of artifacts from ancient Egypt – papyrus, mummified animals, the Grassi collection and reproductions of the Book of the Dead.

The Round Room: The Round Room was built in the 18th century inspired by the geometry of the ancient Pantheon. The Round Room is lined with colossal statues and busts, while the floor is decorated with intricate mosaics.