Vatican City, an independent state since 1929 (Lateran Pacts), stands on the site of the martyrdom and burial of Saint Peter. The first Christian Emperor Constantine built a magnificent basilica in the fourth century. A.D. which it was later destroyed and rebuilt over the course of almost 120 years (from 1506 to the consecration in 1614). The project for the new church, the largest in the world with its 22,000 square meters of total area, was attended by the greatest architects of the period, including Bramante, Michelangelo and Maderno.

The Basilica of St. Peter's offers one of the most impressive experiences of architectural space that we can make. Photographs can not convey the impact on the visitor of the vastness of the building, of the splendid decorations and works of art it contains. The alternation during construction between Greek cross and a Latin cross, and the final choice of the latter, explains why one must proceed significantly along the central nave before seeing the beautiful dome of Michelangelo (136 meters high and with a diameter of 42 meters). Among the treasures of St. Peter's, the famous Pieta by Michelangelo himself, the only work signed by the artist who created it at the age of 24 years using a single block of marble, the canopy surmounting the high altar, the authentic visual focus created by Bernini with bronze taken from the Pantheon, and the bronze statue of St. Peter by Arnolfo di Cambio. It surprises the almost total absence of paintings, substituted with mosaics by the Vatican School.

St. Peter's Square, which marks the border with Italy and can hold 300,000 people, welcomes visitors with the embrace of the colonnade designed by Bernini, and is the site of important ceremonies related to the direct relationship of the Pope with the people.

The Vatican Museums and their immense wealth of art, resulting from centuries of papal collections and commissions, offer an extraordinary experience in which the relevance of the works on display is heightened by the splendor of the structures containing them, and which are often the real purpose of the visit. Do not proceed through buildings designed to allow the large numbers of contemporary visitors to see a collection of artifacts in the most functional, but you walk through the galleries and rooms of papal palaces, once for a small elite. The museums also offer a wide variety of collections that include the ancient Greek and Roman art, of which the Vatican owns the largest collection in the world, the Egyptian and Etruscan art and, of course, the great masterpieces of Renaissance art with frescoes of the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel.

The restoration of the Sistine Chapel, which lasted twenty years, and revealed the brilliance of the original colors and allows you to enjoy fully, and in detail, of the biblical episodes on time, and the Last Judgement by Michelangelo, with its almost 400 figures captured in most dramatic moment in the history of mankind. The chapel also contains the famous frescoes, work, among others, by Botticelli, Perugino and Ghirlandaio.