Download the Vatican Museum Map for self guided tour of the Vatican
Vatican Museum Map
Use the Vatican museum map below and the Vatican museum walking tour attractions to the visit both the Vatican museum and Vatican City. A complete map guide to Vatican museums, galleries and chapels. Follow the walking route to the explore Vatican Museum in Vatican City at your own place and spend a few hours or a full day. Click on the arrow icon to the left of the title to display the legend. Click on the Vatican Museum map pins (red and green pins) on the interactive Vatican museum map below, or on the legend or the PDF Vatican map that you download for additional information including images of the attraction
Accompanying attractions guide to to the Vatican Museum Map is HERE
To download the Vatican Museum Map in PDF map click HERE
Click on image of map for Vatican Museum Attractions Guide
Vatican museum Entry Tickets:
The lineups can be very long, I recommend you purchase tickets in advance. There are a variety of packages and combinations (with Sistine Chapel and / or St Peters Basilica) that can be purchased online. The best is to purchase a skip the line tickets. Book online here options include combo entrance tickets (some with guided tours), select the one that best suits you. If you want entry tickets and tours of attractions nearby, several options are available here to book in advance.
On the Vatican museum walking Map:
- Green Pins and Purple walking route are for the main floor of the museum
- Orange Pin and Orange Walking route are for the upper floor of the museum
Vatican City Self Guided Tour
How to Visit the Vatican museum using the google map: Main Floor
1. After you enter the Vatican Museum, at the top of the escalator, turn RIGHT instead of left (don’t follow the crowd towards the left) to go the Vatican Pinacoteca – Gallery of the Old Masters. You will pass through the Pinacoteca Courtyard and a small cafe. The main floor walking tour is highlighted in purple on the interactive Vatican museum map above
2. When you are done at the Pinacoteca:
– 2a. If you are able to exit from the Pinacoteca museum building to the adjoining Four Square Garden outside (Giardino Quadrato) you can visit the Carriage Museum. The access to the Carriage Museum (Museo Storico – Padiglione delle Carrozze) is a set of stairs. It is in a large room under the courtyard in the corner of the Four Square Garden. If you cannot access the Four Square Courtyard from here, another route to the Carriage Museum is outlined in step 9a OR
– 2b. From the Pinacoteca , go back to the intersection and pass the Atrium of the Four Gates (Quattro Cancelli) to the 18th century Simonetti Staircase to enter the Egyptian Museum. Along the way you will see signs for “Percorsco Completo” and it will take you to the Pio-Clementine Museum (and the Egyptian Museum is close to the Pio-Clementine Museum). An outline of this Vatican museum image is on the map of this self guided walking route above, just click on the Pio-Clementine Museum map pin
3. Egyptian Museum. Enter and explore the Egyptian Museum, you can also access the Chiaramonte and Braccio Museum from here
– 3a. At the end of the Egyptian Museum the stairs on your right going down will take you to the Chiaramonte Museum (if you go left it will take you into the hall of statues of Pio-Clementine Museum and to Bramante Staircase). Take the stairs to your right to go down to the Museum Chiaramonti (long corridor on the east side of the Belvedere Palace) and into the Braccio Nuovo (New Wing) to the right
– 3b. You can access the Pinecone Courtyard after visiting the Egyptian Museum or the Pio-Clementine Museum.. Refer to step 6 for information on the Pinecone Courtyard
4. Once you are done in this area, head back up the corridor to the entrance of the Pio-Clementine Museum (Vatican Museum map image of this route is in the above map, just click on the map pin)
How to Visit Vatican Museum: use the google map of the Pio-Clementine Museum
5. Enter the Pio-Clementine Museum. It consists of several rooms, listed in no particular order:
– the Sarcophagus room – two red sarcophagus of the Emperor Constantine’s daughter Constantia and his mother St Helena
– Sala Rotunda – Round room with a huge red bathtub made from a single stone, Porphyry Basin (Porphyry is a type of rock)
– gallery of Muse; busts of many roman figures (including the Belvedere Torso)
– gallery of Animals; sculptures of real and mythological animals
– gallery of statues
– Octagonal Square – two important statues. Statue of “Belvedere’s Apollo” and “Laocoonte” , before entering the courtyard you will see the statue of the athlete Apoxymenos
– Bramante Staircase (may be closed)
6. From the Pio-Clementino Museum head outside to the Pinecone Courtyard (Pigna). There is a small outdoor cafe; I would stop and enjoy the overpriced coffee in the courtyard and take a break as you may be overwhelmed by this time. Two sculptures worth noting in the courtyard are the bronze Pinecone fountain and the Globe in the center of the courtyard. The next set of Vatican museum attractions are on the upper floor. The walking tour is highlighted in red on the Vatican museum map
7. When you are done, head inside towards the Simonetti Staircase next to the Egyptian museum. Take the stairs up to the second floor to explore the Upper Galleries, Museums and the former Pope’s living Quarters ie: Raphael Rooms and Borgia Apartments
How to visit Vatican: Upper Floor using the Vatican museum map of attractions
8. At the top of the stairs is the Etruscan Museum
9a. Detour – To the Carriage Museum (if you did not to visit it in step 2a). From the outdoor patio, you can access the gardens downstairs via a set of stairs to your right. You will exit into a courtyard and head straight to the Four Square Garden (Giardino Quadrato). The access to the Carriage Museum (Museo Storico – Padiglione delle Carrozze) is a set of stairs going down in the corner of the Four Square Garden. When you are done, head back to gallery of maps. You can follow the sign posts “Padiglione delle Carrozze”
10. Head back to the View point, ie: back into the hallway at the end of the Gallery of Maps. Next, we will follow the walking route of the Vatican museum map to go to the Raphael Rooms, the Borgia Apartments, the Sistine Chapel and into St. Peter’s Basilica
11. At the end of the Gallery of Maps is a detour to the Raphael Rooms (do not head to the Sistine Chapel which is downstairs). Use the walking tour route on the Vatican museum map to go to the Raphael Rooms; the first room you will come upon is Room IV. You need to keep going until Room I which is at the end of the hallway. Start at Raphael Room I
How to Visit Vatican using the Vatican Museum Map: Raphael Rooms, Borgia Apartments and Sistine Chapel
12. After Viewing Rooms I to IV, at the back of the Raphael rooms (Room IV) there is a staircase going down to the Borgia Apartments. The apartments are downstairs of the Raphael rooms and near the entrance of the Sistine Chapel
13. After viewing the Borgia Apartments make your way to the Sistine Chapel
14. After exploring the Sistine Chapel you have two choices:
– take the door to the right to go to St Peters Basilica (this is reserved for tour groups only however you can tag along with a group and exit the museum to the Basilica). Going to the Basilica using this route will save you about a 15 min walk back to exit the museum plus a 20 min walk to the Basilica from the Museum plus a security lineup to get into the Basilica OR
– If you rented audio to be returned or need to pick up your personal belongings left at the front, you will have to go back the way you came towards the entrance of the museum. Once you exit Vatican City and the museum, you can stop for a snack and continue onto to St Peters Basilica or go on the St. Basilica tour another day
Other Sites in Italy
- Visit the Roman Colosseum. Click on the Roman Colosseum attractions map HERE and accompanying Colosseum attractions guide HERE
- Take the Rome attractions map and self guided tour: It includes the Vatican City attractions map HERE and the Vatican attractions guide HERE
- Self Guided Walking tour to explore the neighborhood of Trastevere with map of attractions HERE and guide of attractions HERE
- Visit St Peters Basilica. Explore all the attractions in St Peter’s Basilica with the attractions guide HERE
- One of my favorite places is the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The map of attractions is HERE and the self guided walking tour is HERE
- Self Guided Walking Tours – Day Trips from Rome
Instructions to download the interactive map to a smart phone:
Take the Map with you when you travel:
Instructions on:
- Using it offline
- Using it online – We bring one of our older smart phones when we travel and buy a local SIM card. You can purchase a local tourist SIM card from one of the main local providers, they are usually pretty inexpensive. You may need your passport to purchase as its a tourist SIM if you are an international tourist. You should have them put it in your old smartphone and check that it works before leaving the store. Use it to follow the map online, its the best way to explore
Sign into google using your Gmail account on your smart phone and be connected to the internet. If you do not sign in, this process will not work. You will be downloading this map to save it. You will be saving it in google maps in two places:
- Save in “Your Places” for online use and
- Save in “Offline map” for offline use
- Youtube instructions on link as follows:
https://youtu.be/_6j9koieMsU
Instructions to save above map:
- Click on the rectangle on the top right hand side of the above map [ ] – if you move your mouse to it, it will say “view larger map”
- It will take you into google maps on your smartphone and it will automatically save this map. You must be already be signed into google maps with your Gmail account, if you are not signed into google maps then the map will not be saved
- In google maps, click on the menu which is the three horizontal lines on the top left of the google map (it is to the left of the search box)
- From the menu, click on “Your Places”. This will take you to another screen with a menu at the top. From the top menu bar select “maps”. A list of your maps will be displayed including the map that was just saved. Select the map you just saved
- Make sure the map is still onscreen; do not close out of it as you will be downloading this map and it has to be onscreen to download. While the map is onscreen, click on menu again (three horizontal lines top left hand corner)
- Select “Offline maps” then select “custom map”
- Once you select “custom map”, the onscreen map will be displayed; select the area you want downloaded (zoom in or out to get all the data points into the blue square outline; pinch fingers for zooming)
- Click on “download” – this will save the map in an offline area that you can use when you are not connected to the internet
The map is now saved in two places. To see this, click on the menu (three horizontal line on top right hand corner) in google maps:
- Click on “Your Places” from the menu, then select “Custom Map”. The map will be listed and you can use the map while connected to the internet
- Click on “Offline Maps” from the menu. The map will be listed to use the map offline ie: not connected to the internet (make sure location services is turned on and your will see the blue dot indicating your location as you navigate with the offline map)
- After you download a map, use the Google Maps app just like you normally would. If your Internet connection is slow or absent, or if you are in “airplane mode” Google Maps will automatically use your offline maps to give you directions