20 Surprising Vatican City Facts From An Insider Guided Tour

Whether you visit it or not, you might be intrigued to walk around the Vatican city gates, all the way up to the entrance. 

When you do, take out your phone, click on this article (save it now), and read these fascinating Vatican City Facts to yourself or everyone else in your group.

These insider facts were shared with me during my guided tour of the Vatican Museums. The guide accompanying me has been studying the Vatican for most of her life, and giving tours for over 15 years.

I was so fascinated by her stories I needed to jot them down and share them with you.

4 General Facts About The Vatican & The Pope

1. Don’t visit the Vatican in April.

April, especially the week before and after Easter, is the worst time to visit the Vatican and its museums.

That’s because this period sees the highest number of visitors. It’s nearly 30k a day, because of school visits, on top of international and Italian tourists. 

PS: I visited the Vatican Museums in April, and while very busy, our visit was fine. So if you are planning a visit to Rome in April, don’t let that fact deter you from going. Just let it motivate you to book your tickets well in advance. 

2. Some of the artworks were purchased.

Not everything you see inside the Vatican Museums is the result of an excavation. Many pieces were gifted, and many others were purchased with the sole aim of curating this space.

3. There were 225 others before him.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, or Pope Francis, is the 226th successor of St. Peter.

4. The Pope Lives In A Suite.

The current pope lives in a structure called Santa Marta, which is like a hotel that caters to His Holiness, and visiting cardinals. He has his private suite. 

Sistine Chapel & Michelangelo Facts

5. No pictures are allowed inside.

This fact might surprise you if you have never been, and also anger you. Don’t let it do that. Consider your visit to the Sistine Chapel as a gift to yourself. Appreciate those moments you are inside it, and let the memories stay for you forever. And when you are back in Rome, you can visit it again.

6. Those paintings didn’t always look this way.

While the Sistine Chapel was never damaged, the old torches used to illuminate it ruined and faded the paintings. That’s the main reason for the big renovation undertaken in the 1960s, which continued until 1994. This included the Sistine Chapel Walls and Ceilings, and Michelangelo’s paintings, which started being renovated in 1985.

7. Those colors were always this bright.

Many think that the Sistine Chapel’s renovation works helped improve the original paintings by painting over them with brighter colors. That’s not what happened.

The color’s intensity was never touched. All they did was apply some solvent over the paintings to bring back the original state, which had deteriorated due to the bad lighting and air systems.

8. Michelangelo was just a kid.

When you think about the Sistine Chapel, you likely think of Michelangelo and the wonderful ceiling he painted. Yet, Michelangelo was just a kid when the Sistine Chapel started being built in 1473.  

He only started working on it 35 years later, when the Chapel was being repaired and given a new look.

Rome went through a tumultuous period, characterized by many civil conflicts, and that affected the Chapel too. Although never damaged, it got run down.

Because the Pope used it for celebrating ceremonies, he wanted to give it a new look. He also wanted this project to help lift the artistic state of the entire city of Rome, to compete with other cities like Florence.

9. Michelangelo refused the project several times.

The artist didn’t see himself as a painter but more of a sculptor. When he received the request, Michelangelo was happily busy working on many sculpture projects, including lustrous ones like the Papal Tomb. 

Even after the works on the latter were interrupted, he still didn’t accept this offer. Instead, he fled to Florence for a year.

He finally accepted to start the works because of Florence Signoria’s pressure (the city didn’t want to start a war with the Pope), plus he took it as an opportunity to show his abilities.

10. 4 Years Were Not That Long Considering This.

Michelangelo painted the entire ceiling on his own in just 4 years. Can you imagine that?

While he was given many assistants to help him with this important project, he didn’t like any of them, so he sent them away and worked on his own.

Working on the ceiling was difficult because of three main factors: 

• the steps he had to go up and down to reach the ceiling, 
• the bad lighting system, which at that time consisted of simple torches, and 
• the air circulation was awful.

11. Everyone was initially naked. 

Originally all the characters in Michelangelo’s paintings were naked, except for Mary and Joseph.

This caused so much controversy, that just 50 years from the completion of the works, another artist named Daniele da Volterra, and later known as Braghettone was commissioned to cover the nudity of Michelangelo’s paintings.

Vatican Museums Facts Beyond The Sistine Chapel

12. There are many broken statues inside the Vatican.

That is thanks to Michelangelo who encouraged the Pope to keep those ruined statues as they were, and preserve their beauty, rather than trying to restore them and actually ruining them, which is what happened for the marble statue of Lacoön and His Sons.

13. This room inside the Museums is usually closed.

There is a room called Peter’s Zoo that is only opened when the number of visitors hits a specific number. The aim is to help with the flow, by providing an extra room to spill onto. 

I was lucky to visit on one of these days, and that meant I got to appreciate the collection of animal paintings and sculptures that have been collected throughout the years.

14. This room celebrates Italy before the Unification.

There is a room called “Gallerie delle Carte Geographiche” which includes 40 artworks representing the different regions of Italy before Italy’s Unification. That’s why you’ll see maps of the duchies and the republics.

15. There’s only a small percentage of silk in them.

The arazi you can find throughout the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel, were woven with mostly wool, and just a small percentage of silk. That’s because wool was the most resistant fabric for the job.

16. Soon all Vatican Galleries will have this.

The entire museum has been in the process of being re-illuminated with new led lighting systems, to help preserve the beauty of the pieces without fading them, while still illuminating each piece in a way that exalts its characteristics. 

17. Don’t look just at the walls and the ceilings.

Visiting the Vatican Museums can feel overwhelming because there’s so much to see. Not only is it a huge museum, but it’s full of pieces that almost feel scattered without a precise position. But that curation aimed to give this very effortless look. 

That’s why it’s a good idea to visit it again next time you are in Rome. Maybe, this time you might pay attention to the stunning floors too.

One of these floors can be found in the Immaculate Hall. This floor is ancient; in fact, it comes from Antica Ostia, an ancient Roman city on the Tiber River. 

This floor is so precious, that they initially wanted to cover it, but the lack of air would have ruined it. So after weighing all the pros and cons they decided to display it, and let the visitors walk on it since that seemed to be the least damaging option.

Now that you know that, don’t miss the opportunity to admire it. Look down!

18. This room depicts a miracle.

Eliodoro’s Hall, one of Raphael’s rooms, includes an important painting called La Messa di Bolsena. The latter depicts the priest who experienced this miracle.

19. The Pope sent all the other artists away and kept just him.

Have you ever heard of the story that says the Pope fell in love so much with Raphael’s works that he sent everyone else away, and let him take charge of the works.

That’s astonishing considering that Raphael was the youngest and the latest comer to the group. Moreover, that group included very important figures at that time, such as Signorelli, Perugino, and Peruzzi. 

It’s thanks to that event, and of course, his incredible skills, that Raphael’s name rose above all the others, and made history.

20. Step out into the Pinecone Courtyard

No matter how large and never-ending those museums feel, make sure you don’t skip visiting this courtyard. It’s stunning. And so is the bronze statue called The Sphere Within The Sphere by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro. 

That’s where the statue’s nickname comes from – Pomodoro’s Golden Sphere. 

The interesting fact is this:

That statue is 4 meters wide to mirror the diameter of the arches that you can see on the buildings surrounding the courtyard. 

Read These Next

I hope this article taught you new bits about the Vatican, and made your visit even better.

If you’d like to explore more of Rome through my own experiences, check out all the other articles I wrote about the best itineraries, activities and food – Rome Lazio articles.

And if you love facts articles, read this one next – Ancient Rome Facts.