Travel and Tourism Information

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Travel - International

The Vatican City has its own small railway, which runs from the Vatican into Italy. There is a speed limit of 30kph (20mph) in the Vatican City.

Resorts & Excursions

The Vatican City is best known to tourists and students of architecture for the magnificent St Peter's Basilica. Visitors are normally admitted to the dome 1615-1800. The Museum & Treasure House is open 0845-1300 in winter and 0845-1600 during the summer months. Leading up to it is the 17th-century St Peter's Square, a superb creation by Bernini. On either side are semicircular colonnades, and in the centre of the square is an Egyptian obelisk hewn in the reign of Caligula.
It is also possible to visit the Necropoli Precostantiniana, the excavations under St Peter's, although permission has to be obtained in advance and is usually granted only to students and teachers with a professional interest in the work being carried out. Contact the Tourist Information Office in St Peter's Square. The Vatican Gardens can be visited only by those on guided tours or bus tours. Tickets are available from the Tourist Information Office in St Peter's Square; it is advisable to apply two days in advance. There is a restaurant in the museum and a bar and cafeteria on the roof of St Peter'
To the right of St Peter's stands the Vatican Palace, the Pope's residence. Among the principal features of the Palace are the Stanze, the Sistine Chapel, the Garden House or Belvedere, the Vatican Library and the Vatican Collections, containing major works of art and valuable pictures. The Museum & Treasure House includes the Collection of Antiquities, Museo Pio-Clementino, the Egyptian Museum, the Etruscan Museum and the Museum of Modern Religious Art.