Be In Awe Of The Sistine Chapel
Ticked off in February 2015
Crane your neck at the ceiling Michelangelo spent four years painting, one of the most famous artworks on Earth.
The adventure
You reach it at the end of a long walk through the Vatican Museums, past galleries of maps, tapestries and the Raphael Rooms, and then through a small, unassuming door. The chapel itself is a simple rectangular box, but every surface is painted, and the room hums with hushed voices as guards call for silence.
Overhead, Michelangelo's ceiling unfolds across the vault: the Creation of Adam, the Flood, the prophets and sibyls, more than 300 figures painted on wet plaster from scaffolding high above the floor. On the altar wall, The Last Judgement swirls with bodies rising to heaven and tumbling towards hell. This is also where the cardinals lock themselves in to elect each new pope, which makes standing there feel stranger still.
Why it’s epic
- Michelangelo painted the ceiling between 1508 and 1512, and The Last Judgement between 1536 and 1541.
- The ceiling holds more than 300 figures, including the Creation of Adam.
- Before Michelangelo, the walls were frescoed by Botticelli, Perugino and Ghirlandaio.
- It's still used for papal conclaves, most recently in May 2025.
What it is
The Sistine Chapel has Michelangelo's ceiling frescoes and The Last Judgement.
How to do it
Book Vatican Museums tickets online, ideally for the first slot or an early-access tour.
Top tip
Photography isn't allowed inside the chapel.
Need to know
- The Vatican Museums close on Sundays except the last Sunday of the month, when entry is free and very crowded.
- Shoulders and knees must be covered, and photography is banned inside the chapel.
- Book timed tickets online well ahead; early-entry tours get you in before most of the crowds.
Plan this trip
- Rough cost
- £750 to £2,000 per person, including flights from the UK
- Time needed
- Half a day
- Best time to go
- October to April
- Fly into
- FCO airport
Flights and a Rome hotel are the main costs; guided or early-access tours add to the ticket price.
Do it yourself
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How I ticked it off
In February 2015 I went on a long weekend to Rome, and the Sistine Chapel was right at the top of my list. The Colosseum on the Friday, then on the Saturday it was over the border into the Vatican for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Vatican City is a country in its own right, so I got to tick off another country while I was at it. Two birds, one stone.
I booked the tickets well in advance, and I'd tell anyone to do the same. It's one of the most visited places in the world, and on a short weekend you don't want to spend half a day of it in a queue.
You work your way through what feels like miles of the Vatican Museums first: corridors of statues, tapestries and painted ceilings that would be the main event anywhere else. Then you walk into the Sistine Chapel and look up, and that's it. Michelangelo's ceiling covers the whole thing, every inch of it, painted more than 500 years ago by a man who thought of himself as a sculptor, not a painter. Photos never do it justice, and you can't take any inside anyway, so you just stand there with your head back and take it all in. It's one of those places that's even better in real life.
TOP TIP: Book your tickets well ahead and go for the earliest slot you can get. You'll have more room to stand and stare before the tour groups pile in.
If it's on your list, book the weekend, book the tickets, and go and look up.
Over to you
Have you stood under Michelangelo's ceiling yet? Tell me what else in Rome or the Vatican you'd put on a first-timer's list.