Vatican Museum Audio Guide

Started in 1506, the Vatican is the oldest continuously running museum in the world, which has ballooned over 500 years from a single building known as Belvedere Palace to the present behemoth it is today. The museum is overcrowded and complicated, so here are a few tips to get you started. Firstly book your tickets way in advance. Secondly, if you are here only to see the Sistine Chapel book the first slot of the day to get ahead of the crowds and steal some private time. Finally, prepare to navigate through overcrowded, cramped and claustrophobic places. The museum is not scaled to cope with such an influx of tourists. Sadly, that is pretty much the story everywhere in the museum but you will feel it the most inside the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel. But don't let the size or complexity of the museum dampen your holiday spirit. Trust us to take you around the vast museum in three simple steps which is child's play - download the app, choose your tour and keep pressing Next!

Your first stop is left of the grand escalator and it is the museum’s Egyptian collection. On to the next part of your visit let's make way to the more spectacular section of the Pio Clementino Museum. Formerly known as the Belvedere Palace it is the oldest part of the Vatican that was first opened to the public when the Laocoön statues were installed here in 1506. The most outstanding quality of the statuary,
Is found in the Octagonal Courtyard where except for Perseus by Canova, the rest are high-quality copies of Greek originals which confidently command the space as well as our undivided attention. The Chiaramonti Museum along with its new wing, which comes next, is home to a mind-blowing collection of Roman sculptures that share with their Greek counterparts the same quality of absolute command of all dimensions! The most remarkable of this is the truly magnificent work of Augustus of Prima Porta - which set the gold standard for Imperial portraiture for years to come!

We are still in the bowels of the Vatican Museum, and to travel to the brain which is the Sistine Chapel, we have to traverse the spinal cord - a long corridor of spectacular tapestries and frescoed maps of Italian regions. Don't be surprised if you find the maps the wrong way around as the cartographer was merely following visual perspective rather than modern convention! Starting from the room of Immaculate Conception, we move onto the Raphael rooms that house blockbuster works such as The School of Athens. This visual extravaganza finds a fitting and uplifting end in the spectacular frescoes of Michelangelo that fill the Sistine Chapel. His rival Bramantino had personally recommended Michelangelo’s name to the Pope hoping this would be the biggest disaster of Michelangelo’s career. But the artist learnt on the job, put his determination on the scaffolding and proved his rival wrong. The tour now continues in the west wing of the museum.

Your first stop here is a brief tour of the Pinacoteca which holds a small but important collection. The most incredible works here are Raphael’s Transfiguration, Caravaggio’s Deposition and da Vinci's St Jerome. A small museum related to original Greek antiquities, such as Marsyas and Athena and finally masterpieces of Christian art and you are almost finished. If you have the energy take time to see the carriages gallery and the Oriental and African arts or just go to the post office and send yourself a letter from the Vatican City! Your last stop is right at the exit - the spectacular spiral staircase copied after an original by Bramantino will lead you right into the streets. If you have managed to follow all our tour stops, now you have the rest of the day at your disposal to see other Roman attractions or buy a gelateria. If you plan to listen to the audio then download, test and take your headphones along. We do not part ways here. Remember the app gives unlimited virtual visits for a lifetime!