Travel report: Vatican City
Country ranking by area: #197
Country ranking by population: #197
Date of visit: June 2017
I only visited Rome once in 2006, but it was such a short visit that I didn’t see much of the city. Therefore, it was nothing but logical to revisit the Eternal City rather sooner than later. Moreover, a trip to Rome would give me the opportunity to get another country off the list: Vatican City. This microstate is the smallest country in the world by area and population, and completely surrounded by the city of Rome. It is one of the four countries on my 197-list, which is not a member of the United Nations.
My best friend Nadia and I landed in Rome very early in the morning and headed to our hotel first, which was about in the middle between Vatican City and the Colosseum. Although it was 8 AM when we checked in, our rooms were ready. We left the luggage to the rooms, and Nadia said that she needed to change before we go to the Vatican.
…two hours later we left the hotel towards Vatican state.
Three hours in the Vatican
We arrived around 10 AM in Vatican City. As we walked from our hotel to the Vatican and also left the country by foot, I can say that Vatican City is the only country in the world, in which I didn’t use any kind of transportation but my feet. My first impression of this new country was: wow, it’s almost as crowded as India. Joking aside, it was obviously not so populated, but still, it was full of people and almost all of them were tourists. Only 1’000 people live in Vatican City.
Waiting in line seems to be the activity you will do most of the time when in Vatican City. That’s why we purchased fast line tickets for St. Peter’s Basilica Dome in advance. However, our tickets were for the tour at 1 PM, and as I said, it was only 10 AM. Vatican City is full of hustlers trying to rip you off and sell you overpriced tickets or fast line tickets (for the few sights, for which you don’t need a fast line ticket). Of course, we were approached by many of them, but they left us alone when I told them that we already had tickets.
When the fifth or sixth guy came to us, I asked him if he thinks that we could enter the St. Peter’s Basilica earlier than 1 PM (so that we wouldn’t have to wait for almost three hours). “No chance,” he answered. “You can only enter at 1 PM.” That wasn’t the answer I wanted to hear. I was already figuring out how we could spend the next three hours in Vatican City or around, when we decided to ask the tour operator, whose name was on our ticket. “Sure, no problem!” they said. “Just wait here in line and you can enter in a few minutes…”
The line was huge. Even gigantic. At least 500 people were having a fast lane ticket! When we looked behind our backs, we saw the regular line with more than 1’000 people waiting. Vatican City has almost 4 million visitors per year. That makes 11’000 visitors per day, but if you keep in mind that it was peak season we can double this number to 22’000 on that day. It’s just an estimate of course, but what I want to say is that there were thousands of people around us,and all of them want to see the sights such as St. Peter’s Basilica or the Sistine Chapel.
We waited for almost an hour before we could enter the St. Peter’s Basilica. It’s a long walk until you reach the dome. Walking up the narrow way is probably not a great activity for people suffering from claustrophobia, but that’s not the only problem. If you visit this place in the middle of summer, it’s unavoidable to smell all the people who walked through it in the past hours. It was a disgusting smell. And it was very hot obviously.
Finally, we arrived on top, took the obligatory pictures from above and walked back down again. I was impressed by all the ornaments you can see on the walls. It fits perfectly into Rome, which is a pompous city itself. We left Vatican City again without seeing the rest of the sights, but that was okay. I didn’t want to stand in line for another hour.
Is Vatican City worth a visit?
Vatican City is like a huge museum with pompous statues and buildings, and visiting this tiny state is an interesting activity for a morning or an afternoon in Rome. Nevertheless, most of the time you will be standing in line. Bring a lot of patience with you. Is it a country every traveller has to see at least once? That depends on your interest, but generally I wouldn’t call Vatican City a can’t miss country. I’m not sure if I will ever revisit this country, but I don’t think so to be honest. I have seen it, it was okay, but I don’t see a reason why I have to come back. If I actually decide to come back one day, then it definitely won’t be in summer, as it is too crowded, it’s too hot and the smell in the buildings is too terrible.
If you collect countries like I do, Vatican City is a country that can provide a real challenge. Some people only consider countries as visited, if you had spent at least one night there. Well, the problem is that Vatican City doesn’t have hotels. So, unless you’re the best buddy of an important person of the Catholic Church, it’s gonna be difficult to impossible to find a bed in this micro-state. I’m lucky that I don’t follow the rule with the overnight stay, but if you want to stay overnight you might take a sleeping bag with you and sleep on the streets.
Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!
