Italy · The smallest state
The smallest country in the world holds the greatest concentration of art on earth. Just across the Tiber from Rome's historic center, Vatican City is an independent state of barely a hundred acres, yet within its walls lie the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica and miles of galleries that no single visit can exhaust.
You will move through the Vatican Museums, room after room of antiquities, tapestries and the luminous Raphael Rooms, building toward the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo's ceiling and his Last Judgment crown the experience. Beyond it stands St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world, soaring beneath a dome that Michelangelo himself designed.
It is a lot to take in, and the difference between a rushed shuffle and a moving morning comes down to timing and guidance. We arrange early or after-hours entry and a private guide who reads the art for you, so the masterpieces land rather than blur past in the crowd.
