Vatican Museums

Twenty-two thousand rooms, seven kilometres of corridors, and one of the largest art collections on earth. Most people sprint through the Vatican Museums to reach the Sistine Chapel at the end, and that's a mistake - though an understandable one, because the signage practically herds you in that direction. The Raphael Rooms alone deserve an hour. The Gallery of Maps, a 120-metre corridor of 16th-century cartographic paintings, will make your jaw drop even if you've never cared about maps.

Here's the counterintuitive strategy that actually works: go straight to the Sistine Chapel first. Follow the signs, resist every temptation to stop in the galleries on the way, and get there before the room fills to standing-room-only capacity (which happens by 10 AM). Spend 20 minutes with Michelangelo's ceiling while you can still breathe, then backtrack through the galleries at your own pace while the crowds are all flowing in the opposite direction. It completely changes the experience.

The €17 entry ticket is reasonable for what you get - this is genuinely one of the top 3 museum collections in the world. Book online and skip the ticket queue, which can wrap around the Vatican walls for two hours in summer. The security queue is separate and moves fast. Friday evenings from April through October, the museums stay open until 10:30 PM with a fraction of the normal visitors - if you can get a Friday evening slot, take it without hesitation.

Budget a minimum of 3 hours, wear comfortable shoes, and bring water. The cafeteria on the terrace level has decent food, reasonable prices for the location, and a view over the Vatican Gardens that beats fighting for a table in the overpriced restaurants near St. Peter's. The last Sunday of each month is free admission - but the queue is 3+ hours long and the galleries are so packed you'll see more elbows than art. Not worth it unless you genuinely cannot afford €17.