Begin your visit by arriving before or shortly after the doors open at 8:45am, every day except Sunday. (Be prepared to wait in line outside for up to an hour. The line, though long, moves quickly.) Pay your entrance fee of 6 euros and head inside.

Many guidebooks contain excellent walking tours of the museum's many rooms. If yours is somewhat lacking, buy the audio tour in your language of choice. We used Rick Steve's Rome, which was informative and helpful.

The highlight of the museum is the many works of Renaissance art by masters such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and da Vinci. Don't miss the Raphael rooms, with the magnificent School of Athens, a sort of "Where's Waldo" of Renaissance Italy.

Plan at least 30 minutes for the world-famous Sistine Chapel. Michaelangelo's masterwork is breathtaking and stunning, far more than can ever be conveyed in a book or on a slide.

Photos are not allowed in the Sistine Chapel. Elsewhere, bring high-speed film to photograph the works of art without a flash.

Don't miss the Laocoon and Bernini's David for excellent sculpture.

Who can forget the most famous ceiling in the world – frescoes by Michelangelo that show scenes from Genesis, surrounded by prophets, sibyls and scenes from the old and new testament. The most famous fresco of this ceiling is probably Creation of Adam. After painting this ceiling for 4 years, Michelangelo for several years couldn’t read other than by bringing a letter or a book up above his head and looking up at what he was reading.

As you exit the chapel, you go through another set of galleries, of which the most impressive is the library that shows pictures of all the famous scholars and philosophers with letters of the alphabet of the language that they wrote in. Also along all the corridors, there are multiple gift shops that have postcards and books on Vatican Museums and St Peter’s. Now you are coming back to the Pinacoteca.

Pinacoteca has a large collection of paintings from medieval times, Renaissance and through modern times. Here you can see works by Caravaggio, Bellini, da Vinci, Reni, as well as Raphael’s last painting, the Transfiguration, a copy of which is also in St Peter’s. Alongside the Transfiguration you can also see the Madonna di Foligno which to me has always been the symbol of the Renaissance.

As you exit the museums, check out the spiral ramp designed by Guiseppe Momo.

www.vatican.va

Best way to get here is to get to Via Cavour and take bus 49 which will bring you right to the entrance of the museums. Prepare to spend a day in the Vatican museums and St Peter’s.

When we came in around 9am the line was about 150 people and we got in in about 20 minutes. I bought nice postcards of Rome (20 postcards for 2 euros) while I was standing in line.

Once you get inside and buy your tickets, you have two choices: either start with the Pinacoteca or see everything else and finish with the visit to Pinacoteca. I preferred the latter. Walk up the stairs and turn left to start the tour of long galleries that continue on and on and on. You are smitten by the grandeur of the galleries with statues on the sides, painted ceilings, the Etruscan and Egyptian collections, Greek and Roman art with ancient mosaics on the floor, and the ceilings depicting scenes from history that we study in school. You also walk through the Gallery of Maps showing the maps of various places in Italy in 16th century. And then there are the Rafael’s rooms with the famous the School of Athens and the Dispute over the Holy Sacrament frescoes with bright colors and in all their glory. And as you are walking through all these amazing halls, the signs are pointing that this is the way to the Sistine chapel. When you are tired and don’t think that you will ever be able to reach the chapel since you’ve walking for 2 hours, a miracle happens: you enter the jewel of it all - Sistine chapel. This is it but something isn’t right. You can’t sit or lie on the floor, there are chairs along the walls for you to look or you can walk from one painting to another, but you just can’t lie down and look up at the ceiling. Nonetheless, this is truly a religious experience. Before you go, get good guides and learn about what is depicted on the walls or ceiling, then when you go it will be like finally seeing an old friend, each detail will talk to you, the stories will come alive and you will be overwhelmed by the shear size of it all. The Last Judgment by Michelangelo takes up a whole wall and was restored in 1993. It has bright colors and lots of nude figures showing Michelangelo’s anger and despair for the French invasion in the prior years and disregard for great art. The side walls show 12 scenes from the Bible. They were painted by Perugino, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Roselli and Signorelli. The most impressive in my opinion are Perugino’s Handing over the Keys to St. Peter, and Botticelli’s Temptations of Christ.

The rest of the Vatican is amazing as well. Walking around is like exploring an art text book.

For a listing of prices and times, check this website.