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The Vatican Museums: just a click away!

By Linda Bordoni

Perhaps it’s something you always wanted to do but never had the opportunity, maybe it was a secret wish you never even dared to hope would come true… of course, it’s not exactly the same as the real thing, but today you can go on-line and immerse yourself in the beauty and wonder of the Vatican Museums thanks to  seven virtual tours  offered on the Museum’s  website .

In keeping with the precautionary steps taken by the Italian authorities due to the Covid-19 emergency, the Museums, which boasts one of the richest collections in the world, and that are visited by over 5 million people each year, are making themselves visible through all digital devices, free of charge.

The seven virtual tours regard the Sistine Chapel, the Pio Clementino Museum, the Chiaramonti Museum, the New Wing, Raphael’s Rooms, the Niccoline Chapel, and the Room of the Chiaroscuri. Once inside, the cyber-visitor can explore each of these environments, moving in every direction and focusing on even the smallest detail of the individual works, all of which are reproduced in high definition.

What’s more, every day the official @vaticamuseums Instagram account provides images of Vatican Museums’ masterpieces accompanied by short captions that explain the history and the meaning of the selected works.

In compliance with government directives, the Vatican Museums have been closed to the public since 9 March and will stay closed until 3 April at least. Precautionary closures also concern the Excavations Office (which is also offering a virtual visit of the necropolis underneath St. Peter’s Basilica), the Museum of the Pontifical Villas in Castel Gandolfo and all other Pontifical exhibition areas. 

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The Vatican Museums Have Free Virtual Tours, Including One Where You Can See the Sistine Chapel

The 360º views are absolutely breathtaking.

Start with a 360º view of Michelangelo's masterpiece, the Sistine Chapel . While the painted ceiling is a showstopper, each chapel wall explores a different aspect of the Christian faith journey: the stories of Moses, Christ, and the Popes throughout history. Then work your way through the remaining Vatican museums: Pio Clementino Museum , Chiaramonti Museum , New Wing , Raphael's Rooms , Niccoline Chapel , and Room of the Chiaroscuri .

Right now, Vatican City — like many other public gathering spaces around the world — is completely empty. In light of the COVID-19 outbreak , the Italian government issued a national lockdown, causing Pope Francis to cancel all public appearances through April 3. In the meantime, you can get a glimpse of what the Vatican is like in real time with an around-the-clock live stream , which includes the Pope's daily mass.

More Virtual Tours to Add to Your List

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The British Museum

Getty Museum

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You Can Now Take a Virtual Tour of the Vatican Museums from the Comfort of Your Living Room

During these rather uncertain and difficult times, there’s no doubt we’re looking for new ways (sorry, Netflix) to cure our boredom. And let’s be honest, finding something the entire family can enjoy doing together is no easy feat.

Luckily, organizations across the globe have provided those of us stuck indoors with ways to still get our necessary culture fix, by providing us with virtual museums , aquariums, zoos and more. And now, you can tour the Vatican City’s seven popular museum sites virtually.

Yup, we’re talking 360º views of the Sistine Chapel (we’re serious), Pio Clementino Museum , Chiaramonti Museum , New Wing , Raphael's Rooms , Niccoline Chapel and Room of the Chiaroscuri .

We’ve rounded up all seven of them below. Happy touring!

1. Pio Clementino Museum

2. chiaramonti museum, 3. new wing, 4. sistine chapel, 5. raphael's rooms, 6. niccoline chapel, 7. room of the chiaroscuri.

10 Museums You Can Visit Online

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Τhe Vatican Museums – Free virtual experience

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Experience the Vatican Museums from the comfort of your home with an engaging self-guided virtual tour narrated in English, from your PC or smartphone browser. It’s so simple! Hit ‘START’ and in a couple of minutes, you will travel back in time and enjoy a virtual journey from the comfort of your couch!

Through the power of storytelling combined with street and satellite views, you will discover not only historical facts but also unknown stories and tales of ancient and modern times that will amaze your family and friends. The tour’s content is the result of in-depth research, squeezed into brief intriguing stories that will make your virtual visit both engaging and informative. The tour is only available online and you can access it repeatedly anytime.

This is an unmissable opportunity to gain valuable insights into treasures of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel and immerse yourself in the surroundings/exhibits in an entirely innovative way.

The threshold into antiquity

Formerly adorning the Bishop’s Palace at Tivoli in Villa Adriana, these two statue-pillars were donated to Pope Pius VI in 1779 to be placed at the entrance way to his museum of ancient statues. The statues were made from red granite from Aswan in the 16th century. Their presence serves as a threshold between the age of Egyptian art and that of the first centuries after Christ. What’s more, the exhibits bear testimony to the “Egyptomania” that overcame Rome and many European travelers during the 18th century. This overwhelming desire to rediscover antiquity resulted in a renewed interest in archaeology. Systematic excavations were carried out, unearthing many of the pieces one sees today in the Pio Clementine Museum.

• Virtual Self-guided Tour for the Vatican Museums with satellite & street views
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The Treasures of the Vatican Museums

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Masterpieces of the Vatican Museums Virtual Tour: Sculptures of the Pio-Clementino Gallery

Discover the ancient masterpieces of the Vatican Museums on our virtual tour

• tour overview
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duration 1.5 hours

Tour Overview

Join art historian Guia on a virtual stroll through the Vatican Museums' Pio-Clementino collection, and discover the extraordinary ancient sculptures that have shaped the story of art. Learn how the popes amassed one of the world’s greatest collections of classical art over the last 500 years as we wander through magnificent halls and courtyards lined with ancient sculptures and mosaics, portrait busts, sarcophagi and more. At the heart of our virtual tour will be the beautiful Octagonal Courtyard, Pope Julius II’s stunning Renaissance sculpture garden. Gaze on the terrible drama of the Laocoon, where a Trojan priest battles against divinely-sent sea snakes; learn why the Apollo Belvedere was considered to be the height of bodily perfection in antiquity, and how Michelangelo believed the fragmentary Belvedere Torso to be marble perfection. Thanks to high quality photos and Guia's spellbinding narration, our virtual tour will bring the masterpieces of the Vatican vividly to life. Join Guia today! If the day of the week or start time of this group tour doesn't work for you, please email us at [email protected] to arrange a suitable alternative date.

• Live broadcast from Rome with art historian Guia
• In-depth exploration of the Vatican's Pio-Clementino Museum
• High-resolution photos and a wealth of rare details brings the story of the Vatican collections vividly to life
• Have your questions answered in interactive Q and A

• The Octagonal Courtyard
• The Laocoon
• The Belvedere Torso
• The Apollo Belvedere
• The Hall of Muses

Tour Description

Meet your guide: guia.

  Hi, I’m Guia! A native of Bologna in northern Italy, my love of art history led me to move to Rome way back in 1993, and I’ve been here ever since. I have a B.A. in History and Preservation of Cultural Heritage and a Master’s in Art History from ROMA3 University, where my studies focused on the development of public museums. I soon realised that my passion lay in sharing my enthusiasm for Rome’s extraordinary cultural heritage with visitors to the city, and became a licensed tour guide in 2010. Since 2015 I’ve been working with Through Eternity, and I love nothing more than spending my days guiding, teaching and learning in the Vatican Museums!

What Exactly is a Through Eternity Virtual Tour?   

The world of travel might be on hold right now, but just because we're all staying at home to help the world overcome a common enemy doesn't mean we have to put our wanderlust on the back burner. Frustrated with not being able to get our travel fix, we decided to transform our award-winning tours into immersive virtual experiences, meaning you can still explore Italy’s spectacular archaeological sites and jaw-dropping museums from the comfort of your own home.  

* Please note that the booking times are in US Eastern Standard Time and Rome, Italy CET is 6 hours ahead *

Fun and informative , our virtual tours take the form of online  real-time presentations  led by our  expert guides . Combining videos, high-definition photos and more, our guides will be sharing their wealth of knowledge and experience with you on these interactive walkthroughs of Italy’s most fascinating sites. The  live format  of our virtual tours means you’ll be able to ask your guide anything you wish, just like on a normal tour. We really believe it's the next best thing to being here!

As a sign of our gratitude to those who are on the front line fighting the Coronavirus, we would be more than happy to invite all first responders , health workers and NHS workers to join our Virtual Tours for free. Please message our office staff directly!

Please note that the proceeds from our online tours go directly to our guides, providing them with a valuable lifeline in these tough times for the world of travel. Thank you for your support!  

Discover the Vatican’s incredible sculpture collection

The Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Rooms might be the jewels in the Vatican crown, but there is far more to this treasure-trove than just Renaissance art. Many popes from the 16 th -century onwards have been assiduous collectors of classical sculptures, and the ancient marbles that line the halls and fill the courtyards of the Vatican palace had a massive influence on Renaissance ideals of harmony and proportion. Learn the story of the fabulous collection with Guia.

Gaze on some of the ancient world’s most famous artworks in the Octagonal Courtyard  

The virtual highlight of our tour will be the so-called Octagonal Courtyard , a beautiful sculpture-garden founded by Pope Julius II in the first decade of the 1500s. When the idea of creating a museum in the Vatican first surfaced in the late 1700s, this was its centrepiece. Despite many changes made to the collection over the centuries, the major highlights of the Pio-Clementino museum remain in the same places they occupied in the courtyard when Julius installed them here 500 years ago.

The Laocoon, an incredibly dramatic Hellenistic sculpture depicting a battle between a Trojan priest and his sons against divinely sent sea-snakes during the Greek-Trojan war, is a masterpiece of psychological intensity that has amazed viewers ever since it was discovered in a vineyard at the start of the 16 th -century. Here too is the Apollo Belvedere , considered to be the apogee of classical ideals of bodily perfection during the Renaissance and after. The melancholic Belvedere Hermes meanwhile might be a portrait of the emperor Hadrian’s youthful muse Antinous .

Take a virtual stroll through spectacular sculpture-lined halls

On our virtual tour we’ll also learn about the Belvedere Torso , a fragmentary seated male body whose amazing musculature and twisting form had a profound impact on the art of Michelangelo. According to legend Pope Julius asked Michelangelo to restore the blasted torso, but the sculptor declined, arguing that it was perfect as it was. 

Unmissable too is the Round Hall , constructed in the 18 th -century by Michelangelo Simonetti with a hemispherical vault imitating the ceiling of the Pantheon in spectacular miniature. Dominating the hall is a massive Roman basin of precious red porphyry that probably originally came from an ancient bath (perhaps even Nero’s Golden House ), and a giant bronze statue of a young Hercules draped in a lion’s skin and leaning on a club. The sculpture had been struck by lightning and ritually buried in the antique period following Roman custom, and was only rediscovered in 1864. 

Tour Reviews

4.9 (7 reviews)

What a warm up to an "in person" visit to the museum! When we visit museums, (in person or virtually) we are so busy looking at the art that we may forget about the centuries of history that have led to an exceptional collection. In this tour, Guia provided a detailed review of the Vatican Museums' Pio-Clementino collection, how it came to be, as well as detailed information about the stunning sculptures that are here today. It was incredible to hear details about some of the most magnificent sculptures I've ever seen, including Laocoon, and to hear from Guia about the myths and stories that led these gifted artists to create such masterpieces. To think that we are gazing at art that was created two thousand years ago - well...it boggles the mind! As this museum will be a "must see" when we are lucky enough to get back to Italy - I highly recommend this great tour now - so you can be dreaming about what you will soon see for yourself.

Susan - Nov 14, 2020

I had no idea such wonderful artwork was there. You do a regular tour and you see very little, you get rushed through with thousands of other people and you miss so much! But Guia described so many interesting pieces. Plus she gave the history and the story behind them and the story of the gallery itself, both of which were fascinating. I highly recommend this tour.

John - Aug 29, 2020

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The Moscow Metro Museum of Art: 10 Must-See Stations

There are few times one can claim having been on the subway all afternoon and loving it, but the Moscow Metro provides just that opportunity.  While many cities boast famous public transport systems—New York’s subway, London’s underground, San Salvador’s chicken buses—few warrant hours of exploration.  Moscow is different: Take one ride on the Metro, and you’ll find out that this network of railways can be so much more than point A to B drudgery.

The Metro began operating in 1935 with just thirteen stations, covering less than seven miles, but it has since grown into the world’s third busiest transit system ( Tokyo is first ), spanning about 200 miles and offering over 180 stops along the way.  The construction of the Metro began under Joseph Stalin’s command, and being one of the USSR’s most ambitious building projects, the iron-fisted leader instructed designers to create a place full of svet (radiance) and svetloe budushchee (a radiant future), a palace for the people and a tribute to the Mother nation.

Consequently, the Metro is among the most memorable attractions in Moscow.  The stations provide a unique collection of public art, comparable to anything the city’s galleries have to offer and providing a sense of the Soviet era, which is absent from the State National History Museum.  Even better, touring the Metro delivers palpable, experiential moments, which many of us don’t get standing in front of painting or a case of coins.

Though tours are available , discovering the Moscow Metro on your own provides a much more comprehensive, truer experience, something much less sterile than following a guide.  What better place is there to see the “real” Moscow than on mass transit: A few hours will expose you to characters and caricatures you’ll be hard-pressed to find dining near the Bolshoi Theater.  You become part of the attraction, hear it in the screech of the train, feel it as hurried commuters brush by: The Metro sucks you beneath the city and churns you into the mix.

With the recommendations of our born-and-bred Muscovite students, my wife Emma and I have just taken a self-guided tour of what some locals consider the top ten stations of the Moscow Metro. What most satisfied me about our Metro tour was the sense of adventure .  I loved following our route on the maps of the wagon walls as we circled the city, plotting out the course to the subsequent stops; having the weird sensation of being underground for nearly four hours; and discovering the next cavern of treasures, playing Indiana Jones for the afternoon, piecing together fragments of Russia’s mysterious history.  It’s the ultimate interactive museum.

Top Ten Stations (In order of appearance)

Kievskaya station.

Kievskaya Station went public in March of 1937, the rails between it and Park Kultury Station being the first to cross the Moscow River.  Kievskaya is full of mosaics depicting aristocratic scenes of Russian life, with great cameo appearances by Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin.  Each work has a Cyrillic title/explanation etched in the marble beneath it; however, if your Russian is rusty, you can just appreciate seeing familiar revolutionary dates like 1905 ( the Russian Revolution ) and 1917 ( the October Revolution ).

Mayakovskaya Station

Mayakovskaya Station ranks in my top three most notable Metro stations. Mayakovskaya just feels right, done Art Deco but no sense of gaudiness or pretention.  The arches are adorned with rounded chrome piping and create feeling of being in a jukebox, but the roof’s expansive mosaics of the sky are the real showstopper.  Subjects cleverly range from looking up at a high jumper, workers atop a building, spires of Orthodox cathedrals, to nimble aircraft humming by, a fleet of prop planes spelling out CCCP in the bluest of skies.

Novoslobodskaya Station

Novoslobodskaya is the Metro’s unique stained glass station.  Each column has its own distinctive panels of colorful glass, most of them with a floral theme, some of them capturing the odd sailor, musician, artist, gardener, or stenographer in action.  The glass is framed in Art Deco metalwork, and there is the lovely aspect of discovering panels in the less frequented haunches of the hall (on the trackside, between the incoming staircases).  Novosblod is, I’ve been told, the favorite amongst out-of-town visitors.

Komsomolskaya Station

Komsomolskaya Station is one of palatial grandeur.  It seems both magnificent and obligatory, like the presidential palace of a colonial city.  The yellow ceiling has leafy, white concrete garland and a series of golden military mosaics accenting the tile mosaics of glorified Russian life.  Switching lines here, the hallway has an Alice-in-Wonderland feel, impossibly long with decorative tile walls, culminating in a very old station left in a remarkable state of disrepair, offering a really tangible glimpse behind the palace walls.

Dostoevskaya Station

Dostoevskaya is a tribute to the late, great hero of Russian literature .  The station at first glance seems bare and unimpressive, a stark marble platform without a whiff of reassembled chips of tile.  However, two columns have eerie stone inlay collages of scenes from Dostoevsky’s work, including The Idiot , The Brothers Karamazov , and Crime and Punishment.   Then, standing at the center of the platform, the marble creates a kaleidoscope of reflections.  At the entrance, there is a large, inlay portrait of the author.

Chkalovskaya Station

Chkalovskaya does space Art Deco style (yet again).  Chrome borders all.  Passageways with curvy overhangs create the illusion of walking through the belly of a chic, new-age spacecraft.  There are two (kos)mosaics, one at each end, with planetary subjects.  Transferring here brings you above ground, where some rather elaborate metalwork is on display.  By name similarity only, I’d expected Komsolskaya Station to deliver some kosmonaut décor; instead, it was Chkalovskaya that took us up to the space station.

Elektrozavodskaya Station

Elektrozavodskaya is full of marble reliefs of workers, men and women, laboring through the different stages of industry.  The superhuman figures are round with muscles, Hollywood fit, and seemingly undeterred by each Herculean task they respectively perform.  The station is chocked with brass, from hammer and sickle light fixtures to beautiful, angular framework up the innards of the columns.  The station’s art pieces are less clever or extravagant than others, but identifying the different stages of industry is entertaining.

Baumanskaya Statio

Baumanskaya Station is the only stop that wasn’t suggested by the students.  Pulling in, the network of statues was just too enticing: Out of half-circle depressions in the platform’s columns, the USSR’s proud and powerful labor force again flaunts its success.  Pilots, blacksmiths, politicians, and artists have all congregated, posing amongst more Art Deco framing.  At the far end, a massive Soviet flag dons the face of Lenin and banners for ’05, ’17, and ‘45.  Standing in front of the flag, you can play with the echoing roof.

Ploshchad Revolutsii Station

Novokuznetskaya Station

Novokuznetskaya Station finishes off this tour, more or less, where it started: beautiful mosaics.  This station recalls the skyward-facing pieces from Mayakovskaya (Station #2), only with a little larger pictures in a more cramped, very trafficked area.  Due to a line of street lamps in the center of the platform, it has the atmosphere of a bustling market.  The more inventive sky scenes include a man on a ladder, women picking fruit, and a tank-dozer being craned in.  The station’s also has a handsome black-and-white stone mural.

Here is a map and a brief description of our route:

Start at (1)Kievskaya on the “ring line” (look for the squares at the bottom of the platform signs to help you navigate—the ring line is #5, brown line) and go north to Belorusskaya, make a quick switch to the Dark Green/#2 line, and go south one stop to (2)Mayakovskaya.  Backtrack to the ring line—Brown/#5—and continue north, getting off at (3)Novosblodskaya and (4)Komsolskaya.  At Komsolskaya Station, transfer to the Red/#1 line, go south for two stops to Chistye Prudy, and get on the Light Green/#10 line going north.  Take a look at (5)Dostoevskaya Station on the northern segment of Light Green/#10 line then change directions and head south to (6)Chkalovskaya, which offers a transfer to the Dark Blue/#3 line, going west, away from the city center.  Have a look (7)Elektroskaya Station before backtracking into the center of Moscow, stopping off at (8)Baumskaya, getting off the Dark Blue/#3 line at (9)Ploschad Revolyutsii.  Change to the Dark Green/#2 line and go south one stop to see (10)Novokuznetskaya Station.

Check out our new Moscow Indie Travel Guide , book a flight to Moscow and read 10 Bars with Views Worth Blowing the Budget For

Jonathon Engels, formerly a patron saint of misadventure, has been stumbling his way across cultural borders since 2005 and is currently volunteering in the mountains outside of Antigua, Guatemala.  For more of his work, visit his website and blog .

Photo credits:   SergeyRod , all others courtesy of the author and may not be used without permission

Claudia Looi

Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow.   Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station  is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station  was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?

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