The Vatican turned out to be completely different from how I imagined it before the trip.
On the map, this is a tiny state inside Rome, which, it would seem, can be bypassed in a couple of hours. In fact, it’s easy to spend the whole day here and still leave with the feeling that you haven’t seen everything.
The main mistake is to assume that the Vatican is just one landmark. St. Peter’s Square, the cathedral, the dome and the Vatican Museums are nearby, but they are different places with separate entrances and queues. You can’t just walk from the cathedral to the museum through the next door: you’ll have to go outside and walk around the walls of the Vatican.
I would set aside a whole day for the first acquaintance. You can also see the main thing in half a day, but then you have to choose: either a cathedral with a dome, or museums with the Sistine Chapel.
