Where is the Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina in Italian) is located at the southern end of the Vatican Museum and just north of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel is a plain rectangular building which gives no hint of the glorious artworks within. . The Chapel is an artistic masterpiece, itself being placed at the end of a fairly long walk through museums of the Vatican City.

The Sistine Chapel is used by the Vatican for the election when a new Pope is to be elected. White smoke from the chimney suggests that the new Pope has been elected as opposed to the black smoke which means no candidate had received more than the required two-thirds majority to win the election. The colour of the smoke is manipulated by the burning of ballots which releases white smoke or the burning of ballots and wet straw to produce black smoke.

The Sistine Chapel has some artistic masterpieces of Michelangelo which are well worth the strain on your neck; yes some of the best ones are on the ceiling. Michelangelo used a wooden platform to paint the barrel-vaulted ceilings of the Chapel. Other frescos on the walls of the Sistine Chapel are painted by famous artists such as Luca Signorelli, Domenico Ghirandaico & Boticelli depicting various biblical scenes from the lives of Jesus Christ and Moses but somehow are side-lined in the viewing of the Chapel.

Best time to visit the Sistine Chapel

The Vatican is visited by an approximate 40,000 people each day, therefore you walk to the Sistine Chapel through all these tourists (if not pilgrims) can make it a bit uncomfortable which is why some people choose to book Private viewing of the Sistine Chapel which means the Chapel will be exclusively open to a group of upto 20 travellers while being closed to the general public. Needless to say this makes the tour expensive enough to challenge the budget of many-a-traveller, therefore I would recommend that you either visit the Sistine Chapel in the off-season or be amongst the very first in the morning to enter the Vatican.

The Sistine Chapel opens at 8:30 am I suggest you pre-book to skip the queue enter early and you will find yourself at an advantage of having beaten the crown which can take some joy out of the relaxed viewing of the frescos which you may now leisurely enjoy. Friends of mine have planned their visits to the Vatican around the Christmas holidays to avoid the crowds and have been successful. However as many of us travel to Rome for work or other matters which cannot be timed my suggestion is to make it early in the day to avoid crowds.

Skip the line

Pre-book your tour to skip the queues, the only other way is to unethically skip the line which can land you into considerable embarrassment and might even involve the Italian Police who often intervene in such matter to enforce discipline. People wait in line for hours and are often approached by touts or such like characters who offer them to advance them in the queue by a small amount of money by the crowd will not appreciate anyone employing such means best to stay away from such touts and be fair to your fellow travellers anyway.