The Sistine Chapel is not at the entrance of anything: you reach it at the end of a long walk through the Vatican Museums, so a Sistine Chapel map is really a map of the route. This page gives you the official map, my own reading of the route, and a short note on what to look at in each stop. If you have not booked yet, my guide to tickets for the Sistine Chapel shows which ones include the museums and the chapel.
Sistine Chapel Map: Entrances, Stations and Sights Around It
The map below shows the Sistine Chapel with the Vatican Museums, St. Peter’s Basilica and the nearest metro stations, from Google Maps data.
The nearest metro stop in my data is Ottaviano, about 780 m away, roughly a 13-minute walk, and Cipro is about 800 m, around 13 minutes. St. Peter’s Basilica is about 100 m from the chapel’s map point and Castel Sant’Angelo is about 980 m, around 16 minutes. These walking times are my estimates: straight-line distance multiplied by 1.3 at 4.8 km/h. Tours I compared meet on Viale Vaticano, at numbers 98, 100 and 104, or at offices on Via Germanico, Via del Mascherino and Via Plauto, so read your confirmation for the exact spot.
The Official Sistine Chapel Map
The Vatican Museums publish an official map (PDF) that you can download and print, and the official visitor advice says you can also scan a QR code inside the museums. I am linking to the document rather than copying it, and I recommend opening it before you go. It shows the museums and where the chapel sits at the end. The official chapel page also offers a virtual tour.
What I add below is a reading order that turns the official Sistine Chapel map into a walk. The official pages I read do not give a time for each stretch of the walk, so I have left the times blank.
The Route I Would Take to the Sistine Chapel
This Sistine Chapel map follows the order the tour listings share. The City Lights Tours, Habemus Tours and Towns of Italy listings all name the same galleries before the chapel.
My route to the Sistine Chapel
1Entrance on Viale VaticanoSecurity check and your ticket
2CourtyardsPigna and Belvedere
3Pio-Clementino MuseumGreek and Roman sculpture
4Candelabra and TapestriesLong galleries
5Gallery of MapsPainted maps of Italy
6Raphael RoomsThe School of Athens
7Sistine ChapelThe last room, in silence
Entrance and the Courtyards
Every ticket I compared goes through the museum entrance on Viale Vaticano, and the official advice says large bags, tripods and some other items must be left in the free cloakroom. The listings that include a stop for the courtyards name the Courtyard of the Pigna and the Cortile del Belvedere. Wikipedia describes the Belvedere courtyard as the place where some of the first ancient classical statues in the papal collections were displayed, per Wikipedia. Use the courtyards to get your bearings with the official map in hand; a Sistine Chapel map is easier to follow once you have seen the first fork in the route.
Pio-Clementino Museum
The Pio-Clementino Museum holds Greek and Roman sculpture, and Wikipedia says the Apollo Belvedere and Laocoon and His Sons have been in the Octagonal Court since the early 1500s. It is the first long stop on the way to the Sistine Chapel, and crowds often thin as the route splits into corridors. I would take it slowly, because the rest of the route is a march.
The Candelabra and Tapestries Galleries on the Sistine Chapel Map
Both the City Lights Tours and the Habemus Tours listings name the Gallery of the Candelabra and the Gallery of Tapestries in a row. I could not find an official description of either gallery with dates, so I will say only what to expect: they are long and busy corridors, and a guide matters here because there are few labels to read.
City Lights Tours
Vatican Museums: Expert-Led Sistine Chapel Tour
★4.7 (1,040 reviews)
2.5 - 3 hours
Free cancellation
My pick: The tour whose stop list names every gallery before the chapel, plus the Raphael Rooms: 2.5 to 3 hours, English, 4.7 from 1,040 reviews, $82.
What you get, where you meet, what reviewers say
Included
✓ Skip-the-ticket-line access to the Vatican Museums
✓ Direct access to Sistine Chapel
✓ Direct access to St. Peter's Basilica (if option selected)
✓ Licensed, professional tour guide
✓ Headsets to hear guide clearly
✓ Staff assistance at meeting point
Meeting point: Meet your host at Bar Da Paolo (Viale Vaticano 104). The host will check you in and introduce you to your group. Viale Vaticano, 104, 00165 Roma RM, Italy
Languages: English
Duration: 2.5 - 3 hours
Cancellation: Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund
“Very expensive and if everyone has skip the line then no one has it 🤷♀️. Guide was brilliant and very knowledgeable and engaging.” – GetYourGuide review
Wikipedia says the topographical maps of Italy in the Gallery of Maps were painted by the friar Ignazio Danti for Gregory XIII, who reigned 1572 to 1585, and calls it the world’s largest pictorial geographical study. Look up and then along the wall: the maps cover both sides.
The Raphael Rooms
The Raphael Rooms hold The School of Athens, painted 1509 to 1511, per Wikipedia. Wikipedia describes the Sistine Chapel as the last room visited within the museum, with the route passing the Raphael Rooms before it. If you want one place to slow down before the chapel, make it this one, because the chapel asks for silence and the Raphael Rooms do not.
The Sistine Chapel Itself
The chapel itself breaks into three parts on any Sistine Chapel map: the ceiling, the altar wall and the side walls. Each is easier to take in if you decide beforehand which one you want to spend longest on.
The ceiling is the one Michelangelo painted between 1508 and 1512 for Pope Julius II. On its highest section he painted nine stories from Genesis, including the Creation of Adam, with prophets alternating in the middle section and the Ancestors of Christ on the lowest part, per Wikipedia. The Last Judgment fills the wall behind the altar, painted 1535 to 1541, and shows Christ’s second coming.
The side walls were painted in 1481 and 1482 before Michelangelo. Perugino’s Delivery of the Keys is on the northern wall and Botticelli’s Trials of Moses on the southern wall, per the same article. The official chapel page names these parts as the Ceiling, The Last Judgement, North wall, South wall and Entrance wall, so use those names when you read the official page.
The chapel is about 40.9 m long and 13.4 m wide, per the Wikipedia infobox. The official visitor advice asks for absolute silence, forbids mobile phones and forbids photographs or films with any electronic device, and guards can require deletion on the spot, per the official visitor advice. Look at the ceiling in sections, and sit if there is space.
Leaving the Sistine Chapel Map: St. Peter’s Basilica
Several tours continue to St. Peter’s Basilica after the chapel, and the official advice says visitors continuing there should not leave baggage in the museums. The Towns of Italy listing lists the Basilica among its stops, and the 3 to 3.5 hour length reflects it.
Towns of Italy
Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & St. Peter's Option
★4.4 (1,359 reviews)
3 - 3.5 hours
Free cancellation
My pick: The tour that continues from the chapel to St. Peter's Basilica: 3 to 3.5 hours, English, 4.4 from 1,359 reviews, $85.
What you get, where you meet, what reviewers say
Included
✓ Vatican Museums skip-the-line entrance ticket
✓ Vatican Museums guided tour with expert licensed guide
✓ Sistine Chapel visit with Michelangelo frescoes
✓ Vatican highlights including Gallery of Maps and Gallery of Tapestries
✓ Headsets to hear your Vatican guide clearly when needed
✓ SMALL-GROUP OPTION: Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel tour with max 8 guests
Not included / not suitable
✕ Guide inside St. Peter’s Basilica
✕ Hotel pickup and drop-off
Meeting point: Meet your guide in Viale Vaticano 100, on top of the stairs next to Caffè Vaticano. Your guide will have a white logo sign that says "Towns of Italy." Viale Vaticano, 100, 00192 Roma RM, Italy
Languages: English
Duration: 3 - 3.5 hours
Cancellation: Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund
“it was mind blowing so much to take in the guide was fantastic one thing I would say go when it's cooler other than that it was brilliant” – GetYourGuide review
Using the Sistine Chapel Map: Access and Practical Notes
The official pages I read did not describe wheelchair routes, lifts or step-free options inside the museums, so ask the Vatican Museums before you plan around them. The official hours are Monday to Saturday, 8 am to 8 pm with final entry at 6 pm, and my Sistine Chapel opening hours guide has the closures. If you would rather have a guide walk you through, my page on Sistine Chapel tours compares them, and the story behind the paintings is on my Sistine Chapel history page. To book, compare every Sistine Chapel ticket in one place. The home page lists the other attractions I cover.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official Sistine Chapel map?+
Yes, the Vatican Museums publish an official map of the museums as a PDF, and the Sistine Chapel is the last room on it. I link it on this page as the official map. There is no separate floor plan of the chapel alone that I could find.
How do you get to the Sistine Chapel inside the Vatican Museums?+
The chapel has no entrance of its own: access has always been from rooms inside the Apostolic Palace, per Wikipedia, and it is the last room visited within the museums. You enter on Viale Vaticano, follow the galleries and the Raphael Rooms, and reach the chapel at the end.
What should you look for inside the Sistine Chapel?+
Look at the ceiling Michelangelo painted from 1508 to 1512, with nine stories from Genesis including the Creation of Adam, then the Last Judgment on the altar wall, and the side walls painted in 1481 and 1482 by Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Rosselli.
Can you take photos in the Sistine Chapel?+
No. The official visitor advice forbids photographs and films with any electronic device in the chapel, asks for absolute silence and forbids mobile phones there. Guards can ask you to delete pictures on the spot.
How long does it take to walk to the Sistine Chapel?+
The guided tours I compared run from 2.5 hours to 3.5 hours including the museums, and the version with St. Peter's Basilica runs longer. No official source gives a time for the walk from the entrance to the chapel, so I give none.
