Welcome to Vatican City

You are about to enter the smallest independent country in the world — just 44 hectares (about 110 acres), roughly the size of a golf course. Yet within these tiny borders lies the largest and most important collection of art and historical artifacts on Earth.

Vatican City is the spiritual center of the Catholic Church and home to the Pope. But you do not need to be religious to be awestruck by what is here. The Vatican Museums contain over 70,000 works of art accumulated over centuries, displayed in 54 galleries. And at the very end of that journey, in a room that millions of visitors walk through every year in hushed silence, is the Sistine Chapel — where Michelangelo painted what many consider the greatest single work of art in human history.

Today we will explore the stories behind these masterpieces, learn how Michelangelo nearly refused the commission, and discover why he painted standing up — not lying on his back as popular myth suggests. Let us step through the gates.