Vatican City: visa and entry rules
What you need to get in, how long you may stay, and what an overstay costs
The Vatican's borders: every crossing point
There is one land neighbour - Italy, or more precisely the city of Rome itself, which surrounds the state completely.
There are no border controls. The border on St Peter's Square is marked by a strip in the paving, and people cross it without noticing.
Entry through the colonnade involves a security check, as at an airport: bags go through a scanner.
The Vatican Museums have a separate entrance on the northern side, with a queue of its own.
There is no airport and no passenger station of its own, and the railway spur is used for service purposes.
Driving to the Vatican
Driving into the territory is closed to tourists - the state is half a kilometre across, and people get around it on foot.
The car is left in Rome, where the centre is restricted by ZTL zones with charges and camera-issued fines.
The nearest car parks are by the Roma San Pietro station and along Via della Conciliazione.
Bringing a car in privately is not possible - the regime here is not a tourist one.
Travelling to the Vatican with a pet
The Vatican has no rules of its own - the Italian ones apply, since the only way to get here is from Italy.
An ISO-standard microchip is compulsory, implanted BEFORE the rabies vaccination.
A rabies vaccination is required, with a 21-day wait before entry.
A rabies antibody titre test is required only for pets from a country not on the EU's approved list. The US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK are on the list, so this does not apply to pets travelling from those countries; Russia is one of the countries it does apply to. A three-month wait applies after the test.
Animals are not allowed into the basilica or the museums, apart from guide dogs.
Overstaying your visa in the Vatican
There is no separate record of your stay in the Vatican, and overstaying in the local sense does not exist.
What is counted is the Schengen allowance spent in Italy.
The consequences come at the Italian border when you leave the zone.
The main consequence is a refusal of your next Schengen visa.
What else to check before you go
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Entry rules change faster than anything else on this site, and they change without notice. We cross-check every page against several sources and state the date it was verified, but that does not replace the main step: before you travel, check an official source — the country’s consulate, its immigration service or its e-visa portal. Especially if more than a couple of months have passed since our check.