Vatican City Travel Guide
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Guide
Vatican City is the smallest fully independent state in the world, and it has genuinely open borders with Italy, no visa, no entry permit, and no passport control between Rome and Vatican territory. You can walk directly into St. Peter's Square from Via della Conciliazione without showing any identification at all, the boundary is architectural and administrative far more than it is a border in any practical travel sense.
That said, a passport remains essential in a broader sense, it is what got you legally into Italy in the first place, and it is worth carrying for the Vatican Museums or for security screening, which does function like an airport style check at entry points such as St. Peter's Basilica. From 2026, non-EU citizens, US citizens specifically named among them, need an approved ETIAS or a Schengen visa to travel to Vatican City the same way they would for any other European destination, since again, reaching the Vatican means entering Italy and Schengen first.
Border crossings
- St. Peter's Square, from Via della Conciliazione
No passport control at all, you simply walk across what is functionally a plaza with a different flag flying over it.
- Security screening at St. Peter's Basilica
A metal detector check similar to an airport, distinct from any immigration process, this is about security, not entry legality.
Transit routes
- Keep your passport with you even though nothing checks it at the Vatican itself
It remains the document that got you into Italy, and it is sensible for the Vatican Museums and general travel, even if Vatican City's own boundary asks for nothing.
- Sort your ETIAS or Schengen visa for your Italy entry, not a separate Vatican one
There is no Vatican-specific authorization, the requirement flows entirely from how you entered Italy.
Entry point notes
- No ID needed to cross into Vatican territory itself
A genuinely unique situation among the world's fully independent states.
- ETIAS reaches the Vatican indirectly, through Italy
US and other non-EU citizens need it for the Italy leg of the trip that gets them there in the first place.