Vatican Museum highlights

Here are the Vatican's top sections (roughly in the order you're likely to visit them):

Pinacoteca (Painting Gallery) ★★★- An all-star painting gallery with works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Giotto, Titian, Fra' Angelico, and many more. (Vatican Museums I trip).

Egyptian Museum - Museo Egisio.

Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael Rooms) ★★★ - The former private papal apartments of Julius II were frescoed by Raphael and his assistants with some of the Renaissance master's best works, including the renowned School of Athens. Also in the Papal Suites sector of the Vatican are the Borgia Apartments and the Chapel of Nicholas V. The Raphael Rooms take about 25–40 minutes (more if you're a true fan). (Vatican Museums II trip).

Here are the rooms in the order (generally) that you visit them, with each one's relative interest indicated by the number of stars:

• Stanza dell'Incendio - Includes the Borgo Fire.
• ★★★ Stanza della Segnatura - Includes the famous School of Athens.
• ★★ Stanza di Eliodoro - Includes the Expulsion of Heliodorus.
• Stanza di Constantino - Includes the Vision of the Cross.

Sistine Chapel ★★★ - The iconic fingers-almost-touching detail of Michelangelo's God creating Adam takes up merely a few square inches of ceiling in a chapel 132 feet long by 46 feet wide by 70 feet tall nearly every inch of which is swathed in some of the greatest frescoes of the Renaissance. (Vatican Museums III trip).

The Pio-Clementine Museum ★★ - Some of the greatest statuary to have survived from Ancient Rome, including the Laocoön group and the Apollo Belvedere. (Vatican Museums I trip).