Vatican City dress code. How to dress when visiting the Vatican City touring Saint Peter's Basilica and Sistine Chapel.

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How to dress to visit the Vatican city. Touring Saint Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums.

Also valid when visiting the Vatican Gardens and/or the Scavi (the excavations under St. Peter's Church.

APPROPRIATE DRESS IS A MUST!

Please be aware that there are monitors outside St. Peter's, which has a very strict dress code: no skirts above the knee, no shorts, no bare shoulders (i.e., tank tops or sleeveless blouses), and you must wear shoes. You will not be permitted inside the basilica unless you are dressed appropriately. Slacks and jeans, however, are permitted. If you are out sightseeing in shorts, miniskirts, tank tops, sleeveless blouses, etc., and wish to enter a church, you must be dressed appropriately. People who monitor visitors in churches have the right to refuse entrance if in their opinion the visitor is dressed inappropriate to enter. One way to get around this is to carry long pants and a shirt/blouse with sleeves in a bag or backpack so that when you wish to enter a church, you can slip these garments on over your inappropriate attire before you enter.

Pope John Paul II
Strict dress codes are especially adhered to at St. Peter's, so I wouldn't even try to enter wearing short skirts, shorts, or sleeveless tops. You will be refused entrance. Again, no shorts, or sleeveless tops, but it’s okay to wear jeans. In case you haven't been foresighted enough to carry additional apparel with you and you happen to be at the Vatican wearing inappropriate clothes you can still buy disposable pants and/or t-shirts and scarves on sale in the souvenir shops just outside St. Peter's. In addition to all of this keep in mind that during your visit to the Vatican you'll be in a sovereign country regulated by it's own rules, where the laws of Italy or your own country do not apply! No smoking anywhere in the Vatican! Dress code warning outside St. Peter's
It is important to understand that the point of all this is not to get everyone to dress up like going to a wedding party, but to make people cover their sinful flesh. You can be dressed in rags and they'll let you in!