Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel

The Vatican's museum complex holds 70,000 artworks accumulated by popes over centuries, with only 20,000 on display at any time. The Sistine Chapel ceiling — Michelangelo's nine scenes from Genesis — is the undeniable centrepiece, but the Gallery of Maps (40 topographic panels of Italy painted in the 1580s) and Raphael Rooms are equally staggering. The collection sprawls across 7 kilometres of corridors. Most visitors rush to the Sistine Chapel and miss the Egyptian Museum and Etruscan collection entirely, which is a mistake. The sheer volume means you could visit ten times and still discover new rooms.