Interesting facts about Vatican City

1. It's the smallest country in the world. At about 44 hectares (0.44 km²) you could walk around its walls in under an hour.
2. It has fewer than a thousand residents, the smallest population of any country, and many of its employees live in Rome.
3. It became a country in 1929, when the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy created the independent State of Vatican City.
4. You can't be born a citizen. Citizenship comes with the job: cardinals, diplomats, some Swiss Guards and staff hold it while they serve, then usually lose it.
5. It has its own passports, issued to the Pope, cardinals and holders of certain offices.
6. The ATMs speak Latin. Cash machines inside the Vatican offer instructions in Latin, among other languages.
7. It has its own post office and stamps, much loved by collectors. Send a postcard from the Vatican post office on St. Peter's Square or the dome terrace.
8. Vatican Radio was set up in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of radio, and broadcasts worldwide in dozens of languages.
9. It has a railway station, built in the early 1930s. Today it's used mostly for goods and occasional special trains.
10. The Swiss Guard is its army. It was founded in 1506 by Pope Julius II. Recruits must be single Swiss Catholic men aged 19–30, at least 1.74 m tall, trained in the Swiss army.
11. St. Peter's Square is Bernini's masterpiece. It was built 1656–1667, with colonnades topped by 140 statues of saints. Stand on one of the two discs between the obelisk and the fountains, and each row of four columns lines up as one.
12. The obelisk is older than Christianity. The Egyptian obelisk at the centre was brought to Rome by Caligula and moved here in 1586.
13. Its economy has no taxes. It's funded by donations from Catholic dioceses around the world, museum tickets, and the sale of stamps, coins and publications.
14. It mints its own euros. Vatican euro coins are produced in tiny numbers and are prized by collectors.
15. The Vatican Museums are enormous. Several kilometres of galleries, built up over five centuries by the popes, end in the Sistine Chapel.

Visiting the Vatican

Plan a full morning: the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel (book ahead, and try for 8:00), then St. Peter's Basilica. Read our guides to the basilica, climbing the dome and seeing the Pope.