Vatican City Travel Forum

i'm a muslim ,i live in russia with my wife & i wish to visit the vatican city , so , i wish to know if it's allowed for me or no ( as a muslim ) & also i wish to know where i can take the visa , from italy or from vatican's embassy , & if we plan to go to the vatican by train , so , is it a must to take a visa to italy as well or no

No one is prevented from visiting the Vatican on the basis of religion. Everyone is welcome.
I don't know what visa you need to visit Italy, but there is no border control at The Vatican City.
As for visiting the place by train, you should know that it is completely within the city of Rome, so you are eseentially going to Rome by train.

you don't need a visa for Vatican, you need a visa for Italy. To Vatican you can go with urban buses of Rome or walking if you're not so far.

For historical reasons, the Swiss Guard is responsible for security. The Swiss Guard will not check for documents. I don't believe that they care anything about your documents, legal status, religious status, or anything. The only thing is that you will have to pass some metal detectors or whatever to make sure that you're not bringing any dangerous weapons.

Of course, the Vatican is surrounded by Italy. To get to the Vatican you have to get through Italy.

I really hope that you do get to the Vatican.

You also may want to go to the Mosque in Rome. I've been there. It's huge with lots of pale marble and thick blue carpeting with stripes where you're supposed to stand. It was built by Saudi money.

I've heard that Mecca is a different story. I once thought I could go, but then I heard that you have to be a Muslim believer to go, so I'm not sure. Anyway, please disregard this comment if it's incorrect, I have no bad intention by it.

Yes, as dnwitte and the other noted, border controls for the Vatican are handled by Italy, probably due to the Treaty that the Pope signed with Mussolini in the 20s (but maybe updated since then). So, no border controls at the Vatican.

Having said that, you will notice that Italian police don't enter the Vatican while on duty, although there are often many police out on the Via della Conciliazione in front of St. Peter's (in Italian territory), to provide for crowd control as well as to protect as needed a foreign head of state (the Pope).

Note that there are actually a number of areas in Italy that are part of the Vatican state: Vatican City, St. John Lateran, the Papal palace in Castel Gandolfo, etc. In each case, these facilities are actually patrolled by the Swiss Guards, although Italian carabinieri (military police) are not far away when the Pope is present.

Your movements within the Vatican are restricted - but not because you are Muslim - everybody's movements are resticted unless they have a pass. "Tourists" are allowed inside the very large Piazza di San Pietro, the Basilica of St. Peter's itself, and the Vatican Museums. In addition, there are tours of the Vatican Gardens (but you can see a lot of the gardens from the Museums if the windows are open as well as the dome of St. Peter's), and there are tours of the excavations under St. Peter's, where it is believed (with some interesting archaeological evidence) that St. Peter himself was buried after being martyred. You must sign up for these tours in advance. Otherwise, the Swiss Guards will prevent you (and everyone else) from freely strolling around Vatican City.

You will have seen in the press, that the current Pope (Benedict XVI) is continuing John Paul II's outreach to other religions, and for this reason, all religions are welcome. Did you see the televised coverage of John Paul II's funeral a year ago? This was held outside in the piazza in front of St. Peter's, and there were Moslems and Jews as well as plenty of other non-Catholic Christians among the dignitaries in attendance...

Bill

thank you all my friends for the nice infomations , about mecca sadly it's the truth , you can' nter mecca unless you're a muslim , in time the place there is so so wonderful & you'll see so man new things , i wish that i will visit mcca in the so soon time , but now i wish to visit the wonderful vatican city & make some photos with the greatest churches there , so , this is allowable to make photo in the churchs inside ?