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Vatican Vatican summit

Vatican Hill

You can see 88 km from here, looking east.

Calculating the panorama…

Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.

The view

Up to 88 km away.

Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.

71out of 100

Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).

  • 88 kmFarthest ridgelooking east
  • 99%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
  • 59Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
  • 81 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint

The 59 peaks you can name from here

From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.

Monte Mario139 m · 2.3 km · northTorre Maggiore Mount1,121 m · 82 km · northMonte Solenne1,286 m · 89 km · northMonte Macchia Gelata1,258 m · 55 km · north-eastMonte Terminillo2,217 m · 78 km · north-eastPizzo di Sevo2,419 m · 113 km · north-eastMonte Gorzano2,458 m · 111 km · north-eastMonte Corvo2,623 m · 107 km · north-eastMonte Pellecchia1,369 m · 41 km · north-eastMonte Gennaro1,271 m · 34 km · north-eastMonte Morra1,036 m · 35 km · north-eastMonte Velino2,487 m · 80 km · eastMonte Midia1,737 m · 63 km · eastMonte Guadagnolo1,218 m · 40 km · eastMonte Viglio2,156 m · 76 km · eastMonte del Passeggio2,064 m · 86 km · eastMonte Mare2,020 m · 131 km · eastMonte Cairo1,669 m · 116 km · eastMonte Tuscolo670 m · 25 km · south-eastMount Algidus950 m · 34 km · south-eastMonte Gentile580 m · 27 km · south-eastMonte Raschio552 m · 39 km · north-westMonte Rocca Romana609 m · 35 km · north-westMonte Venere835 m · 53 km · north-west

From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.

The sun

The best sunsets are from July to August.

When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.

  1. Jansouth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset35%
  2. Febwest8 min before the sea-level sunset39%
  3. Marwest8 min before the sea-level sunset39%
  4. Aprwest6 min before the sea-level sunset40%
  5. Maynorth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset42%
  6. Junnorth-west8 min before the sea-level sunset59%
  7. Julnorth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset74%
  8. Augwest6 min before the sea-level sunset72%
  9. Sepwest6 min before the sea-level sunset55%
  10. Octwest6 min before the sea-level sunset48%
  11. Novsouth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset37%
  12. Decsouth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset39%
  • Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
  • Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
  • %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).

The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.

The place

Vatican Hill.

Hill in Rome that is the location of St. Peter's Basilica

Vatican Hill is a summit in Vatican, 81 m above the sea.

On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 88 km away, looking east.

59 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Monte Viglio (2,156 m), 76 km away.

The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 99% of the circle.

The skies are clearest from July to August.

Bench Vatican Gardens 20110705
gugganij · CC BY-SA 3.0

Get there and stay

Plan the visit

A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The viewpoint and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.

Vatican Hill seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 75other viewpoints within 5 kmForum Romanum view, Belvedere Romolo E Remo, Balconata del Pincio and 72 more
  • 5named peaks within 5 kmMonte Mario, Monte Ciocci, Colle Vaticano and 2 more
  • 13marked trails within 3 kmVia Francigena - 07 Lazio, Via di Francesco - Via di Roma, Via di Francesco/Via del SUD - Tappa 1 and 10 more
  • 32shelters and huts within 5 km
  • 516car parks within 3 km
  • 25visitor centres within 5 kmTourist Information Point "Minghetti", Visitor Center Fori Imperiali, Punto Informativo Parco Appia Antica and 22 more
  • 1,570restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • 7campsites within 10 kmhu Roma camping in town, Camping Village Roma Capitol, Roma Camping in Town and 4 more
  • 1,177places to stay within 10 kmIstituto Maria Santissima Bambina, Hotel Pinewood, Domus Pacis Torre Rossa Park and 1,174 more
  • cable car and funicular stations within 5 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

What you see from Vatican Hill, and what is near.

Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.

Peakyas26 mountains within 25 km
Vatican Hill · this placeVatican Hill75 m · 0.1 kmCapitoline Hill45 m · 2.9 kmQuirinal Hill50 m · 3.2 kmPalatine Hill51 m · 3.5 kmAventine Hill47 m · 3.5 kmViminal Hill57 m · 3.7 kmEsquiline Hill58 m · 3.9 kmCaelian Hill50 m · 4.3 km
Forestyas6 forests and trees within 15 km
Quercia del Tasso · 1.2 kmOrto Botanico dell'Università di Roma "La Sapienza" · 1.8 kmVilla Borghese gardens · 3.1 kmFarnese Gardens · 3.3 kmRome Rose Garden · 3.4 kmOrto Botanico dell'Università di Tor Vergata · 14 km
Darkskyas5 dark-sky places within 30 km
Rome ObservatoryBortle 9 · 2.1 kmObservatory of the Collegio RomanoBortle 9 · 2.6 kmAstronomical Museum with PlanetariumBortle 9 · 8.4 kmKolleverde di Gvidoniya observatoryBortle 8 · 16 kmVatican ObservatoryBortle 8 · 24 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The view, as people saw it.

Gardens in Vatican City - Cactaceae - 2
User:Mattes · CC BY-SA 3.0
Gardens in Vatican City - Fontana dell'Aquilone
User:Mattes · CC BY-SA 3.0
Ruins in the Vatican Gardens - panoramio
Josef Gugganig · CC BY-SA 3.0

Other viewpoints nearby.

Vatican Hill

Vatican

  • 71Viewyas Score
  • 88 kmFarthest ridge
  • 59Peaks in view
  • 81 mAltitude

Viminal Hill

Italy · 4 km

  • 75Viewyas Score
  • 112 kmFarthest ridge
  • 60Peaks in view
  • 71 mAltitude

See the guide

Capitoline Hill

Italy · 3 km

  • 70Viewyas Score
  • 85 kmFarthest ridge
  • 59Peaks in view
  • 48 mAltitude

See the guide

Palatine Hill

Italy · 3 km

  • 70Viewyas Score
  • 84 kmFarthest ridge
  • 66Peaks in view
  • 51 mAltitude

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q1053000) · CC0
SunJ. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms
Peaks in viewPeakyas (Wikidata, CC0)
Panorama and altitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
CloudsNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Forestyas, Darkskyas, Cavernyas, Riveryas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.