Should You Hire a Car in The Holy See? This can be broken down into two similar questions - do you need a car in The Holy See (in other words, will your holiday be ruined without one), and is it worth hiring a car in The Holy See - i.e. is a car better value than using public transport? We'll weigh up both questions and give you a response generated by Chat GPT, together with our own curated opinion before finally giving a yes or no verdict at the end.
Car or No Car: Vatican City
Europe > 🇻🇦The Holy See
This one’s easy — should you rent a car in Vatican City? Absolutely not. In fact, you can’t. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world, covering just 0.44 km², entirely surrounded by Rome. You can walk across it in about 15 minutes, and driving simply isn’t an option for visitors.
🚶 Getting Around
The Vatican is entirely walkable. The Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica are all within a few steps of each other. Inside the city walls, only a handful of vehicles belong to Vatican officials or service staff.
For tourists, the best way to get around is on foot, though guided walking tours or hop-on-hop-off buses from Rome stop just outside St. Peter’s Square.
🚆 Access from Rome
Reaching the Vatican is simple:
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Take the Metro Line A to Ottaviano or Cipro stations.
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Or, catch a regional train to Roma San Pietro, just a 10-minute walk away.
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Taxis and ride-shares are plentiful, but unnecessary unless you’re travelling late at night or carrying luggage.
🚘 Fun Fact: Vatican Number Plates (SCV)
Even though you can’t drive there, Vatican City does have its own vehicle registration system. The plates start with the letters “SCV”, which stand for Status Civitatis Vaticanae — Latin for “Vatican City State.”
The most famous of these is SCV 1, the number plate reserved for the Pope’s official car, often a white Mercedes or Fiat depending on the occasion. Other Vatican vehicles, used by officials and the Swiss Guard, are marked SCV 2, SCV 3, and so on.
These plates are a quirky symbol of the Vatican’s sovereignty — one of the tiniest independent fleets in the world, and possibly the only place where traffic jams are a theological impossibility. 🚙✨
🧭 Summary
So, should you rent a car in Vatican City? Not under any circumstances. Park it in Rome, lace up your shoes, and enjoy the art, history, and spirituality on foot.
Car or No Car Rating: 🚫🚗 Firm No – the whole country is a stroll.
🚗 ✅ ❌ Summary Table
This summary brings together taxis*, how much you really need a car, whether it’s worth it,
driver options, local driving rules, and an overall recommendation.
*Taxis act as a hybrid between private cars and public transport, so they aren’t counted in the overall public-transport or non-car scores. 🚕
