Clothing when visiting the Vatican and St. Peters in Rome

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When in Rome, recently, a friend of mine was not allowed to go into the Vatican or chapel(s), with the instructions that the man wear a suit and the woman a dress. Is this correct? Or, did they misunderstand the protocol and reverence aspects required?
 
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There is a whole discussion on this on this link.
I have never been there, but what I can tell is…that proper attire is required, but that means, no sleeveless clothing, no shorts, no short skirts, and proper shoes as well. Perhaps someone else can give more info. In fact, dresses were not recommended particularly because it is extremely breezy there. Maybe someone else can give you a clearer answer. One day, I hope to get there myself.
 
I got to visit Pope John Paul II on May 1996. I was wearing a simple dress with short sleeves. It had sun flowers on it. I was able to see the Vatican and also got inside to the Pope’s visiting room for guests. I had taken the Pope a painting gift I had painted of Blessed Mother with Baby Jesus in her arms. There were some American Priests who greeted me because the Pope was very ill that day.
I have saved the dress to remind me that the dress had been at theVatican and to the Pope’s Office. A great momento for me.
I must have been wearing some simple flat sandals since it was the month of May.
All I know is that it is very important to always wear a dress or skirt with a blouse when I visit any important place. I don’t want to take the chance of being turned away because I was not dressed like a lady.
A friend of mine is going to visit the Vatican in Sept. and she wants to wear pants. I advised her to not do that in case she is turned away. I told her to just wear a skirt and blouse and keep it simple.
 
Connie2 said:
When in Rome, recently, a friend of mine was not allowed to go into the Vatican or chapel(s), with the instructions that the man wear a suit and the woman a dress. Is this correct? Or, did they misunderstand the protocol and reverence aspects required?
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No, it’s NOT suit and dress required. The dress code simply requires shoulders and knees to be covered. Nothing sleeveless and no shorts allowed.

http://www.drivinguide.com/images/Vatican/dresscode.gif

It’s not a big restriction. “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Remember?

Besides, you should be thankful the dress code is not like this:

 
We went to the Vatican in the summer of 2006. There is a dress code. Women are not allowed to have blouses or dresses that are sleeveless. No shorts are allowed. Proper shoes, no sandals are allowed. You have to go through a security line before entering the Vatican and they will stop you and not let you in if you are not attired the right way.
 
I don’t remember anything about sandals, I think I wore them, but the restriction about sleeveless shirts and shorts is about the same in all churches in Rome.
 
I am guessing that times have changed since I was there in May 1996. I wore a simple sun-flowered dress and sandals.
I wore that dress again on the day that Pope Benedict arrived in the U.S.A. as a rememberance of having been to the Vatican.
 
My youngest suffered with the heat really bad when we were in rome. She had exposed shoulders coz of the tshirt type she was wearing. We jsut covered her shoulders with a scarf - no problems.

We did however see women cover up their arms and shoulders in the que and the minute they were inside the Vatican they immediately removed said covering :mad:
 
The last time we were in Rome it was in July, and very hot. We warned out teenaged sons that they would not be allowed into St. Peter’s if they wore shorts. One of them insisted on wearing them anyway. We didn’t argue with him. We just told him that if he couldn’t go into St. Peter’s that it would be his own fault. Sure enough, when we got to St. Peter’s, our son wasn’t allowed in. He and his brother had a little private talk, and our improperly dressed son stayed outside while his younger brother went in with us. After we had been in the church for a while our son left us, saying that he would be back in a few minutes. In a few minutes, our older son appeared dressed in his brother’s clothes even down to his watch! My husband and I couldn’t believe what we were seeing. The boys had found a men’s room, and had switched their clothes. Both boys did get to visit St. Peter’s. We laughed all the way back to the hotel, while the boys discussed the idea of starting a business outside of St. Peter’s to rent sweat shirts, sweatpants and wrap around skirts to tourists who couldn’t get into the church. The moral of the story is that you should go to St. Peter’s dressed modestly unless you have someone who you can switch clothes with!
 
Marysann said:
while the boys discussed the idea of starting a business outside of St. Peter’s to rent sweat shirts, sweatpants and wrap around skirts to tourists who couldn’t get into the church. !
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If I remember correctly when we where there - last august - there was aplace you could buy light silk shawls to wrap around your shoulders - dunno about trousers though…
 
My guess is your friends were wearing shorts or other inappropriate clothes and did not understand the guidelines.

I’ve been to St. Peter’s, wearning slacks and I’m a woman.

No shorts, no bare shoulders has you “covered”.
 
CreatioNova said:
If I remember correctly when we where there - last august - there was aplace you could buy light silk shawls to wrap around your shoulders - dunno about trousers though…
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When I was first in ROme in 1972, they gave you these horrid plastic black “raincoats” to wear if you were not dressed correctly. Being 18 and it being the 70’s, my skirt was too short and I, and my companions, all had to wear one. I have a picture of us all dressed in them. The next time I went in the 90’s the raincoats were gone.

When I was in Greece, the ORthodox churches also would not let you in wearing slacks if you were a woman, but offered you large pieces of fabric to wrap around you to look like a skirt. We were warned about wearing skirts but some of the wo men on the trip did not bring any. They bought those large beach wraps that are so popular and just used those to go into the churches.

Three years ago when I was at the Vatican we wore slacks and even short sleeve shirts, but those old churches get cool, even in the summer, so we always had a wrap of some sort with us.
 
Jesus found Himself confronted with endless precepts (rules) put in place by the sanhedrin (priestly ruling body of His Church) but He allowed love to rule and He did such things as healing on the Sabbath and loving the sinful !!! However look where that got Him!
Lord have mercy on us.
 
Connie2 said:
When in Rome, recently, a friend of mine was not allowed to go into the Vatican or chapel(s), with the instructions that the man wear a suit and the woman a dress. Is this correct? Or, did they misunderstand the protocol and reverence aspects required?
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I went to St Peters and the Sistine Chapel back in 2001 - the rule was no sleeveless tops, shorts or short skirts but I’m sure plenty of ladies and gents in our tourgroup were wearing casual slacks or jeans and not suits or dresses, I don’t know why your friend would’ve been told this. Who was it who told them? There are signs around, IIRC, stating the dresscode as well - did they not see or read any of them?
 
LilyM said:
I went to St Peters and the Sistine Chapel back in 2001 - the rule was no sleeveless tops, shorts or short skirts but I’m sure plenty of ladies and gents in our tourgroup were wearing casual slacks or jeans and not suits or dresses, I don’t know why your friend would’ve been told this. Who was it who told them? There are signs around, IIRC, stating the dresscode as well - did they not see or read any of them?
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I also went in 2001!:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:
 
CreatioNova said:
My youngest suffered with the heat really bad when we were in rome. She had exposed shoulders coz of the tshirt type she was wearing. We jsut covered her shoulders with a scarf - no problems.

We did however see women cover up their arms and shoulders in the que and the minute they were inside the Vatican they immediately removed said covering :mad:
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Don’t feel so bad! As soon as we were in, two men were getting their pictures taken and one took hold of his genitals and smiled!:mad: :mad: :mad:
 
LilyM said:
So it was you in my tour group then! 😉 😃
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The one that saw from way above our beloved Pope JP2 (who was the size of an inch…but someone had binoculars0 and cried, and cried with joy and love for our holy Pope and having encountered his holiness that was so thick, one could taste it???😃
 
Shoshana said:
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The one that saw from way above our beloved Pope JP2 (who was the size of an inch…but someone had binoculars0 and cried, and cried with joy and love for our holy Pope and having encountered his holiness that was so thick, one could taste it???😃
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D’oh :nope:

Unfortunately we didn’t get a viewing of the late beloved JP2 (if only we’d known :crying:) - we went in August and he was off on summer holidays (stupid time to go to Rome by the way, practically the whole city just packs up for the month and runs away, apart from the tourists and tourist guides).
 
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