Have been. No need to go again. I prefer Florence.
At the time, the Sistine chapel ceiling had just been cleaned. Off season, we were allowed to lie on the floor and look at it for half an hour. It was wonderful. This was immediately followed seeing St Peter’s and Michelangelo’s breath taking statues. Plus of course the tomb of St Peter, conveniently located in the floor of the cathedral.
We walked out of the Sistine chapel and the Vatican became a self parody. Immediately outside of the Sistine chapel is an ineffably tacky and vulgar souvenir shop, run by portly nuns. You can get just about any piece of tacky rubbish you can imagine. That includes real papal blessings on faux (?) parchment. The blessings are free. The high cost is for the calligraphy and the parchment.
—A few years ago, I visited the home of a couple of chronic Catholics who had been married for five children and nearly 50 years. As one enters the home, one is confronted by a papal blessing some one had bought them when they were first married. It was revered.
Also had the worst espresso of my life in Rome. Starting with the Vatican denizens, many Romans have made ripping off tourists a lucrative art form.