The Vatican Museums began with a single marble statue pulled from a vineyard in 1506. Pope Julius II sent Michelangelo to inspect the discovery, and when architect Giuliano da Sangallo saw it, he gasped: "That is the Laocoön, which Pliny mentions." The Pope bought it within weeks and displayed it publicly, founding what became 54 galleries sprawling across 1,400 rooms.

The collections reveal how successive popes wielded art as political power. Raphael's rooms show Constantine kneeling before the Pope, though he was the world's most powerful ruler. The Gallery of Maps stretches 120 metres with 40 topographical maps so accurate they're 80 percent correct without Google. Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ends every tour. The Egyptian Museum holds artifacts from Rome's obsession with pharaohs. Seventy different types of marble line the Round Hall, each sourced from conquered territories.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours decode how popes transformed private papal apartments into public galleries, trace the power messages embedded in sculpture collections, explain the Vatican's profound Egyptian influences, and reveal the stories behind masterpieces spanning ancient Rome through Renaissance and Baroque eras.