Vatican City is a city that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state.
Vatican City ( [ ˈvætᵻkən_ˈsɪti ] Città del Vaticano [ tʃitˈta ddel vatiˈkaːno ] Civitas Vaticana ) , officially Vatican City State or the State of Vatican City ( [ Stato della Città del Vaticano , links = no ] [ Status Civitatis Vaticanae , links = no ] ) , is a walled enclave within the city of Rome . The independent city-state , on the other hand , came into existence in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy , which spoke of it as a new creation , not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States ( 756 -- 1870 ) , which had previously encompassed much of central Italy .