Vatican City - Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, St. Peters Basilica

Lonely Planet has you do the Vatican (museums, Sistine Chapel, St. Peters) in a half day, followed by the Colosseum and Forum in the latter half of the day. They're crazy. This was a full day for us, and well worth the additional time. We started off at 9am in the long line to get into the museum. While it was around 300m long, it moved quickly and we entered in around a half an hour. Evidently a reservation is a good idea even if you are getting there early in the morning. The Vatican Museums are huge, and could easily eat a full day themselves, and probably several if you're a completest, or slow. We started in the picture gallery (ticopentico?) and the Belvedere (sculpture) hall, and then headed over to the Egyptian section. Next we took the long one-way tour through tapestries, the Raphael rooms (School of Athens), the Map hall (awesome!), and finally the Sistine Chapel. Whew! Let's stop for some photos!

School of Athens:

From Rome

The Nile:

From Rome

Fresco Map of Venice:

From Rome

The Sistine Chapel is taller and contains a lot more panels than Mary had anticipated, and is taller and less broad than Josh had anticipated. It is, of course, fantastic. Definitely a highlight for Josh. Mary felt a little cheated that after paying 15 Euros, she couldn't get any closer to the ceiling than 6 stories away. There are a couple of sections that are unrestored in the corners that are a lot darker than the originals. We're talking night and day here. I'm really glad they cleaned off the grime. The Last Judgment behind the alter is huge. It's really hard to get a grasp on the size of these things in art history books (though you can get a lot closer). On the ceiling is the set of nine biblical panels, which include the creation of light, the sun, and the moon, the creation of man (this would be the famous one), the ejection from the garden, and the flood. Both the ceiling and the walls are frescoes, which means they're painted on fresh plaster. The project took four years, while Michaelangelo worked standing up and painting above his head. And you think your neck hurts looking up at it. Ow.

From Rome

From Rome

From Rome

We returned to the museums briefly but quickly decided that we were on museum overload. We decided to go back to the Sistine Chapel to take the short cut to St. Peters. This ended up not being a short cut at all as we had to wind our way through a different part of the museums to the Sistine Chapel, but it's okay because the exhibits were awesome. I mean, just take a look at the size of this bowl!

From Rome

Our second time through the chapel was darker and quieter than the first time. The exit from the chapel led us to the side of St. Peter's basilica, bypassing the square. The basilica is *huge*. There are a lot of features that make it seem more reasonably sized, but they are just optical illusions. The bronze canopy above the altar is tremendous (and made out of the bronze entry from the Pantheon). This isn't actually the first St. Peter's basilica. They built this one literally around the first one; after they were done, they carted off the old one through the massive doors.

Notable sights include: bronze statue of St. Peter (from the old St. Peter's basilica), a glass coffin with Sleeping Beauty (Pope John XXIII) the pope in charge of Vatican II, Michaelangelo's Pieta, the main altar, and the everyday altar.

From Rome

From Rome

Next we went up to the roof. You can climb to the base of the dome of the basilica on the inside (we took the elevator), and then to the top of dome for great views of the city. The view down inside from the base of the dime made us aware of the immense height of the basilica (the grate made photos almost impossible though). Actually, the optical illusions that make it seem smaller than reality looking up are reversed when you are looking down, making it seem larger than reality. The hike up the dome illustrated the "dome within a dome" building technique, with the stairs in between.

From Rome

The view from the outside made us aware of the complete lack of high-rises in Rome. Anywhere.

From Rome

We made our way back down a little late for the 5pm Mass at the everyday altar, which was surprisingly sparsely attended. Maybe the information regarding service times isn't well distributed. I would have thought that most Catholics would be interested in attending service in the Pope's church. We only caught the tail end, since we spent so much time up in the dome, but enjoyed the music and the evening light through the stained glass.

From Rome

So that's what Josh has to say about the Vatican. Mary also liked it very much, but mostly for different reasons. She was not expecting to walk into a random room in the Rapheal section and come face to face with The School of Athens, which is one of her favorite paintings. Incredible. And like Josh said, the map hall was fantastic. Probably her favorite genre of painting is Trompe L'Eau, and the Vatican is chock-full of it! Fresco fake columns, fake windows, fake niches, fake carvings, fake statues, fake curtains. It's great. The Pieta is also a favorite of hers from studying this stuff in high school. Who would have thought figures carved from stone could be so expressive?!

From Rome