The next day we made it back to the Vatican to see the Vatican Museum. It took us all day to see everything, as we took the long tour and took our time.
The first few rooms are filled with Roman sculptures, including this one, which reminded me a bit of my beautiful sister:
A few more sculptures:
What I found most intriguing were the ceilings. Here's one that's completely painted on, though it looks like it's carved:
The tapestry rooms were also interesting. Caryl liked the first one best, I prefer the latter:
This was my favorite ceiling of all, in the map room:
A close-up:
This appears to be a bit out of place:
And a map of Italy:
This is a famous painting done by a polish painter, Jan Matejko. It depicts Poland's liberation of Vienna by Poland's king Jan Sobieski III in 1683, and was a gift from the Polish government to the Pope in 1883.
Another cool ceiling:
Room painted by Raphael:
Raphael's most famous work, the School of Athens:
I guess they ran out of ideas for this wall:
One more cool ceiling before the Sistine Chapel:
After all this, we were guided into the Sistine Chapel. Photography and video are prohibited, but EVERYBODY was taking pictures. So, every few minutes an obnoxious guard would get on the microphone and bark for people to stop taking pictures, and would remind everyone that this is a holy place. Guards also walked around shepherding people towards the center of the chapel so that others could get through. Overall, it was definitely not a holy vibe, and felt a lot more like a museum. After sitting along the edge for a while, I decided to sneak a few pictures myself:
The first few rooms are filled with Roman sculptures, including this one, which reminded me a bit of my beautiful sister:
A few more sculptures:
What I found most intriguing were the ceilings. Here's one that's completely painted on, though it looks like it's carved:
The tapestry rooms were also interesting. Caryl liked the first one best, I prefer the latter:
This was my favorite ceiling of all, in the map room:
A close-up:
This appears to be a bit out of place:
And a map of Italy:
This is a famous painting done by a polish painter, Jan Matejko. It depicts Poland's liberation of Vienna by Poland's king Jan Sobieski III in 1683, and was a gift from the Polish government to the Pope in 1883.
Another cool ceiling:
Room painted by Raphael:
Raphael's most famous work, the School of Athens:
I guess they ran out of ideas for this wall:
One more cool ceiling before the Sistine Chapel:
After all this, we were guided into the Sistine Chapel. Photography and video are prohibited, but EVERYBODY was taking pictures. So, every few minutes an obnoxious guard would get on the microphone and bark for people to stop taking pictures, and would remind everyone that this is a holy place. Guards also walked around shepherding people towards the center of the chapel so that others could get through. Overall, it was definitely not a holy vibe, and felt a lot more like a museum. After sitting along the edge for a while, I decided to sneak a few pictures myself:
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