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Entry from:
Rome, Italy
Entry
Title: "
Pizza to the
Max"
Entry:
"Our final day in
Rome dawned and we headed out early to get to the
Vatican Museum as close to its opening time as possible. We managed to get there just on 9:00am, about
15 minutes after its scheduled opening time. There was a relatively small queue to get in so we thought things were looking up. We got into the foyer for a security check, a little more thorough than the one went went through to get in to
St Peter's yesterday. There were people everywhere, queueing for the security check, queueing for tickets queuing because there seemed to be a queue. We eventually negotiated our way past the seething mass of humanity and spotted an elevator that was unnoticed by most and which whisked us up to the next floor.
Next was an escalator ride up to the main part of the museum and from here we spotted signs indicating the direction to the
Sistine Chapel and headed in that direction. We also wanted to see the
Stanze di Raffaello and were pleased to see the signs indicating the direction to the Sistine Chapel also indicted that the Stanze di Raffaello were along the same route. Did I mention the crowds of people yet?
People everywhere, most of them in guided tour groups, the guides all had a thin metal pole with variously coloured items tied to the top, I guess so the people in the group can keep track of which one of the many groups they are in. The first major hall of exhibits we went through was the
Hall of Candelabras. Didn't notice any candelabras but there was marble a plenty - statues, urns, boxes, etc. The censor of male dangly bits had been at it again with his vine leave although there were a few whose modesty remained unprotected. I cannot say I enjoyed this first part of the museum, plenty of things to see but the morass of people was a bit difficult to deal with. We managed to get clear of most of the groups by the time we entered the
Galleria delle Carte Geografiche, although we didn't really have time to dawdle while admiring the colourful and detailed maps of parts of
Europe, as we needed to keep ahead of the tide of humanity coming along behind us. After the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche we came to a new series of corridors. There were two signs here which both seemed to be pointing in the same direction, to the left, one indicated the way to the Sistine Chapel the other to the Sistine Chapel and Stanze di Raffaello.
Thinking we were still on the trail of the Stanze di Raffaello we followed where we thought both signs were pointing and after some richly decorated corridors found ourselves in the Sistine Chapel. It is amazing to see it for yourself, so many of the images are so familiar. The chapel was moderately crowded but you were able to spend time to stop and stare up at the ceiling without feeling to pressed in upon.
Michelangelo's work on the ceiling and his '
Last Judgement' behind the altar completely overshadow the rest of the works that adorn the remaining walls. One thing that did surprise us was how small many of the images on the ceiling looked. The famous image of the God figure reaching his finger to
Adam is so much smaller that both of us had expected from the various pictures of it we have seen. They ask that you do not take photos in the Sistine Chapel, I refrained,
Belle couldn't resist taking one picture with her phone, just to prove she has been there.
Other people did not show the same restraint, some even going so far as to use their camera flashes even though you are asked not to use a flash in the other parts of the museum where they do permit photography. We left the Sistine Chapel not really because we had had our fill but because our necks were starting to hurt from all the craning back you have to do to view Michelangelo's spectacular masterpiece. We headed back through the
Vatican Library which is suspiciously devoid of books as far as we could tell, although many of the corridors were lined with cabinets which may having being hiding books.
The Vatican Library is again spectacularly decorated over all the ceilings and upper walls.
The Hermitage was also richly decorated but
..."
Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/winston/1/1203130800/tpod.html
Photos from this trip:
1. "Boy with
Flute"
2. "Oil
Lamp"
3. "Ceiling in Vatican Library"
4. "
Carravagio"
5. "
Arch of Titus"
6. "Inner right relief"
7. "Inner left relief"
8. "
Castor and Pollux"
9. "
Campidoglio"
10. "
Minerva and her two friends"
11. "
Marcus Aurelias in the
Light!"
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- published: 12 Feb 2011
- views: 63