The Vatican

The Pope wasn't home but I still managed to have a good time. Got a bit wet in the morning from heavenly showers but was spared any rain while in the legendary long queue to the Vatican Museums. The queue ran rather efficiently and I had good company so it wasn't too bad.

While in the queue I saw my cousin's husband's uncle, a certain Uncle Shu from Melbourne, walk past. Unfortunately I couldn't recall his name then and did not manage to call out to him. Another coincidental near-meeting small world moment.

The Vatican Museums are vast and I had no hope of 'covering it all' in one day but there were a few highlights. Including an almost private tour of the Gallery of Early Christian Art by a director of the Museum, also a theology lecturer. Consisted mostly of sarcophagi with beautiful reliefs of biblical scenes eg Adam and Eve, the raising of Lazarus etc. All explained lucidly by an expert. The Gallery was only opened for our select group for that 45 minutes or so that day or so it seemed.

The Map Gallery with its ornate ceilings, the Classical sculptures including the Laocoon, and the Raphael Rooms were awesome. Of course the highlight of highlights was the Sistine Chapel and the most famous Creation of Man and the Last Judgement by the great Michaelangelo.

St Peter's Basillica (with St Peter's Square) was a magnificent church with magnificent artworks, the most famous, the Pieta, also by Michaelangelo. Not forgetting of course Bernini and Bramante's contribution among others. Michaelangelo also designed the uniforms for the Swiss Guards of the Vatican. One of his less elegant creations I think.

"Without having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving."
Johann Wolfgang Goethe in 1787 in Rome