Rome pt 3: Vatican Day

And after Art day and Archaeology day we also had a Vatican day! Rome2017-54Usually there are 3 hour waiting lines to get in, but we bought our tickets to god in advance and could walk right through :-) Inside is an endless collection of riches from antiquity. Rome2017-73In some ways it made me feel a bit uncomfortable to see these private collections with top pieces of ancient art. The church sure had a loooooooot of money and/or power to obtain these… Also, the randomness of where the pieces are from and how they are placed together feels like they didn’t really care what it was as long as it was beautiful. Rome2017-75The result is a huge, bit random, but impressive collection, from ancient egyptian to Rome, to Greek art to even an Etruscan gallery.Rome2017-77 Rome2017-81 Rome2017-74The Vatican also houses a big collection of Roman portaits, who doesn’t love those??Rome2017-72The halls are just crammed full of randomly placed art. Sometimes there are Egyptian columns next to Roman statues under a Renaissance ceiling. Rome2017-80 Rome2017-83Rome_small_8Rome2017-82
Rome2017-76It’s a bit chaotic and overwhelming, so we took a lot of breaks :) (Vatican sure has a nice view)Rome2017-79Now most tourists only have one thing in mind: The Sistine Chapel. The famous ceiling painted by Michelangelo. You can imagine that the closer we got, the more crowded it became. Here we have a photo of the beautiful ceiling in the hallway towards the sistine chapel, but we were literally standing in a huuuugeee line of thousands of people. Rome2017-84At least we had some beautiful things to look at :) Before the enter the Sistine chapel, there are the Raphael rooms, where some of Raphaels greatest work is painted on the walls. The School of Athens:Rome2017-85He and Michelangelo were rivals, and it is said that when Raphael saw Michelangelos masterpiece in the Sistine chapel, he was so impressed that he added Michelangelo to this painting. Is it the blue guy relaxing on the steps?

After the beautiful Raphael Rooms we finally headed in to the Sistine chapel where taking photographs was strictly forbidden. Also, everyone needed to be quiet since it was a holy place (but ofcourse 1000 tourists are not silent), so guards would scream in their megaphones ” SILENCE!!! SILENCEE!!!!” :-p It was not really a holy experience…Rome2017-78We went to the St Peter Cathedral afterwards, and there we DID have a holy experience!Rome_small_3I think… I think I might have been blessed :p

Now since I couldn’t show the famous Michelangelo ceiling in the Vatican, let me show you another very cool church celing in a different church in Rome, st. Ignazio. Rome2017-50The ceiling is painted beautifully, but the thing that makes it special is that it is painted in a perspective, to LOOK as if the ceiling has a dome (it does not)!Rome2017-51Well, I guess you have to be there to really see what I mean :p But definitely an impressive ceiling! Hooray for ceiling!Rome2017-49