Sunday, September 21, 2008

Rome, Day 2: Vatican City and Museum

I should take this time to clarify: I am in the Czech Republic going to school, but I am trying to the blog chronologically, so I am still working on getting stuff from Italy. Anyway, on my second day in Rome, I headed out on my own to tour the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. Since the Vatican is the world's smallest independent nation, it became the 13th country I have ever visited.

The wall around Vatican City and the exit of the Vatican Museum

The Vatican Museum has over 4 miles of art and history, starting from Egyptian mummies then moving to Greek and Roman statues on to Christian frescoes and finally some modern art (bleh).

A mummy from the Vatican Museum's Egypt collection
One of the many statuary halls in the Vatican Museum
One of many rooms of paintings in the Vatican Museum

After a few hours just wandering through the art, you come to the Sistine Chapel with the famous ceiling by Michelangelo. No pictures are allowed of the ceiling of the Chapel due to a contract agreement with the company that restored it (so they could sell expensive books and photos of it). I happened to "accidentally" click my camera while it was near my pocket pointing to the ceiling.

Many of the ceilings of the Vatican Museum were as artistic as the art in the museum
Frescoes by Raphael
More frescoes by Raphael
The famous ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (taken very inconspicuously and so not very well)
The Pope's tennis court?

1 comment:

Inspector Clouseau said...

Nice work. Great shots of Rome, which I visited during the 1980s. Prompted me to consider visiting Europe again. I came across your blog while blog surfing using the “next blog” button on the Nav Bar of blogger.com. I am continually fascinated by the types of blogs that exist on the Internet, and the various, creative ways in which people all over the globe express themselves. Thanks for sharing.

http://www.theviewfromoutsidemytinywindow.blogspot.com