Recollections of a day in Rome

Recollections...

We started the morning at the Vatican joining the queue to enter St Peters. The lineup snaked all the way around the square, by far the biggest lineup we have seen so far. Witnessed a couple of queue jumpers but the line moved quite quickly.

outside and waiting

tired of waiting

Eventually we entered St Peter´s and as you expect this place is defintely fit for a Pope. No further explanation needed, the place is just huge and magnificant. We also ventured under St Peter´s to the catacombs to where past Pope´s are laid to rest.

We then entered the Vatican Museums, immediately noticing the very modern foyer and ticketing area. The volume of art to see here was astounding. The ceiling murals are really beautiful and they span the entire area as you walk through and eventually you stop looking upwards as there is just too many to see. On the way to the Sistine Chapel, there are several hallways that we traversed, again filled with more artwork. We stopped in a couple of these hallways to have a closer look, while some we just took an express to the next hall. The place is set up in such as way that you have to go through each hallway to get to the end, its not possible to just skip to a different room as you please.

ceiling art

inside hallway

After going through another narrow hallway we finally reached the Sistine Chapel. No photography here and its also a silent area, but the silence is usually disrupted by the guards shouting sternly ¨No photos please¨ and people seem to ignore and take photos anyway, so the guards shout even louder disturbing the silence even more.

People continue to drop out of the hallway and are stuffed into the giant space with the hundreds of others. The famous creation of Adam painting is easily missable among the frescos if you don´t look carefully . The experience of being in the Sistine Chapel was memorable especially for the atmosphere and for the sheer volume of art to see.

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