Sunday, February 21, 2010

Rome: Vatican Museums

Symbol for the west wind near the obelisk in Vatican City:



The next day the weather prediction was for rain all day so we took this opportunity to visit the Vatican Museums. The one problem was that we noticed on our tickets for the Forum/Palantine Hill that it was good for 2 days even though we thought the sign said 3 days. But with the rain the museums were the right call as it wouldn’t be very fun exploring the ruins outside in rain.

We all really liked the museums although we all agreed that the Louvre Museum in Paris was better.

Vatican City Museum entrance:
Noah and the Cortile della Pigna - bronze pine cone, part of a ancient Roman fountain.
Noah imitating the griffin that he identified correctly.

Laocoon - one of the many amazing statues in the Cortile Ottagonale - we all really enjoyed this area as it had a lot of great sculptures and was part inside and part outside.

Another of my favorite statues from this area: Persius with the head of Medusa:

Cool water in Vatican Museum, actually you can find many really interesting ones like this all around Rome and the water tastes cool and refreshing:
Another statue in the Museum, interesting ruffes and light weight shirt, it is amazing the details and perfection in these statues:
Melissa and Noah heading to the next room:

A map from the map room, cool compass rose:
Ceiling painting, interesting 3-D perspective:
A lot of the paintings have several sets images, i always like the angels as they are very interesting and usually observing the images below or around them.
The School of Athens by Raphael in the Stanze di Raffaello:
So much going on in this one painting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_School_of_Athens
The Sistine Chapel (the site of papal conclave - where the popes are selected), my camera accidently went off while i was looking at the paitings. We spend over 30 minutes in this room as there is so much in here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel):

In the lobby looking at some of the restoration displays for the Sistine Chapel:
Down the spiral ramp on the way out:

Stopped at the Basilica of St Peter on our way home for a quick visit; Bernini's bronze canopy sits over the bones of St. Peter on which the Basilica of St Peter is built. The light of the holy spirit can be seen in the back. The alter of the Basilica is amazing:
The actual resting place of St. Peter below the Baldacchino:
Statue of St Peter from inside the Basilica:
David after getting tickets from the swiss guard to see the Pope.

Piazza San Pietro from the front of the Baslica:

On our way back to our flat, right near the Vatican:

1 comment:

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