The Vatican and Sistine Chapel-Feb. 27th 2013

Wednesday was a veeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrry long day. We are still recovering. We walked well over 10 miles and that is not including all the walking in the museum. This visit to Rome is a virtual walkathon, a marathon of walking. Anyway, we took a train to the Vatican, and had made reservations the day before so we didn’t have to wait in line.

We really enjoyed a quiet morning in the Vatican museum.

This bronze sculpture is called Sphere Within Sphere (Sfera Con Sfera) and it measures four meters in diameter.  It was created by artist Arnaldo Pomodoro in 1990 for the Vatican Museums.  Pomodoro’s specialty is the casting of gigantic columns and/or globes.  In this magnificent sculpture, the fractured surface of the outer sphere reveals a very complex inner sphere that represents the harsh difficulties that the modern world finds itself in at the end of the second millennium.  One needs to view this masterpiece from every angle.

This bronze Pine Cone and 2 peacocks is actually a fountain and was moved from St. Peters originally……

Enormous hallway of many sculptures in the Vatican.

This well admired sculpture was said to be used as an anatomical guide for Michaelangelo’s paintings, for the tension of the muscles was considered to be demonstrating perfect strength and power. Can be witnessed in the torsos in his work Creation of Adam and many others in the Sistine Chapels ceiling.

Kaylee recognized this painting, by Raphael, School of Athens in the room Stanze di Raffaello in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

And the Appartamento Borgia was being used to display more modern art, there was a Van Gogh even, but there was sadly no spotting of Rodrigo,  Jeremy Irons or Cesare…Lucretia.

What a beautiful museum and so many more photos….many more. But. Not one of the Sistine Chapel. Nope! Not allowed, but I did see many people sneaking some. We spent at least 30 minutes in there, getting neck cramped, but it was beautiful. The ambiance was silly….ssssssssshhh! SSSSSSSHHHHH! SSSSSSSSHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

After walking to St Peters and seeing the enormous line, we decided to leave that for another day….the Pope gave his final farewell today. We missed that, but after seeing the aftermath we were glad not to get caught up in all that. So we kept walking. Here is Castel Sant Angelo and Pont Sant Angelo (I recognize this from The Borgias show as well.)

We enjoyed a beer outside, (sooo sunny!) at a place in Piazza Campo dei Fiori, the kids all had gelato.

So we walked along the Tiber till we got to Santa Maria in Cosmedin. The line was long to see the Bocca Della Verita, or Mouth of Truth. So we kept going to find something I was really intrigued to see….a peek of St. Peter’s through the keyhole at Piazza dei Cavalevi di Malta.

Walking past the Colosseum, heading towards were we are staying….looking for food!