4. Roma - The Vatican Museums

We had a fabulous visit to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel yesterday. 

We booked our 'jump the queue' tickets and audioguide online and then completely ignored the dozens of very helpful, English speaking sellers of guided tours in the streets around the Vatican.  Despite their persuasive pleas that (a) the queues were extensive and we'd need to wait at least 2 hours unless we got priority entry by joining a guided tour, or (b) the museums were so extensive we'd never manage to see all the best stuff by ourselves, or (c) our online 'jump the queue' tickets weren't really going to get us in and their product was better.

So we ignored the extensive queues of people awaiting tours, found the sign that said 'online reservations' and walked straight in. We exchanged our pre-purchased voucher (on Paul's phone) for real tickets and audioguides and were through the turnstile inside 4 minutes.  This all occurred at 11.00 am - peak time. 

When we exited at closing time, 5.45 pm, there was hardly a soul in sight.  If you want to miss the crushing crowds, the best time to visit the Sistine Chapel if from 4.00 pm onwards.

The Vatican Museums are a grand series of buildings, all constructed at different times, housing the treasures collected by the Popes and their administrations for many hundreds of years. The buildings themselves were originally the palaces of the Popes, so many of the rooms were originally apartments and reception areas - some large, some much more intimate.

 On the intimate side, Podesti painted out part of the Borgia apartments with scenes representing 'the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pius IX in 1854'.  The Pontiff decided to celebrate this event with a cycle of frescoes that took 11 years to complete.

There were some beautiful modern pieces including this vestment by Matisse,

 and this crucifix, also by Matisse.

Not Luenig but Marc Chagall. 

And finally, all galleries lead to the Sistine Chapel.  This is where your audioguide really comes into its own.  Noise is discouraged here and so the tour guides are severely restricted.  They actually have to take their groups outside in order to talk about the Sistine artwork.  No photography is allowed - so I am feeling very guilty.

I took one photo in the hour I sat on a bench along the side wall. Paul managed two as we exited at the rear.

I had originally thought that that the Sistine Chapel was circular and that the ceiling was a dome.  But no - it is 40 metres long by about 20 metres wide.  The ceiling is Michelangelo's story of creation and the blue end wall is his The Last Judgement.

To recover from an hour of craning our necks at Michelangelo's fabulous ceiling, we wandered outside through the garden to the new Carriage Museum.  It began with sedan chairs and moved through saddles, tracery and carriages to luxury convertibles and the Pope-mobiles.

This is the vehicle in which Pope John Paul 11 was shot and wounded in St Peter's Square in 1981.

And here is the current Pope-mobile together with a little Renault 4 that has done 300,000 km and was gifted to the current Pope by its owner, a parish priest in Argentina.  The Pope had driven a similar Renault 4 when he was a parish priest and he and the gift-giver went for a spin in this one around the Vatican grounds.