Sistine Gaze

So, I was writing the blog earlier today, and while captioning the Vatican Pictures, realized that we completely forgot to see the Sistine Chapel.  An honest mistake, but probably not forgivable to get that close and not see it.  We raced out the door, grabbed a cab, and were standing there an hour later, taking it in.  You know, things have a tendency to seem smaller in real life.  The Sphinx, Tom Cruise, and Snickers bars all come to mind.  The Sistine Chapel was about twice as large as I thought it would be.  Just huge and beautiful.  Overwhelming, really.  As a whole, the Vatican Museums really blew us away.  The set up takes you through everything before finally leading you into the Sistine Chapel for the finale.

 Very beautiful day today.  Here is St.  Peter's Basilica on a decent day.

 Horse

 We walked through the outer rings of the piazza, trying to locate the Vatican Museum, which was around the corner and down the street.

 We really needed this weather yesterday.

 The area surrounding the Vatican

 The dome from the museum 

 The museum is stuffed with castrated statues

 A very ornate affair awaited.  This museum was very well laid out and decorated.

 Room after room of treasures

 Everything seems so opulent

 You have to remember to constantly look up.  It is sensory overload.  We were thankful for our necks that they floor was not a canvas as well.

 Statue close-up

 Kristin really liked this piece

 Hey buddy

 This hallway was full of tapestries

 This was our favorite room, the map room. It is full of all types of maps.  Before google maps, you could just roll up in here and map stuff out. 

 More of the map corridor 

 Each map is painstakingly detailed

 I believe this is in the Sobieski room

 This was in the Immaculate Conception room

 Side

 Front and center by Immaculate Conception by Podesti

 Very very busy, could spend a day following the action in this one.  Room of Constantine by Raphael.  Does not get much better than this.

 Raphael 

 Raphael and the room of Heliodorus, which contains the art of several masters

 SO you pass through room after jaw dropping room and begin to wonder,

 When do we see the Sistine Chapel?

 They make you come down from the second or third floor to the entry level and then you turn a corner and,

 there it is

 Pictures are forbidden and there were about ten or so guards in the room,

 I carefully squeezed these off from around my neck while Kristin coughed 

 Definitely worth seeing

 The exit stairs 

 We got lost, and then boarded the subway.  I saw a lady nursing her kid smushed in a totally full car

 Circo Massimo - where the Romans once held chariot races