We saved the Vatican and Sistine Chapel for today...our last day in Rome. We were dreading the crowds, but there was not even a line to get in ! (another benefit of traveling off season...). Needless-to-say, the Vatican Museums were stunning, and St. Peter's is amazing...again, pictures do not do them justice...we loved the Raphael frescoes: most people skip those rooms in order to hurry to the Sistine Chapel, but they are well worth a visit. (you can't take photos in the Sistine Chapel, so there are none here of that beautiful space...)
There is also a section of contemporary art before you get to the chapel...we stumbled across a Burchfield - of the Burchfield Penney Museum (small world...wonder if the Pope shops at Johnny's when he's in Buffalo !!)
Here are just a few of the many, many pictures we took...
Hugs, Chris and her "there had better not be a line to wait in !" husband
Apollo...
this arm was held on with velcro ??
this sculpture's pose inspired Michelangelo's Adam in the Sistine chapel...
a hungry animal...
bronze Hercules...
another hungry animal...
huge tapestries...designed by Raphael and made in Brussels...
the map room and the long corridor to the Sistine Chapel...
lovely mosaics from Nero's golden palace...
what a ceiling !
from Nero's palace...quite the marble birdbath !
another beautiful ceiling...
three guys named Joe...
Raphael frescoes...wow...he was only 25 when he was commissioned to paint these Papal apartments !
Right from Buffalo to the Pope....
AAK !!! Not another church !!!
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