Yesterday we visited the Vatican museum and St Peters Basilica, as well as exploring some more of Rome. We left at 8:30, hearing that the lines for the Vatican museum were incredibly long. A 20 minute queue awaited us at the museum entrance. Con artists tried to take advantage of our ignorance, saying we have to pay to enter the museum, at an "official place across the road." It wasn't hard to work out it was a scam. The museum itself was beautiful, gloriously decorated passageways decorated with tapestries lead towards the famous Sistine chapel.
 |
| Tapestry of the resurrection |
The chapel itself was astounding, the beautiful and famous frescoes covering the walls and ceiling were overwhelming! We weren't allowed to take photos, but I found one on the internet.
After the Sistine chapel, we saw a selection of historical artefacts, including the signet ring of Pope Leo X. He would have used that ring on the papal bull sent to Martin Luther.
Later, we walked through Rome, to Torre Argentina. This was a series of ancient Roman buildings, including the temple of fortune of the present day, and the site of Julius Caesar's assassination. However, on arrival we discovered it was also a sanctuary for stray cats!
 |
| Torre Argentina |
Following this, we had gelatos, and walked to St Peter's Basilica. The queue was truly horrendous, hundreds of metres long, it took us 40 minutes to reach the gate. However, the Church itself was well worth the wait. Church tradition says it houses the body of Peter the apostle, but this is unsubstantiated. One of the best things I saw there was a famous statue called the Pieta, of Mary cradling Jesus's dead body.
It was quite a day!
 |
| The Pieta |
No comments:
Post a Comment