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| I saw many tourists resting in the Octagonal Courtyard. This is the core of the Vatican Museums and is surrounded by many famous sculptures. | One of which I saw there was Gruppo del Laocoonte, Laocoön and His Sons. It is a scene from Greek mythology. His face shows terrible agony, attacked by sea serpents. |
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The Vatican Museums are a huge complex of museums and galleries that are linked to each other. Suddenly, I reached the point where I couldn't believe what was up there all the way back! It was La Galleria delle Carte Geografiche, the gallery of 40 maps painted on a ceiling over a 120-meter corridor by Ignazio Danti (1536 - 1586). It was stunningly beautiful. |
It was hard to resist not stopping for a moment and taking a photo of this beautiful sky at dusk as I was walking down a corridor of the museums. Here in the Vatican, everything was enchanted by the God. |
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| One of the fresco paintings I'd been looking forward to was Raphael's Scuola di Atene, the School of Athens that represents philosophers with Plato and Aristotle in the middle. I easily found Michelangelo resting an elbow on a marble block. And I noticed that Raphael himself is depicted at the far right edge of the fresco, looking straight at me blankly. Indeed, I felt a bit startled when his eyes met mine. | One of the windows in the corridor I was passing showed St. Peter's Basilica lit up at twilight that conjured me up and took me to fantasy land. |
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Needless to say, I got to see Michelangelo's Il Giudizio Universale, the Last Judgment in the Cappella Sistina, the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately, photography was strictly prohibited in the Sistine Chapel, but it has certainly been forever burned in my memory. I felt chills inside the chapel and it was a little dark with hordes of tourists breaking into cheers in an uproar of excitement here and there. I looked up at all nine scenes from the Book of Genesis depicted on the ceiling. I was totally awestruck. Words cannot describe how amazing it was! And suddenly, I heard the guards roaring, “Silence, silence, silence” in a deep low voice, over and over and over. I understand it is a chapel and we should not speak loudly, but can’t we even whisper and comment at all as we look at Michelangelo’s greatest masterpiece? I was rather disturbed by the constant loud callouts from the guards of "SILENCE" on the speaker than the crowds chatting. It was almost 9:30PM as I finished up my exploration of the Vatican Museums. I descended the stairs slowly using the Bramante Staircase, the spiral staircase. As I exited the Vatican Museums, I was feeling so blessed. |
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