La Citta Eterna ~ Part IV

The fourth day of my Rome trip is the post that I dread most, mainly due to the amount of photos to upload (ratio of the photos posted to the number of photos actually took is 1:10).. you guys will see what i mean real soon.. brace yourself for an extremely long post..

Alright, after departing from the Termini, the second day in the city of Rome involved travelling to another city. One that is considered to be the world's smallest independent state, where its monarchy is headed by the Pope and with guards donning the cutest outfits ever! Yep, its none other than the Vatican City.

the main road leading to St. Peter's Piazza

Saw this when we were walking towards the piazza. From afar it was 'cool, a nun driving a van'... but a closer look revealed that she was on the mobile whilst driving.. tsk tsk tsk...

thou have sinned sister

Shots taken around the square:

St. Peter's Basilica, its dome is a Michelangelo original design

the crane just had to be there, potong stim

these structures form an ellipse around the plaza, this is on the right...

... and this is to the left

at the back of these pillars is the Apostolic Palace, official residence of the Pope

From the square, we took a 10 minute walk to the Vatican Museum which is also part of the Apolistic Palace. As with the millions who come to the Vatican City before us, our main highlight of the day was to visit the Sistine Chapel, where the crowning achievement masterpiece of Michelangelo lies - The Last Judgement.

the entrance

bought our tickets

this is one cool staircase

making sure we're in the right direction

According to the sign board, there were quite a few other collections on display as well. So we were hyped up for the awesome paintings, ceilings and sculptures coming our way.

just a little warm up, its the first of hordes to come

err, this one got robbed of his jewel

A short break to take in the view of the garden:



Break's over, lets resume. More humans:

the anterior

posterior

hmm, this one is disturbing

p/s: Hey yami, are these useful as references to help you understand the male body figure and project them in your drawings? If yes, I've got more! lol.. just kidding =)

There are animals too:

Mystical hybrids were available as well:

As you can see in the background, this is merely 5% from the bazillion displays.

the man himself, Julius Caesar

Took a detour to the garden for a breather.. but lots to see as well:

Back indoors. Enough of the sculptures and we moved on to ceilings:

my neck got pretty numb by now (remember the 1:10 ratio?)

Then there was this dark room with tapestries, no flash allowed:

its the best from the lot, the rest were just... black

At this point, we were slighly agitated thinking 'where's the Sistine Chapel? Could it be this, it looks nicely litted.' Mind you, we have been walking for more than 2 hours already.. Instead we arrived at this whole tunnel-like room, with gorgeous paintings all over, except the flooring of course:

you won't believe the number of photos I took of this room

i lost all sensation in my neck by the time i got to the end of the tunnel room

The next gallery had a hypnotic ceiling and some tapestries:





By now, we were growing increasingly impatient, wondering where could the chapel be and how long more before getting there.. For the time being, beautiful paintings of saints are all we've got to admire..








We've been walking for close to 4 hours and still no sign of the chapel yet. This was getting really frustrating, there were other tourists who were wondering where is it as well. Quite frankly, we were all getting pretty sick of all the art.

It was not for another TWO more galleries before we got there... we totally walked by most of the work, losing interest by the minute.. sigh.. At least we were still determine to see Michelangelo's masterpiece.


Sensing that we were near the Sistine Chapel (FINALLY!!), we were passed through this small walkway and into the a majestic hall. Even though the build up to see the masterpiece was slightly marred by the extremely long wait, still it was absolutely worth it..

The Last Judgement fresco covered the entire wall, all 1100 square metres of it.. Just imagining how Michelangelo hand painted the whole thing is incredible. Indeed a mighty magnum opus.

Anyway, there were lots of annoying personnel shouting 'NO PHOTOS!' periodically.. but people were secretly trying to take anyway.. so we had a group effort to try to capture it as well XD

Here's what we've got:

not too shabby right? fun fact: Michelangelo painted a self-portrait of himself portraying St. Bartholomew which appears stark naked in the fresco

Finally, we had a brief look at the carriages used by the Pope over the years:




Took a couple more shots on the way out:

got out at last!

at least the crane is gone

see the balcony with the red curtains in the middle? yeap, that's where the Pope waves to the public from the basilica

One final photo before I wrap up Part IV:

swiss papal guards looking super fine in their court jestor outfits!! XD

Not much else happened for the rest of the day.. apologies if you have become dead bored by now, but congratulations as well if you have made it this far =)

Told you I dreaded this post =P

... Part V ~ Rome City Finale...