The Vatican

One of Rafael's paintings.

This is another of Rafael. It is a painting of when Peter was released from prison by an angel. (At least I think it was Peter, wasn't it?)

One of the many painted ceilings.

One of the many sculptures. This one had a neat story that I can't remember - I was on information overload by this time.

A whole hallway of sculptures.

The vatican was a marathon, to say the least. We waited in line for an hour, and the place was so packed I kind of wanted to scream. The vatican is wonderful, but sooo overwhelming. It's hard to know where to look, the roman floor, the ceiling, the walls, the sculptures, the tapestries? And after awhile...you can look no more. And you couldn't pick and choose which rooms you wanted to see. If you wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, you were going to see the rest of the museum too. We endured three hours of "The Sistine Chapel is just around the corner!" But no, I did enjoy it very much. I really like seeing the Rafael rooms, and all of the old maps. And I forgot to write about the really neat quote on Rafael's tomb. It went something like this: "While Rafael lived, nature feared she would be outdone, when he died, she feared that she herself would die." Pretty neat, huh?

Anyways, there are so many incredible things at the Vatican, but the Sistine Chapel blew me away. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but still magnificent, nonetheless. It's hard to fathom how much work and time Michelangelo put into this. It has soo much detail and the angles are perfect. He was incredibly talented. The painting of Adam and God reaching out to touch eachother was small but so powerful. And the entire front wall painted as Judgement day is just as powerful, but disturbing. I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the Vatican, but definitely look these two paintings up online. Absolutely beautiful. I still can't believe I have been the things I've seen.