I woke up early because I knew my next destination would have long lineups -- the Vatican.
It took about a half hour to walk there but I got to St. Peter's Square before the crowds, now I had to just figure out where the Vatican Museum was. For some reason I thought it was next to St. Peter's so I went to St. Peter's and looked around
Wow, is it ever huge! And of course, tastefully decorated from floor to ceiling with paintings, carvings, marble, etc.
St. Peter's is so big that there are plenty of side chapels that people use for various purposes.
I was still pretty sweaty from the half-hour walk, and there's no A/C and St. Peter's either, so I figured I should get over to the Vatican Museum to cool down. Except I still couldn't figure out where it was? After asking around I found out you had to leave St. Peter's and go north of St. Peter's Square for a good 10+ minutes walk to get to where the lineup would be. Whoops, guess I was way off base thinking it was connected to the square.
So of course by the time I arrive there was a massive lineup but I had little choice but to stand in the heat. Lots of "tour guides" were walking up and down the queue trying to get people to pay extra to have a tour with them and skip the line (you get to go to a different line if you're on a tour). One of these guides was telling someone that the lineup was at least an hour. Big surprise -- it was actually 20 minutes. One of them tried talking to me but I pretended I didn't understand English and instead spoke to them in Arabic guessing, rightly, that he wouldn't know the language. He left me alone. (I used this tactic again a couple of days later at the train station against a beggar with one of those long tales of woe. Worked great.)
Anyway, into the Museum.
As an aside in most of the Museum there is also no A/C. In fact in many of the galleries they simply opened the windows. I'm starting to wonder if all this museum conservation with climate control and dust control etc. is a way for conservators to keep themselves employed. No one in Italy seemed too concerned about making sure priceless artworks were in hermetically-sealed climate-controlled rooms.
The Vatican Museum is fairly linear and you go from one room to another in a specific order. There are a couple of deviations you can do, and a "short tour" so you can go to the Sistine Chapel pretty quick, which apparently is what most people do. I didn't, so started with the first set of halls with the Greek and Roman statuary.
Here's a couple of examples of some of the hundreds of sculptures, I can't believe the amount of work these carvers did.
I also briefly went through a hall of Etruscan vases (not really my thing), and took a picture of the view from the window.
From there we went into the tapestry hall, it's clearly getting a little more crowded.
The tapestries were interesting enough, I found this particular one (titled "The Murder of the Innocents") a little disturbing but well done for a tapestry.
From there we went to a gallery I'll call the Map Room. It has various centuries-old maps painted on the wall. Check out the crowds compared to the sculpture room. This is because the short tour has to go through here.
After that I took another detour to some halls that had far fewer people, including murals by Michelangelo and other Renaissance artists.
There was also a series of small galleries with modern art that had a Christian theme. I'm generally not a fan of modern art but I will always take time to stop and look at a Salvador Dali.
As for the Sistine Chapel you are not allowed to take any pictures in there but I think you already have a pretty good idea what some of the paintings in it are.
After sitting in the Chapel for about 20 minutes admiring the paintings it was time to go.
And have lunch!
Next up, part 3.
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