The Vatican, for real this time.

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(Bridge leading into the Vatican - abandon all hope, ye who enter here).

On Saturday Katy and I attempted to go to the Vatican, key word here being attempted. It's a really nice ~1.3 mile walk, and we got there around noon not really knowing what to expect. What we were hit with were people. Lots and lots of people. Quite literally, with no exaggeration, the line to get into St. Peter's Basilica was half a mile long (basically the length of the square). So we decided to try out the museum, which meant walking along the outer walls of the Vatican City. Except then...we couldn't find the entrance. There was a group entrance, an online reservation entrance, but no regular one. We ended up just sketching in the main square for a little while, and totally won a battle with a fake British man trying to get us to go on a fake tour. In the end, we decided to go back during the week when it would be less busy.

(Me in front of Laocoon!)

Which leads us to today! After our art history lecture this morning (which was surprisingly relevant to everything we saw in the museum), Katy and I headed back to the Vatican with Molly and Jamie in tow. It could not have been more perfect - there were zero lines. This could also be because it was a very cloudy/overcast day. In the museum, we basically got to see a year's worth of art history classes in two hours. Sculptures that we've been seeing in slide-shows and presentations and books - in real life. First up was the pointing Augustus statue, then the Laocoon, then the Belvedere torso (I will scan sketches soon). The museum was kind of like Ikea in that it funnels you through the entire place until you reach the warehouse, which in this case was the Sistine Chapel. We walked through rooms of funerary heads, bronzes, paintings, Raphael's most famous frescoes, and so much more, ending up at la Cappella Sistina.

(Some random awesome hallway).

Before you enter the Sistine Chapel, there is a fairly tall staircase that you have to climb first, so my heart was already pumping, then turning the corner into the chapel...I felt a strange mixture of nerves, excitement, and awe. We stayed there for nearly an hour, staring at the ceiling from all possible vantage points. I just could not comprehend how Michelangelo painted it. Like I know the technicalities and logistics but...he was a genius. Sadly no pictures were allowed, but it was so dark in there that photos wouldn't have come out well anyway. Oh and there were these silly guards whose only job was to tell people not to take photos and to make everyone be quiet periodically. At one point my brain actually went into mental processing overload, where I had absorbed too many beautiful things and couldn't take any more in.

(Pieta).

After escaping the maze-like exit of the museum, we headed back to St. Peter's Basilica, and walked right in with no line. It was almost funny picturing all those people waiting for hours and hours on Saturday. The first thing you see when entering the museum is Michelangelo's Pieta, another beautiful thing that I can't believe was made by human hands. Then we walked around the perimeter of the basilica, which was elaborately decorated. The main altar was enough to make a skeptical atheist believe...I don't know, something. Then we got to giggle at the Swiss guards, and finally headed out for the walk home.

(St. Peter's Basilica).

And now, I need to study Italian, read for art history, and finish my map project. A domani!