The weather was not as kind as yesterday, it was spitting down very lightly;
at 7.30 am scores of tourists are already lining up outside the gate!
The galleries are really dark for obvious reason, camera flashes are not allowed; so all you photographers with little point and shoot or mobile phones, divine intervention will not help you to get better pictures ;)
One of the most well known work is an unfinished painting by Leonardo da Vinci in 1480. The painting St Jerome in the Wilderness depicts Saint Jerome during his retreat to the Syrian desert, where he lived as a hermit. (See photo above)
Being a non religious person I am more interested in the sculptures. One that really impress is The Pieta, commissioned of Michelangelo by Cardinal Jean Bilheres de Lagraulas in 1497 and completed in 1499. It show Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus.
The life size statue that greets the visitors near the entrance is a plaster cast made in 1975 by the Restoration Laboratory of the Vatican Museums. The original is displayed in the Chapel of the Pieta in the St Peters Basilica next door.
In this room, five angles and two heads of Fathers of the Church are displayed.
I have photographed the information panels, if you want to know more;
look at the picture below.
Oh.. and there is a real mummy and a UFO, eh? A UFO? See below ;)
I never did find out what that huge brass ball is, modern art? The ball is sitting in a nice court yard within the museums surround.
The rain never did stop, from one of the window at the museum I made this shot.
From here I can see the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, this is where we are going to visit the next day. In the mean time we have to push on, phew! All these religious art are getting on my nerves ;)
But this look interesting, mother and daughter's expressions that is, ha ha ha...
And the size of this bath tub! What did the ancient Romans ate? You can swim in this tub!
We pass this nice court yard and enter into a more "photogenic" area!
What you see above is the Belvedere Torso, this famous marble torso entered the Vatican collections between 1530 and 1536 and immediately became one of the ancient sculptures most greatly admired by artists down to present day. More info in the shot below.
Yet another impressive dome and a hall of Roman sculptures!
More corridoors, then the impressive Gallery of Maps; pass this giant cross and suddenly we came to a huge, really dark and noisy room where everyone are looking upwards!
I was so darn tired by then I did not realised we are inside the world famous Sistine Chapel! Ha ha ha...
By now we are so freaking drained that we just wanna get out of the museum! Getting out is not an easy task either... to find the exit...
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It has been a very long and tiring day, may be we should fill up our bottle with "Holy Water"? Yeah Right! Hee hee..
Wow! Even the exit look so arty! I think Lamont got a far better shot than me!
When we came out, this is what we saw! Happy lining up!
Famous Last Words:
It has been a really long day... we will be going to the Basilica the next day.
Touring is hard work! Sure work up a good appetite :)
After our long long day at the Vatican Museums and since we are in Italy, we are looking forward to try out the REAL Italian cooking!
That night we try to find our way to one famous Italian joint in Rome, but somehow Lamont's GPS failed us and since we are all hungry and soaked we went into Terno Secco Pizza Pasta Sfizi. We are not disappointed!
What really impress us was the starters section when you enter the restaurant, we never see such a large selection to choose from! Not in Wellington anyway :)
What did we eat? How how is the taste?
Well, we ordered:
5 portions of antipasto casa (€47.50), 1 cestino pane (€2.00), 2 acqua minerale 1L (€4.00), 1 coca cola littina (€2.50), 1 aranciata lattina (€2.50), 1 mozzarella bufala (€7.00), 1 pizza marinara (€6.50), 1 Risotto crema scampi (€9.50), 1 pasta dello chef (€9.50), 1 panna cotta (€5.00), 1 sorbetto limone (€2.00) and service (€11.50) came to a total of €114.50
Dollar for dollar, the price is CHEAPER than New Zealand! But if you insist to convert, €114.50 = NZ$202.00.
The taste? Absolutely marvellous! We find the taste is much much milder and subtle. If you are in Rome, go try it!
And that is Ming-N with the Mamamiya pizza!
.... to continue
Next... When In Rome 3
1 comment:
its intriguing to me how they can build such amazing buildings in ancient times, before the advent of cranes and other such machinery which is used today for buildings such huge structures.
That bath!! Its huge!!
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