I initially thought, "Oh, I'll just make the Vatican one post", and then I saw how many pictures there were. We are just taking this from entrance to the Circular Hall peeps...I'm even in photo overload looking at it.
So let's start.
Entrance to the Vatican. I thought we'd enter through the area by St. Peter's that I've seen on TV, but instead we hopped off the subway, walked uphill past a lot of olive trees to this lovely place.
I love the details. Everything in Rome had such great detail. I had to keep reminding myself this was hand carved and it wasn't poured concrete like in the States. Lazy lazy States.
I thought it was a pinecone, it was in fact a pineapple.
Now this may seem a little vulgar, but it is history...and interesting. One of the Popes, I forget who, really didn't like all of the statues with men parts hanging out...so he had them all cut off. They were placed in a box and burried in this courtyard. Years later someone dug up the box of weenies. Now, this story only led to a bunch of goofy people acting goofier. When Christine, our guide for the week, told us this we all kinda simultaneously started singing that Justin Timberlake SNL song "______ in a box". Being that she was Italian and hadn't seen it we then had to go into detail about what the song was picking on. Priceless.
Don't be fooled by the picture, this head was giant.
Finally entering into the Vatican. When you enter you wander through tons of rooms filled with art. I didn't expect that at all, I was really just imagining the overly popular well known areas of the place. The art here spans from Roman pagan times to present. We only focused on ancient and art from the Renaissance. Because seriously who wants to look at modern art when you are in the midst of all this.
Apoxyomenos - athlete scraping himself. 1st cent. A.D. roman copy of bronze original by Lisippus.
Some of our group talking to Christine in the courtyard. I loved talking to our guide, she had a degree in archeology. So smart and interesting. I just love picking the brain of people like that.
I wanted to eat one of the clementines so bad but with all the guards I didn't want to get in trouble. We were told one wrong move and your out. Pope don't play.
I think this was supposed to represent Caesar or Rome, not 100% sure.
Is that face to the left not creepy!
The tiles were absolutely amazing, the border looked almost 3D.
Every square inch of this place was amazing. I could have laid on the floor and just stared at the ceiling for days.
We'll end today on the Belvedere Torso. This statue us just absolutely stunning. Christine said Michelangelo thought the Belvedere was the prefect male torso. If you look at most men he painted they have this torso, especially God and Jesus in the painting of the Sistine Chapel.
Next post, and I promise I will finish Italy this week, will start at the Circular Room.
