Rome Vatican City

☎06 69 88 49 47; www.vatican.va. From P. San Pietro, walk 10 blocks north along the Vatican City wall. From Ottaviano, turn left on V. Ottaviano to reach the Vatican City wall; turn right and follow the wall to the museum’s entrance. Several signs along the wall point to the entrance. Major galleries open Mar.-Oct. M-Sa 8:30am-6pm. Last entry 2hr. before closing. Closed on major religious holidays. Snack bar between the collection of modern religious art and the Sistine Chapel; full cafeteria near main entrance pavilion. Most of the museums are wheelchair-accessible, though less visited parts, such as the upper level of the Etruscan Museum, are not. €14, ISIC members €8; with guided tour €30, reduced €25; children under 1m tall and last Su of the month 8:30am-12:30pm free. Info and gift shop sell a useful guidebook (€7.50) on ground level past the entrance. Audio tour €6.

The Vatican Museums hold one of the world’s greatest collections of art, with ancient, Renaissance, and modern paintings, sculptures, and, of course, papal odds and ends. Most visitors to the museum tend to rush through, scurrying past “lesser” collections like the Gallery of Maps or the collection of modern religious art in order to make it to the Sistine Chapel. Don’t. Stop when you are intrigued; spend as long as you’d like observing; move on until you see something else that catches your fancy. Sip a caffè around mid-afternoon if you get tired. Eventually it’ll be time to head out; just be sure to admire the famous bronze double-helix ramp as you ramble down it toward the exit.

Are We There Yet? Lines for the Vatican Museums, which begin forming around 6:30am, only become more unbearable as the day goes on. It’s not a bad idea to drag yourself out of that rock-hard hostel bed at an early hour.

Sistine Chapel. Since its completion in the 16th century, the Sistine Chapel, named for its founder, Pope Sixtus IV, is the site of the College of Cardinals’ election of new popes, most recently Pope Benedict XVI in April 2005. Michelangelo’s ceiling, the pinnacle of artistic creation, gleams from its controversial 20-year restoration, which ended in 1999. (Fresh layers of paint have restored what curators believe to be the frescos’ original vibrant appearance, but purists would have preferred to preserve the master’s original brushstrokes.) Each section depicts a story from Genesis with simple compositions and bold color. The scenes are framed by the well-known ignudi (young nude males).

Perhaps the most notable aspect of the Chapel is the depiction of God on the ceiling. (He’s the fellow with the purple-pink robe and the long grey beard.) Portraits of the Creator have generally been considered taboo even in religious art, but Michelangelo broke with tradition to show Him not just once but in a series of scenes. Like a true humanist, the artist gave his holiest subject the same form as his other creations. In fact, God and Adam were drawn using the same cartoon in Creation of Adam (panel 4). The artist did this to confirm that God created man “in his own image”—in this case, literally. And, famously, we get a rear view in Creation of Sun, Moon, and Plant Life (panel 2).

Michelangelo painted this masterpiece by standing on a platform and craning backward—he never recovered from the strain to his neck and eyes. The Last Judgment fills the altar wall; the figure of Christ as judge lingers in the upper center, surrounded by his saintly entourage and the supplicant Mary. Michelangelo painted himself as a flayed human skin that hangs symbolically between the realms of heaven and hell. The frescoes on the side walls predate Michelangelo’s ceiling; they were completed between 1481 and 1483 by a team of artists under Perugino including Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Roselli, Signorelli, and della Gatta. On one side, scenes from the life of Moses complement parallel scenes of Christ’s life on the other. Sitting is only allowed on the benches along the side. Guards will ask you to be silent, as the chapel is a holy place.

Other Vatican Galleries. The Museo Pio-Clementino houses the world’s greatest collection of antique sculptures. The famous statue of Laocoön, who was strangled by Neptune’s sea serpents for being suspicious of the Greek’s gift of the wooden horse, is located in the octagonal courtyard. The sculpture possesses an extraordinary vitality that even the great Renaissance artists were hard-pressed to match. Our pal Michelangelo was so taken with the work that he refused to replace the figure’s missing arms, declaring himself a lesser artist than the man who produced the work. Proceeding through the courtyard, two slobbering hounds guard the entrance to the Stanza degli Animali, a marble menagerie highlighting Roman brutality. The statue of Apollo Belvedere served as a model for much of Renaissance painting and sculpture. Move through the galleries to the Round Room, which is dominated by a distorted statue of Hercules. The last room of the gallery has the red sarcophagus of Santa Helena, Constantine’s mother. From here, the Simonetti Stairway climbs to the Museo Etrusco, filled with artifacts from Tuscany and northern Lazio. This collection of pieces including sarcophagi, amphorae, and even a chariot, is one of the Museum’s underappreciated galleries—you probably won’t have it to yourself, but your experience with the works will be far more intimate. Be warned that the gallery sometimes closes randomly. Back on the landing of the Simonetti Staircase is the Stanza della Biga (“Room of the Ancient Marble Chariot”) and the Galleria della Candelabra, which contains over 500 smaller statues. The route to the Sistine Chapel begins here, passing first through the dimly lit Galleria degli Arazzi (“Gallery of Tapestries”), which contains enormous, intricately woven works completed by Raphael’s school from the artist’s designs after his death. Note the scenes from the life of Pius VI on the ceiling—it was he who had the gallery commissioned.

From there it’s on to the Galleria delle Mappe (“Gallery of Maps”), a gem of a room with exquisitely detailed frescoes depicting parts of Italy and France. From the Apartamento di Pio V, you can take a shortcut to the Sistine Chapel. Those who wait, however, will be rewarded: after trooping through the Stanza Sobieski, with its bizarre and explicit combination of religious and military themes, and the Stanza dell’Immacolata Concezione, visitors enter the first of the four Stanze di Rafaele. These glorious rooms were apartments built for Julius II in the 1510s; the pope fired his original team of artists and commissioned Rafael to decorate the rooms’ walls after the painter produced the famous T School of Athens as a trial piece. (The project marked the beginning of the artist’s career in Rome). The four rooms provide viewers with a rough history of Christianity and the Church, at least as Julius conceived it. Of special interest is the Stanza della Signatura, which houses the School of Athens. This fresco, as its name suggests, represents philosophy. The room’s three remaining walls are each dedicated to another branch of knowledge: to the visitor’s left is law; to the right poetry; and to the front religion.

From here, there are two paths: one to the Sistine Chapel, and the other to a staircase to the frescoed Borgia apartments and the Museum of Modern Religious Art. Don’t worry: you’ll eventually make it to Michelangelo’s masterwork if you take the latter. For the most part it’s not the most interesting collection, but a glorious stained-glass window by Leger and paintings by several German Expressionists await the visitor who ventures into these cool, dark rooms.

Pinacoteca. This collection of 12th to 18th-century masterpieces of painting makes for one of the best galleries in Rome. It includes Filippo Lippi’s Coronation of the Virgin, Perugino’s Madonna and Child, Titian’s Madonna of San Nicoletta dei Frari, and Raphael’s Transfiguration. As if that weren’t enough, these rooms also hold works by Giotto, Poussin, da Vinci, and Caravaggio. On the way out of the Sistine Chapel, take a look at the Room of the Aldobrandini Marriage, which contains a series of rare ancient Roman frescoes.