My Europe Trip 2010 – Vatican City

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Thanks to the holiday season I finally have some time to update on my almost-abandoned Europe trip series. Continued from Rome, this post about Vatican City would be a short one and more on photos because the experience was akin to visiting a humongous musuem.

Vatican City

So there is nothing much I could talk about. Plus, I am not a historian anyway. We spent a total of three nights in Rome and we actually visited Vatican City (it is located within Rome if you didn’t know already) on our second day.

vatican-city-queue

There are a couple of ways you could reach Vatican City but the best way would be taking the metro. I highly recommend you to see the museums first because the queue could get freaking long (see pic above, and that’s only a quarter of the entire queue!) So, wake up early and get there early, by 9am at least.

vatican-museum-entrance

If you are really desperate to skip the line, you could take up the so-called guided group tour for around €20 a pax if not mistaken. We were glad we did not purchase the guided group tour, as most of them still had to queue at the group line.

museum-statue-2

Vatican Museums is worth visiting because besides being one of the greatest in the world, it also houses the immense collection built up by the Roman Catholic Church since its foundation in the early 16th century. Millions of tourists throng the museum annually.


lion-statue

museum-statue

Thousands of statues and sculptures are on display. Even Egyptian mummies as well. If you were to inspect each and every item and learn about their histories, one whole day also wouldn’t be enough.

bronze-statue

We simply followed the visiting route and looked at anything that appeared particularly interesting to us. If you are planning to visit the Vatican Museums I think you should first do a research and know what are the significant collections to see when you reach.

beautiful-ceiling

vatican-ceiling

ceiling

Beautiful frescos painted with immaculate details on the ceilings and walls inside the museum. Pretty jaw-dropping stuff if you see them in real, I snapped like crazy here.

paintings-on-corridor

Walking along the Vatican Museums’ many corridors, heavily decorated with paintings and frescoes.

large-fresco

fresco

These frescoes in actual size are even larger than an adult, can you imagine?

vatican-corridor-ceiling

corridor

At the west side of the Belvedere Courtyard is The Gallery of Maps consisting of 40 panels stretching as long as 120m. The large scale frescoes depicts regions in Italy and their respective perspective view of the most prominent cities.

sistine-chapel

Sistine Chapel is undoubtedly the most popular attraction in the Vatican, featuring Michaelangelo’s masterpiece The Last Judgement on the ceiling, which was restored more than 20 years ago. The ceiling is amazing, just surreal. However, this place is overly crowded compared to the other sections in the museums so watch your belongings.

sistine-chapel-ceiling

sistine-chapel-2

Plenty of signs lead visitors to the Sistine Chapel, which is accessible through the vast labryinth, which also serves as the highlight at the end of the tour. Do note that although flashless photograhy is allowed in the museums, it is strictly prohibited here. If you are caught photographing anything in the Sistine Chapel you would be led out immediately by the museum personnels, no questions asked. But I took my chances.

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13 COMMENTS

  1. You are not supposed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel.

    When I visited the Chapel 2 years ago, there are little boards with “no camera”. Regardless, most visitors ignore the reminder. Worst of all, the guard didn’t seem to bother as well.

    Anyway, excellent photos.

  2. Your photos are awesome, love the colors and composition of cause. Using your 5DMark II with Sigma 17-70mm? I only have 400D… Y_Y
    Btw, really enjoying your blog so much and getting better & better. Welldone!

    Will visit Italy in Jan & May. Thanks for the tips & uselful info you shared. Have you pump into any gypsies?

  3. Thanks! Ur blog is awesome, i’ve found many useful tips. Btw, how much is the average price for the venetian mask? I found the Vatican museum pretty much like Louvre, Paris which i have been to. However, the Basilica is really interesting!

  4. Very nice post with professional photos… Very informative as well. I am going to Europe next month. Your itinerary & travel tips definitely help a lot! Keep it up for your blogging as u gain one more fan here! Thanks for your effort for sharing all these…:)

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