VATICAN & SISTINE CHAPEL

SISTINE CHAPEL: MICHELANGELO
The most famous fresco painting of the world: Michelangelo’s “Making of Adam” is right above your head. Be ready to have gooseflesh! Go up to the hill with desperate people running away from the raising of the waters in the Great Flood, or hate the serpent-like devil that tempts Eve. Finally, feel like being small and guilty in front of the most astounding painting ever: Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, with its massive Jesus Christ and the “tornado of Saints” all around him. And finally smile while looking at Michelangelo’s revenge: the master of cerimonie Biagio da Cesena painted like a nude monster! What did he do to deserve it? He criticized the artist’s work…

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SISTINE CHAPEL: BOTTICELLI, PERUGINO, GHIRLANDAIO AND MANY OTHERS
Michelangelo was 6 years old when the best Masters of Italy painted the walls of the Sistine Chapel. You can “part the waters of the Red Sea” with Moses or you can follow him up to the Sinai. You can be one of the viewer of Jesus’ Baptism or stand behind St.Peter’s while he receives the “Two Keys”. Finally you can visualize the Conclave that took place here in 1942 electing Pope Alexander Borgia!

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VATICAN MUSEUM: THE PINECONE COURTYARD AND THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMS
Take a picture of one of the oldest bronze fountains of the world in the Pinecone Courtyard. And then pay homage to the Emperor Augustus, with his gigantic marble head. Walk thourgh the most ancient Facebook ever: the Gallery of the Roman Portaits. Feel sad starring at the death of the marble Lacoont and his children during the War of Troy or look for Apollo‘s arrow in the Belvedere Courtyard. Admire the back of the famous “Belvedere Torso“, that inspired Michelangelo 500 years ago. Be astonished in front of the perfection of St.Helen’s sarcophagus, by far the most perfect piece of red marble of the entire collection.

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VATICAN MUSEUM: THE GALLERIES
Walk through the Gallery of Candelabra, with its ancient funerary urns (d’you know? Romans were mostly cremated in the past!). Don’t touch the most beautiful textiles ever in the Gallery of Tapestries. Do you want to fly? Be shocked by the beauty of the first Google Maps of the world: the Gallery of Geographycal Maps, painted for Pope Gregory XIII 430 years ago and still perfectly preserved.
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ST.PETER'S BASILICA
The largest church of the world: simply breathless. More than 600 feet long. Its dome reaches an hight of 450 feet. About 20.000 squared meters of colourful marble on the floor. 57 gigantic marble statues of Saints, 192 flying angels, 31 different altars. These are just some of the numbers that make this church the most imprevvise experience of your trip. Looking for higlights? Not a problem: Michelangelo’s Pietà and large Dome; Bernini’s bronze Canopy, his alabaster window and his monument for Pope Alexander VII; the mosaic pictures that cover the walls of the entire building. And for the most religious visitors: the tomb of St.Peter (visible from the outside); John Paul II’s tomb; the room containing the Holy Cross of Jesus and his Holy Face.

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ST.PETER'S SQUARE
You can meet the Pope twice a week in St.Peter’s Square. On Wednesday, during the so-called “Pope’s Audience“. And on Sunday, when the Pope appears in the famous window to say the mid-day prayer (Angelus) together with the believers. Surrounded by Bernini’s 284 travertine columns, this square is inspiring. You can focus on the Sistine Chapel’s roof, when during the Conclave the firemen put a bronze chimney for the black and the white smoke. You can look at the main balcony, where the new Pope comes out for the first time soon after his election. You can admire the imposing bulk of Michelangelo’s Dome from the outside. And of course you can take some of the best pictures of your trip!