9.10.2012 Rome, Italy (Day 2)

Vatican Museum
We took the metro to Cipro station, which is about a 5-minute stairs+walk from the Vatican Museum entrance. If you get slightly lost, the trick is to locate the seemingly endless wall of the Vatican City.

Before leaving, I got some great tips from this LonelyPlanet article. While I had hoped to avoid visiting the museum on a Monday (supposedly the busiest day of the week) as advised by the article, it turned out to be unavoidable schedule-wise.

Yay! The entrance to the Vatican Museum!

I had already pre-ordered tickets to the Vatican Museum online. It cost a couple more euros but the surcharge was well worth it since it meant skipping the hours-long wait outside (and there was already a long line of people at 9:30 in the morning.) After the security check (yes, there's a security check!) and ticket pick-up, a long escalator ride awaited us.

I'm not a fan of the Vatican Museum guide/map. There's no building plan or any introduction about the numerous collections/sections. I have a sneaky suspicion that this is a ploy to improve sales of the official Vatican Museum guidebooks.
And although I have read rumours of colour-coded tour routes (shortest being 2-3 hours, longest being 5-7 hours), I didn't see anything that suggested to their actual existence.

At any rate, the plan was to exit the museum after the Sistine Chapel (through the "secret" side-exit) which meant skipping almost the entire right half of the map.

As per the LonelyPlanet tip sheet suggested, we took a detour to the famous spiral staircase first. The staircase is in actuality the official museum exit but we had no plans to exit this way (more on this later.)

Beautiful. A double helix, this staircase is regularly featured on Top 10 lists. 

Cortile della Pinacoteca ("Gallery Courtyard")

 

Atrium dei Quattro Cancelli ("Atrium of Four Gates")

Cortile della Pigna ("Courtyard of Pine")

So called because of the giant pine cone seen in the photo. The bronze pine cone is 2,000 years-old, if you can believe it, and was originally part of a fountain situated near the Pantheon. Water once sprouted from the pine cone.

As for symbolism, the pine cone seems to represent immortality and/or the "Third Eye" (whatever that means... something about Fibonacci number/spiral... this sounds like a job for Dr. Robert Langdon.) All I know is that the pine cone looks impressively well-kept for its age.

And in the centre of the courtyard, Sfera con Sfera ("Sphere within Sphere".) 

The golden spheres represent Earth and Christianity and how Christianity ideals encompass the entire world.

Museo Gregoriano Egizio ("Egyptian Museum")

 

The Egyptian museum was filled with interesting statues, sarcophagi, and other artifacts. There are so many things to look at that the space seems overcrowded at times (a common trait in the Vatican Museum). Each artifact was fascinating in their own right, but the Roman Anubis was what caught my eye.

The River Nile

Um... the entrance to the Museo Pio-Clementino?

Cortile Ottagano ("Octogonal Court")

Laocoon and his Sons

 

Roman sarcophagi

Another river god??? The Tiber?

Museo Pio Clementino - Sala degli Animali ("Room of Animals")
Like the name implies, this room is dedicated entirely to animals sculptures. A marble menagerie. There's the typical lions and horses...

... but also the more strange and exotic. Leopard, cheetah, llama (?), fish... there's even a crab!

Ooooh... can't resist a good-looking mosaic. And lots and lots of marble statues.... I'm not sure why the Vatican Museum decided to include marble bathtubs but I'm sure there has to be some historical significance (other than being really really really old), right?

Mental note: Always ALWAYS remember to check out the ceiling.

Muses.

Museo Pio Clementino - Sala Rotunda ("Round Room")
The Vatican's own little version of the Pantheon. Is not Athena fierce?

Amazing coffered ceiling.

Museo Pio Clementino - Sala della Biga ("Room of the Chariot")

Closed to visitors due to damage, this was the best shot I had. Judging from online photos, the chariot sculpture is incredible. Carved entirely out of marble, the horses seem frozen in mid-stride.

Galleria del Candelabri

Adjacent to the archway, one of the namesake marble candelabras is just visible by its outline. I imagine the gallery would be more impressive looking with all eight candelabras lit.

Galleria degli Arazzi ("Tapestry Gallery")
The only section of the museum under climate-control, dimness of the gallery made it hard to fully appreciate the tapestries.

Galleria della Carte Geografiche ("Map Room")
An impressive display. This was my most memorable room in the entire Vatican Museum (including the Sistine Chapel.) 

Logge di Raffaello ("Loggias of Raphael")

 

Oh my. The ceiling is just brilliant!

Look at those vivid colours. Respledent.

Carytids - Logge di Raffaello ("Loggias of Raphael")

More of that amazing ceiling.

A grumpy-looking guy! 

(I would be too, if they stuck the public washroom right next to me...)

Slightly creepy-looking Cherubs lurking in the corner. 

(Is it blasphemous to describe angels as "creepy-looking"?)

The Sistine Chapel
Finally, the piece de resistance. Michelangelo's great masterpiece. Umm... what can I say... Well, for one thing, it is extremely crowded and noisy, much more than I would have expected in a chapel. And the way the entrance is structured, you end up having an upside-down view of the ceiling (God and Adam are upside down. Maybe the Vatican is trying to tell us something?) In order to fully appreciate the ceiling, you either have to walk backwards towards the exit (impossible in the crowd!) or walk from the exit towards the entrance (also impossible!) Plus, the ceiling is so high up that it's difficult to see all the details. The constant influx of people just made me want to leave.

So leave we did, through the not-so-secret-but-still-secret-enough shortcut exit meant for tour groups (as tipped off by the aforementioned LonelyPlanet article.) This shortcut exit leads directly to St. Peter's Basilica, which saved us from miles of extra walking.

While I would love to return one day and visit the rest of the Vatican Museum, I'm not sure I would attempt it without some extensive research. If anything, I would at least like to know what I'm looking at/for.

Until then, Vatican Museum.