After the spectacular basilica we headed off to the museo.
Expensive at €16 but with one of the best art collection in the world it would be worth it. We were tempted by the ‘beat the queues’ €25 ticket by the official stand at the exit of St. Pete’s place. We are never tempted by the touts, our budget is too hard earned to go to some con artist. We had yet to have lunch. We wandered around the corner to join the queue where we would have lunch.
There was no queue, straight through to the ticket office. That was a lucky escape, we nearly wasted €18, which really would be wasted in the hands of the catholic church.
We went outside anyway to sit in our queue to have lunch. The queue was much like god, non-existent!
This has got to be reviewed on TripAdvisor. The guides we have read warn of long queues to get tickets. So, you could easily would have fallen into the trap of getting them from these guys to avoid the wait and, therefore, pay extra €7. SM.
After lunch, €32 lighter we went in.
Like the basilica, this place is big. You could spend several days here and still not see it all. They say there are 7km of exhibits! This shouldn’t take too long then, lets put on some hiking boots.
Now that is one big bowl.
Ok, not that impressed.
Nice ceiling for a corridor.
Bit crowded at times.
But gloriously inaccurate maps, thank god for ordnance survey, or cartographers!
I still believe the UK produces the best maps, in my humble highly distorted opinion. These are pretty though, frames are a bit ostentatious.
Could have at least got Sicily on, we are heading there next!
No idea what that is. Sometimes Susana takes the photos and I write the blog. Maybe she will add a comment to clarify. There does seem to be some religious stuff going on in the background if that helps.
The dogma about the virginity of the mother of god infuriates me. The catholic church has invented the virgin mary role and sell it to women as an example. To be good, you have to be a mother, a humble wife, always to the mercies of your husband. And the wishful state that every women should aspire is being a virgin. Of course, this is not possible when the catholic church also encourages women to have as many children as god wants to give you, and do not even think of using any form of contraception. So because you can’t be a virgin and have lots of children at the same time, you, as a woman, are condemned to be an unfulfilled person, and the only hope to be the best at the eyes of god is to follow as best as you can this fairy-tale story about this woman. SM.
Probably just told a fib anyway. Can see her and Joseph having a bit of rumpy pumpy behind the stable. You always have to ask yourself what is the most likely answer; did she lie a little, or did she have a virgin birth. I know which I believe.
Ah, this I know, lots of little tiles, nice, cute floor.
Wow, it is amazing we have any gold left.
Love the bright colours.
And they also have a load of modern stuff. If it has some vague reference to the christian religion, it is probably here. Like the cubist interpretation an would love to remember who it was by.
Even some modern sculpture
Not many people into the contemporary stuff, they were all rushing off to see the Michelangelo.
Not sure the religious connection here.
That is why we liked it. Cool drawing of one of the most impressive site of ancient Rome. SM
Really liked the Dali, usually I don’t like Dali.
Tapistry anyone. If you look really hard you can see a slice of toast that vaguely resembled JC, or buddha.
Not that is one fat kid, must be American, or is this some really weird play of perspective, or maybe a really, really….
Crap painting, a few might slip through the net.
Now what a lovely story that is. God, ‘Go slaughter your kid’, Abraham ‘OK’, Kid ‘You gotta be fucking kidding here, you lot are nuts’ God ‘Only kidding’, Abraham ‘Phew’, Kid ‘I wanna be adopted, give me the child line number, you evil bastards’.
Don’t you just love those bible stories, fills you with warmth, and……..morality. Shove your biblical morality.
You can tell the painting are starting to effect me, need to get some air, see some nature.
There were quite a few of these, but Caravaggio did them with the most beautiful light. I got to know Caravagio by a film by Derek Jarmin which suggests the artist was gay. We may never really know conclusively whether this is true or not and it has no bearing on the beauty of his work. What we do know is if he was he will be spending eternity in the flames of hell. Nice to have such a forgiving god. It is always difficult to believe in something where your own morality is greater than that of the deity’s. That is why I cannot believe.
Another fine moral message there for all you sick believers.
Ah and this one could be out of the book of mormon, those lovely lions are not about to rip the throat out of adam. And where are the other millions of species not represented, the bacteria and viruses.
I need a rest. Things are starting to get to me.
Nice stair ramp, double helix, catholics accepting evolution? very difficult to walk down though. Don’t get me wrong, this place is amazing. And the one place we haven’t mentioned.
What everyone really comes to see.
The Sistine chapel. Unlike our fellow travels, we once again respected the wishes of the owners of the work not to photograph it, even though I feel they are vile, evil, sick bastards, they let me in to view the works, and for that I thank them and will respect their wishes.
This is the second time I have been here.
This time, I was overwhelmed by the crowd, and underwhelmed by the ceiling;
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The bit everybody knows is just a small panel, lost within the magnitude of the whole;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel#/media/File:Chapelle_sixtine_plafond.jpg
This is not how I remembered it.
Once the other tourists had taken their surreptitious photos and gone, the room emptied and we were left to view the magnificence of the end wall ‘The last judgement’.
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Still quite a lot of evil hellfire going on. Your god is really some unforgiving, barbaric, nasty piece of work, and you can keep him. But keep on believing
.
GDR
