This post is going to be out of order but I am so stinking excited I have to post this one before I tell you about yesterday.

After receiving ten kinds of whiplash, almost clipping the front end of a Vespa off  and joining hips with the side of a bus, AND learning all sorts of fun new Italian words that start with the letter F, my taxi driver got me safely to the Vatican for my evening tour of the Sistine Chapel.  I visited three years ago when I was here and became fascinated with the lives and times of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, the Medici family, the popes, and the clandestine relationships between them all.  I have wanted to come back ever since.  Tonight I got my chance.

The Vatican itself is stunning in sheer magnitude and quantity of ancient statues.  Everything from the days of Ancient Greece to the Renaissance and everything in between is lined up in the Vatican.  One of my favorites is "Laocoon" which tells the story of Laocoon, the ruler of Troy, and his two sons being pulled down to Hades by sea serpents so they cannot warn the people of Troy the Trojan Horse is full of murderous Greeks.  The talent of the sculptor rivals Michelangelo in the sense that every muscle and feature looks almost real.  You almost expect to hear him crying out it is so realistic.

There are rooms (and when I say room don't think of your living room...think 40 foot high ceilings and thousands of square feet) full of animal sculptures, busts of Greeks and Romans, warriors, emperors, granite baths, sarcophagi, mosaic floors that were in the largest bath houses in Rome,  tapestry hallways, map painting hallways and on and on forever.  A person could be there for a month and still never see it all.

Since we were there after St. Peter's Basilica was closed we got to tour Raphael's apartment.  I did not realize this but Raphael lived in the Vatican and was charged with painting many frescoes in some of the apartments.  Needless to say I was stunned when I walked in and there up on the wall in 200" x 300" dimension was the real authentic "The School of Athens".  I almost cried.  The art of modernity is junk in comparison to the art of the Renaissance.  The focus on saying something, explaining the worldview of the time, the use of color and material to work in high and low light, and using techniques that would stand the test of time are all so evident in the work of this time period.  It took my breath away.

I thought things couldn't get any better than seeing that but when I walked into the Sistine Chapel I could see I was very wrong.  I was one of only about 200 people in the whole chapel.  This was unbelievable.  And what's more?  The guide said we could stay in there as long as we wanted until they kicked us out.  And that is just what I did.  I was the very last one out of the Sistine Chapel tonight.  The guards followed me out and locked the doors.  I got to turn around and take one last look at an empty Sistine Chapel.  I got to see the Last Judgment the same way Michelangelo did when he painted the last stroke and stood back to admire his work.  It was truly an amazing experience.

To top it all off I actually got a really good taxi driver on the way back to my hotel.  He drove calm and I didn't even feel like I was going to die once.  He got the tip sleepy scary guy didn't.