La Dolce Vita: 4 Things You Should Know About the Vatican

Last Thursday morning, we had a 9:00am appointment to go into the Vatican, and as we walked the 5 minute journey from our apartment into the separate state of Vatican City we could already see the lines forming a few miles long to go into it. Thankfully our intelligent (and experienced) teacher Daria bought us tickets in advance so we entered the museum as soon as it opened but it was already so, so packed with crowds. Daria told us it receives an estimate of 20,000 visitors a day which is a pretty ridiculous concept to wrap your head around, in my opinion, yet it proved to be true after about spending about an hour inside of it. But, as far as the Vatican goes, here are 4 things that I think you should know about it:

1. You MUST go as soon as it opens in the morning and have your Vatican journey mapped out prior to your entrance so you don't lose time looking at maps once you're in the museum.

2. If you're not an art lover and/or aficionado then battling the endless crowds are most likely not worth it; the stepped-on feet and constant shoving is, however, worth it if you are, like me, an art lover.

3. Michelangel's Sistine Chapel is absolutely breathtaking. (and although it is the one place in the museum in which taking pictures is forbidden, you can sneak one in without the flash and that is definitely worth the anxiety experience in hiding from the guards.)

4. If you go to the Vatican Museum, you can go right into the adjacent St. Peter's Basilica without having to wait in a super-long security line for people just entering the Basilica and not the Museum, and inside the Basilica is very beautiful.

And now for the pictures...!

This is a view of St. Peter's Square looking on to the Basilica that is neighboring the Vatican museum. (I was technically standing on the border of the two separate countries of Vatican City and Italy when I took this picture, which is kind of cool to be in 'two places at once'.)

Another view of St. Peter's square I took when I went on a run the day before we went into the Vatican.

Vatican City in the distance when the sun is setting.

View of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica from the patio of the Vatican Museum.

One of Raphael's masterpieces, "Transfiguration". Just for a sense of perspective this is about 12 feet tall...

Vatican courtyard with galleries surrounding it.

Ginormous bust of Augustus in the courtyard. (If I stood next to it I would probably reach the bottom of the neck...)

Famous sculpture, "Laocoon and His Sons", which was so crowded that it unfortunately was not worth the time (according to Daria) to push through to get a close up picture.

One of the many, many gallery halls of art.

This long hallway has a pretty frescoed ceiling and mosaic maps of regions of the world along the walls that were used for army generals to plot out battles.

One of the many frescoed rooms of the Papal Apartments.

Raphael's "School of Athens" painting in one of the papal apartments; I was so excited to see this specific painting and it even exceeded my expectations in person!

Ceiling of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel!!!

One of the most famous sections of the Sistine Chapel called "Creation of Adam"; it's in the center of the above picture but I wanted to zoom in on it. It's a little blurry because it's pretty hard to take stealth pictures that are clear and in focus.,.

Michelangelo's "Last Judgement" which is the back wall of the Sistine Chapel and was my favorite part of the Chapel by far. The colors were so vibrant. (but unfortunately do not look like that in my picture since I could not have my flash on)

Two famous paintings on one of the walls in the Sistine Chapel: on the left is Perugino's "Christ Delivering the Keys to St. Peter" and on the right is Rosselli's "Last Supper".