Vatican is
the smallest country in the world. We started our journey day trip from Rome to
Vatican in morning by taking the metro from Termini to Ottaviano station which
is closest to the Vatican museums. So, after walk of around 1.5 kms from the
metro station, we reached to the epicenter of Christianity, the Holy
Magnanimous St. Peters Basilica. Since we started early, there were not many
people around and it took us barely 5 mins to complete the security check and
enter the Basilica.
Quick Tips:
·
People generally start queuing up from 7:30am
but you can still come around 9:00 am on weekdays to skip most of the crowd.
Around noon, you can see a sea of crowd in thousands lining up in the security
check queue
·
As this is one of its own church where each
painting has its own history and story, I would recommend to either take guided tour,
skip the line with audio or just download
audio prior so that you won’t miss out the intriguing art, paintings and
the historic events behind them
St. Peter’s
Basilica
We started
our trip by going to the dome of basilica, one of biggest in the world. We took
the life which cost us ~10 Euros. Please be mindful of the fact that there will
be another 150-200 steps after the lift which you have to climb on your own and
as you are almost there, the steps become spiral in shape where only one person can move at a time.
Once you reach at the top, you do sense of accomplishment and can see the
beautiful top view of the holy city.
After taking
the deep breath and capturing the amazing view, we came down from the top and
then went to see the church. Although I am not Christian, but I must admit that
after looking at the carvings, paintings, arts and history behind each and
every image, I was so curious and baffled by the grandeur of the place. It was
moment of pure bliss!
We then went
to Souvenir shop within the Basilica premises and bought couple of gifts for
our loved ones.
After the
tour, we went to grab a quick lunch at Panino
Sistino. If you want to go for heavy lunch, maybe you can skip this place.
View of St.
Peters square from Top of Basilica
Map: St.
Peter’s Square
Sistine
Chapel
Sistine
Chapel or Papal Chapal, built in 1481, is one of the chapels of the Apostolic
chapels in the Vatican city and is also the official residence of Pope. The
main attraction of the place is the frescoes paintings by many Florentine Renaissance artists. These paintings depict
the life of Christ, Moses, different Popes, etc. The most mesmerizing frescoes
paintings by Michelangelo on the ceiling and wall behind the altar,
collectively known as Sistine Ceiling depicting incidents from Old Testament and The Last Judgement. The other marvels of Sistine chapel include
first reproduction of God with a muscular body very similar to Greek God
Jupiter and creation of Adam by God.
The place is
also the principal site for Papal ceremonies and is used by the Sacred College
of Cardinals for their election of new Pope whenever they have vacancy.
You can book the
tickets to Sistine Chapel, the guided tour and private tour as well.
Hours: 9:00 to 18:00
Entry Fee: 17 Euros
Vatican
Museum
With around
6M visitors every day, Vatican Museums are one of main attraction of Vatican
city. Built in 16th century, Vatican has large number of museums
have huge collections covering vast history, architecture and religion making
it the one of the largest museum in the world.
Major
attraction of the Museums are Roman replica of Greek originals, 15th
century map of Italy painted in fiasco, Vatican cars and coaches, Christian antiques, Raphael rooms,
etc. among many other gems.
The museum is
the entry gate for Sistine chapel. So, if you are taking ticket for Sistine
Chapel, then that ticket includes entry to Vatican Museums as well.
Hours: 9:00 to 18:00
Entry Fee: 17 Euros
 |
| Beautiful art at Vatican Museum |
Also Read: Paris-
City of Love
No comments:
Post a Comment