Sistine Chapel/Vatican Museum

To get into the Vatican Museum, it is imperative you book a ticket ahead of time...even having done so, it took me at least 45 minutes to get into the museum from the moment my reservation was checked to when I actually got inside. 

You begin with the sculpture gallery...the Vatican has an incredible collection of antique sculpture. Artists would come here to sketch the ancients. 

Loved these illusionistic doorways...the architects/artists were definitely having fun

and you walk out into a courtyard with two of the most iconic antique sculptures around...Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoon. First - Apollo Belvedere

This guy was discovered in the late 15th century and from then on, his pose could be found copied in painting all over the place...Joshua Reynolds was particularly known for reusing this pose in his portraits. Does the step forward look familiar? Commodore Augustus Keppel paid for Reynolds' trip to Italy (he was British) and to repay him, Reynolds painted this portrait of him as Apollo Belvedere.

 The other very famous sculpture (and rightly so) is the Laocoon, discovered in 1506. Pope Julius II bought it up almost immediately after it was discovered for the Vatican collection. 

Michelangelo was particularly inspired by this piece and made many sketches as soon as it was unearthed - he based many of his own sculptures on the torso of Laocoon. 

Last, the Belvedere torso

Again, discovered during the Renaissance and extremely influential as an object of study. It inspired how Michelangelo and Raphael painted bodies...remember the Raphael frescoes on the ceiling of Villa Farnesina? Or just scroll down a bit further for Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling...the bodies look just like this. 

Moving on...into the papal apartments. The "Raphael Rooms" or stanze di raffaello in the Vatican are some of the most beautifully decorated rooms (going out on a limb here) in the world. The frescoes are only recently restored so they look as bright and colorful as they did in the early 1500s. 

 School of Athens 

and then, through a few more rooms...you finally enter the Sistine Chapel. 

No pictures allowed but I obviously snuck a few. It really is incredible, though I have to say the experience was somewhat marred by the tons and tons and tons of people surrounding you the entire time. Honestly, so many tour groups it was hard for me to have any kind of authentic experience really looking at the art. It really was distracting and I'd love to go back at some point in my life when it is not so crowded. Nonetheless, I did enjoy sitting and staring up at the paintings...I've studied them so many times in so many different contexts that it was fun to see them in person. And that is basically the point of this whole trip to me - to actually see and understand what I've studied for so long. I think it was here that that point really sunk in.