Vaticano

We went to the Vatican Museums.. Now I could sit here and give you a history of the Papacy and their collections or I could let Wikipedia do it. I choose the latter, mostly because of time rather than because I don't want to.

This is Augustus as he would have been painted in Roman times. Quite... striking... Almost ugly. The main upside is, all the details on his cuirass (armor) really pop out at you.

One of my favorites.

St. Peter's dome of course!

It's pretty...

Gardens.

The beginning of the gallery and,
the beginning of the crowds...

I mainly took a picture of this because, one of the girls said,
"oh look it's the Death-star!

It's supposed to be a comment on the inner
workings of the world... I don't really get it.

Biiiiig head.

My Professor.

She's pretty awesome!

Weird mask like thingy.

The Laocoonte.

Michelangelo loved this piece and it's
influence can be felt throughout the Renaissance.

It was discovered in 1508-ish.

You can't forget to look up!

Torso of Belvedere. Also large influence on
Michelangelo and others.

Minerva or Roma?

Remind you of something? Oh yeah! the Pantheon.

This was a fun way to copy it. However this
one has glass and it *doesn't* rain inside.

Hercules. His face got smushed in the casting process.

Augustus as Pontifex Maximus

CROWDED.

Sarcophagus of Helena, the wife of Constantine
who worked to bring back many relics to Rome.

Augustus.. and a security guard.

Detail of Constantine's daughter's
Sarcophagus. She was a martyred saint.

It's so pretty and entirely from Porphyry.

Funerary Urns.

Flavian Woman.

Beautifully decorated ceiling.

I couldn't get the colors to come
out right on my camera..

Apollo orrrr Dionysus?
It bothers me that I can't tell.

Campania!

Roma!
(The easiest way to tell is to look at the River.)

Siena and Florence

Venice

A really bad picture of the sign for the Sobieski Room.

Hanging people is cool right?
Hawkward...

Mosaic floors that I don't hate!!

Look at that statue in the upper right!
It's the She-Wolf!

Fresh Air!

A better horse than the day before.

Constantine in the middle!

Latin and.. Hebrew I believe. I need to brush
up on my language recognition skills.

"By this sign you shall win."
Beginning of "Conversion" of Constantine.

Replacement of Pagan gods with Christianity.

God in the burning bush.

Expulsion of Heliodorus

This is a good horse, and was executed by Raphael.
Also the statues beneath it are flat!

Story of Isaac.

Release of St. Peter.

Mosaics that used imperial marble..

Philosophy

And the other side.

Poetry

Theology

Fire in the Borgo.

Detail of Aeneas from Troy.

Battle of Ostia.

Sistine Chapel... No Pictures... Snap.

"Shhhh.. No pictures.. Shhh.."

Whatever it's cool and I'm not buying a postcard here anyway.

Fancy Shmancy stairs the pope uses.

We went from the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter's Basilica. Our class (supposed to end at 12) lasted until 1:30. We all decided it was better to stay there than to go to our next class which started at 12:45.

The obelisk outside St. Peter's.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica.

A side-dome.

Jubilee doors.

Another beautiful side dome, they're all
mosaics so it's hard to get pictures with the sun.

Painting re-done in mosaic form.

Michelangelo's Dome.

It's just one meter shy of the Pantheon's width.

Apse of St. Peter's.

By Bernini. I'm not a fan of his bronzework.

Meagan's camera died, soooo I played photographer.
Too bad mine didn't focus properly.

Side part of St. Peter's.

Painting originally by Raphael.
Copied as a mosaic.

Mosaics in a side-dome.

Clare being silly, or as we like to say,
Awesome!

This is a pretty cool Obelisk.

Lidia placing the obelisk in the square!

My camera missed the jumping picture.

Waiting for the bus...

Still waiting...

My very very sneaky roommates decided to bring some holy water home for their families. But they didn't have all of the little bottles with them, so they poured water from a little bottle into a regular water bottle. This was about the funniest thing we did all day! There's some extra left over so they might bless everyone's suitcases before we leave... Question of the day, Does stolen Holy Water still work?