The Vatican Museum .. page 2

Shall we continue our guided tour?   Forgot to mention that we had a local guide for the day .. she was so good!!!   Unfortunately I cannot remember her name sadly 🙁     Keeping up with our group and her colourful scarf attached to an aerial, listening intently to loads of interesting information and taking photographs at the same time .. whilst walking most of the time …. became an art!!!!     .. but I just cannot remember any of the local guides names .. and silly me, I didn’t write them down

Gallery of the Candelabra ..

Goddess of the hunt and the moon .. Diana

Goddess of fertility and abundance .. Diana (Artemis) of Ephesus

Gallery of Tapestries has a magnificent vault decorated in trompe d’oeil (1789)

Tape is visible over cracks in the vault ..

 

A remarkable tapestry woven in 16th century by the workshop of Pieter van Aelst.   The eyes of Christ follow you as you walk passed

Gallery of Maps – frescoes by the 16th century cartographer, Ignazio Danti .. one entire wall was under restoration and covered

… we then made our way to the magnificent Sistine Chapel, where photography was forbidden but we sat on benches against the side walls and gazed .. and gazed in awe at the intricate details of the work : Michelangelo frescoed the ceiling for Pope Julius II between 1508 and 1512 working on specially designed scaffolding : walls were frescoed by ‘some of the finest artists of the 15th and 16th centuries, including Perugino, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli and Signorelli :  decoration was completed from 1534 to 1541 by Michelangelo who painted the Last Judgement:                                                                      

                                                                                           Photo copied from internet

Our local guide gave us quite a long time to sit and take in the magnificence of the Sistine Chapel, before moving on …

St Peter’s Basilica next …

…..   Trafalgar Tour:  Best of Italy:  June 2013