Vatican Museums: My Favorites
Meeting Point of Around Rome Tours for Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel
Our tour to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel started with a bad mood. I booked and paid the tour in advance through the ‘Around Rome Tours’ website. However, on the designated place and time to meet, no one from the Around Rome Tours showed up. It was only my mother and me who were waiting (we arrived 30 minutes before the scheduled meeting time). I called their office but no one was answering the phone so we decided to visit their office in Rome. As we arrived, the management apologized and told us their guide was sick. We accepted their offer to join a similar tour from another travel agent.
We spent half a day arranging something that should not have happened at the first place. I had the feeling that we were the only customers on that morning’s tour so we were being “ignored”. I did not plan to write a negative review about ‘Around Rome Tours’ on my blog but my one star review did not show up in their website (based on my latest check 15 May 2015). I guess negative reviews will never appear on their website, but of course I can tell the world about this experience instead. Just be aware when booking their tour online.
Anyway, we lost half a day but we had a good tour in the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel from the other travel agent. The Vatican Museums are huge; it contains 54 art galleries. We did not visit all the galleries and I don’t think we could, even if we spent a whole day inside the museum. From the visit, I concluded three areas in the Vatican Museums are my favorites:
It is a large hall in Pius Clementine Museum. The Round Room was built in 18th century. Michelangelo Simonetti designed the dome of the room inspired from the Pantheon’s dome.
I found the dome to be impressive and perfectly paired to the red colored circle room with colossal statues. A large monolithic porphyry basin was located in the center of the room. It was believed it was used by the ancient Roman’s Emperor Nero.
The room of the Segnatura was one of the Raphael Rooms. Raphael’s painting “The School of Athens” is displayed in the room and is impressive. It was painted between 1509 and 1511 during the Renaissance era. I just thought the whole concept of the painting was intriguing. I will return later on and share on Raphael Rooms in future post.
One of the reasons to visit the Vatican Museums was to see this impressive staircase myself. This staircase was in my bucket list of photography subjects to capture. The staircase was designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932. This iconic staircase, as mentioned by numerous articles, has two separate helix, one leading up and the other leading down. They twist together in a double helix formation. The helix formation actually represents life, after the discovery of the double helix DNA in 1950-ish. Coincidence?
Have you been to Vatican Museums? Which areas do you like best?
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So impressive, very well captured… 🙂
Thank you so much Drake!
We had somewhat of a similar experience with another tour company going to the Vatican. The guide did pick us up on time but did not seemed to be interested in the tour. we would have had a better tour with a Pod Cast from “Rick Steves”. They also had advertised a back scenes tour of the gardens and repair shops, which did not happen. Just have to be careful of the tours. Another tour changed the starting place to the original ending place. We did find the best gelato place right across from the Vatican museum. Too much to see in the museum in one day. Great Photos
Thank you so much Jim! Indeed, it was tricky with the tour. I was reluctant at first to take any tour to enter the museums but after reading so many reviews of how crowded the lines and long queue were, I did not want to take the risks to wait too long on the queue. I think I know the gelato that you are talking about! It could be the same one we had 🙂
I’ve never visited the Vatican (never yet visited Europe, for that matter) but your photos make it seem as I’m also there 🙂 The fisheye effect makes it even more interesting. As always, thanks so much for sharing some of your amazing journey!
Thank you so much Takami! Happy to share this travel with you 🙂
Glorious photos Indah. So sorry about the tour mishap, but such beauty and majesty you have captured.
Thank you! the Vatican museums were impressive 🙂
The staircase is gorgeous!
Thank you so much Jenny!
Indah, Another super tour of Italy with the Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel after that slow start with “Around Rome Tours.” We saw it all in September 2014 but did not take the famous stairway up & down. When you get older you have to preserve the knees! –Any tour, any country, any structure, we skip the climbing!!! We had both been to the Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel & St. Peter’s many years ago before we met, some 40+YEARS AGO!!! You are doing a marvelous job posting Italy!!! Phil
Thank you so much Phil! Gladly sharing this post to bring back good travel recollection you had in Italy 🙂
Sorry to hear about the tours. Sometimes such things happen. Nonetheless I am sure you had an amazing day with your mother 🙂
Great pics as usual. Sometimes you should just shake your pic a bit or make it out of focus or something so that I can have a different opinion for once, lol (just kidding)
I might do that someday in other post 😀 😀 Thanks so much Anoop!
What do you work as Indah? Just out of curiosity.
🙂 unfortunately not as a photographer 😁😁 I work in judicial sector, more related to humanitarian sector.
OK. I thought you were a travel photographer for some mag. hehe !
Oh mine, I can’t believe it! You caught the School of Athens by Raphael! What colors and perspective! Your church interiors are fabulous! The dome is marvelous!!
Thank you so much Maria! I am in love with the School of Athens painting, the philosophy behind it is so intriguing!