Amazing Rome

 

VATICAN MUSEUMS

 

The tour will start at the Vatican Museums, which houses a vast collection gathered over the centuries by various popes for a total of 70,000 works of art, some of which were commissioned by the popes themselves.

 

First we will visit the so-called “Cortile della Pigna” which gets its name from a colossal bronze pinecone from the Roman age that overlooks the courtyard. We will walk through the “Belvedere” Courtyard which houses some of the masterpieces of classical art such as the Apollo Belvedere, sublime expression of Greek art, and the Laocoon, which strongly influenced the artistic activity of the great Michelangelo! Next, we will admire the collections of classical antiquity preserved in the Museo Chiaramonti and the Museo Pio Clementino where we will find the beautiful Apoxyomenos and fine examples of Hellenistic sculpture.

 

At the second floor we will walk through the Candelabra Gallery, the Tapestry Gallery, and the Gallery of Maps. The latter still amazes thousands of people because of its walls frescoed with maps of the regions in Italy.

 

Raffaello is one of the greatest geniuses that you can admire in the Vatican. In fact, Pope Julius II chose four rooms for the young artist to decorate, the so-called Raphael Rooms.

 

Last but not least, we will admire the Sistine Chapel. You’ll be left breathless! Its ceiling is an absolute masterpiece of the artistic genius of Michelangelo. Inside the Chapel, speaking and taking pictures is not permitted in order to allow visitors to fully capture the enchantment of these spectacular paintings. In the Chapel, which was built by Pope Sixtus IV, we will enjoy frescoes of the life of Jesus and Moses, as well as the vault decorated by the description of Genesis, at which Michelangelo worked for four years, and finally the famous fresco of the Last Judgment.

 

 

 

BASILICA OF SAINT PETER

 

We will conclude our tour by visiting Saint Peter’s Basilica and his beautiful square. The Basilica is dedicated to the Apostle Peter, considered the first pope of the Catholic Church. Above his tomb, discovered more recently beneath the Basilica, Emperor Constantine built the first Basilica.

The construction of the present Basilica, the largest in the world, lasted for about 150 years, from the beginning of the sixteenth to the first half of the seventeenth century. It involved numerous artists such as Bramante, Antonio da Sangallo, Michelangelo, Giacomo della Porta, and Carlo Maderno, who decided to adopt the Latin cross and carried out the monumental facade. The interior holds many masterpieces, including the famous statue of the Pietà by Michelangelo and Bernini's bronze canopy. Started by Michelangelo, the dome has a stunning 42-meter diameter and is commonly referred to by Romans as the “Cupolone”.

 

Bernini's universally known masterpiece is the beautiful square in front of the Basilica, which is framed by two semicircular colonnades specially made to symbolically "embrace" the Christian people. From the square you can see the window from which every Sunday at noon, the Pope recites the Angelus, imparting the blessing Urbi et Orbi.