Vatican Museums
If you dedicate a whole day to the area, you can visit the rest of the Vatican museums, other than the Sistine Chapel and the Rooms of Raffaello, and then the Gardens. A complete tour of the museums last about 5 hours and the entrance queues are always one or two hours. The unique method to jump the long queues is to pre-book a guided tour at least a day before at the office opposite the Vatican.
The Vatican Gardens are accessible only in the morning by booking in advance, and occupies about two thirds of the superficial of the Vatican City, meanwhile the visit is at the same time a tour of the city and an occasion to walk through 2000 years of history between the great monuments, works of art and marvellous nature. The view allows you to admire the Italian Garden or square garden, a type of belvedere, the English Garden and the Pope’s vegetable garden.
Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel and the Rooms of Rafaello, have the same entrance and so is the ticket. Note that entrance queues are always between one to two hours. The restoration of the Sistine Chapel has restored the frescos to their original brilliance. The altar wall immediately catches your attention with 400 figures of the final act of the Universal Justice by Michelangelo. In the chapel you can calmly admire, piece by piece, all the magnificent, works that Michelangelo completed in only 4 years, where you can see in the centre 9 historic centrals, relating the episodes of Genesis.
IN ROME YOU CAN SEE ALSO
VILLA BORGHESE
The park occupies a vast area in the centre of the city, property of the Borghese family until 1580. From a small stairway in Piazza del Popolo which ascends to the terrace of Pincio, one of the most spectacular of Rome. From the other side of the park is the Museum and Borghese Gallery. In the Villa (1613-14), Cardinal Scipione Borghese collected works of art and antique sculptures and classical, creating an extraordinary collection with masterpieces by Bernini, Canova, Caravaggio, Rubens and other great artists. A part of the collection was sold by Camillo Borghese to his brother-in-law Napoleon and today can be found in Paris at the Louvre. In the area of Villa Borghese a d-tour to the splendid National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, dedicated to the Etruscan civilisation, a collection kept there from the start of the 20th Century, in which was the summer residence of Pope Giulio III.
THE PANTHEON
At the centre of the splendid Piazza della Rotonda, with the fountain and the obelisk Ramus III, is the Roman temple dedicated to all the Gods. From the outside with its portal of monolithic columns of granite, seems almost like the façade of a Greek temple. The inside was concepted like a sphere positioned in a cylinder, the diameter and height of the dome being quivalent. The eye at the summit, the unique point of light, is open and small holes at the centre of the pavement indicates that when it rains, the water arrives up to here. Inside there is the tomb of Rafaello, sited under the Madonna del Sasso by Lorenzetto. Also there is the mausoleum of the Savoia, with the tomb of King Vittorio Emanuele.
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