The Vatican - December 1, 2014

Our final day in Rome and our day to join the Ocean Princess.

Our day today at the Vatican is all about the Vatican museums, Raphael’s rooms and the Sistine Chapel. The art work here is absolutely amazing.

Firstly, Raphael’s rooms are a series of rooms where Raphael painted many religious pictures. The walls in these rooms are completely covered with his work. Then we come to the Sistine Chapel and what a work of art, but not the work of art that I was expecting.

Michaelangelo lived in Florence where he sculpted. Being a sculpture was all that he ever wanted to do, but suddenly he was being told by the Pope that he had to come to Rome and paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He obeyed the summons of his Pope and it took him 4 years to paint the ceiling, but, it is not a continuous painting. Michaelangelo broke the ceiling up into “chunks”, each of which he painted with a different picture from the life of Christ. In between these pictures, though, he painted lines and angles that make the entire ceiling appear as if it is sculpted in three dimensions – an amazing feat.

To make the room even more impressive, 30 years later, Michaelangelo was called back to Rome to paint the Last Judgement which is painted on the entrance wall of the Sistine Chapel. By this time, he was an old man who just wanted to remain in his beloved Florence, so, he painted the picture that he was asked to paint, however, every human figure in the painting was painted naked – scandalous in that day and age! It wasn’t until after Michaelangelo’s death that another artist was commissioned to paint clothing on all of the human figures.

After spending the morning at the Vatican, we took the 2 hour ride to the Port of Civitecchia and boarded the Ocean Princess where a wonderful surprise awaited us. During lifeboat drill, Graham’s keen eye spotted some familiar and unexpected people. Our friends, Peter and Lynne are also aboard this ship – a trip that they decided to take at the last minute.