Vatican Museum

A must-see when at the Vatican is the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel.  The tour takes one through the museum proper, through the original Papal apartments occupied by pope Julius II who commissioned Michelangelo for the Sistine Chapel and Rafael for his own apartments, through the ghastly Borgia apartments, and finally the Sistine Chapel.  The next few pictures were randomly snapped throughout the museum.






This is the Colossus head of Nero that once adorned the Colosseum.

Nero's bath tub.

One of the many fine tapestries.

One of the door crests.

The next few are from the Papal apartments of Julius II.

That ended the paintings on the walls of the rooms of Pope Julius II.  We next proceeded to the Borgia apartments which Pope Paul VI had redecorated.  Apparently, he not only sought to modernize the Mass and theology, but also the paintings in these apartments.  I have included a few of these which are in stark contrast to the beauty and elegance of the Vatican to this point.  Some of these painting border on offensive, such as the "crucified businessman" which I chose not to include.  You can see from the art below why we hurried through these rooms with undue haste.