Final day in Rome - Part 2

Ok, so after we went through all of that, we finally got to go to the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately no photos are allowed anymore. The famous paintings were all grimy and dirty due to candles being used in the Chapel and a company offered to clean it up at no charge, for the rights to all photos and video of the chapel for the next 100 years. It seems like such a let down to not show photos, so I'll show some stock photos I found online just so I can include them here! We were uber excited to get to the chapel, but I must say, it was a slight letdown. I mean, this is the chapel of all chapels (especially if you're Catholic, of course we're not, but it's still such a sacred place) yet people apparently cannot follow instructions. There's no talking and no photos in the chapel. Yet everyone was talking and then the Chapel Employees would yell out NO TALKING, NO PHOTOS! Over and over and over. So annoying. So, for me, that really ruined the sacredness of the Chapel. Did I regret it? No way, still glad we got to see it, just wish people would shut up! :D

Information about the paintings

I'm going to link Wikipedia here because you can see a lot more there than I could explain but I'll try to give some info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel_ceiling

The main scenes on the actual ceiling are: God separates light and dark, God creates the sun and plants, God separates water from earth, Creation of Adam, Creation of Eve, Temptation in the Garden of Eden, Noah and the ark, the great flood, and Noah drunk and disgraced.

In addition are photos of 12 prophets: Jonah, Jeremiah, Persian Sibyl, Ezekiel, Erythraean Sybil, Joel, Zechariah, Delphic Sibyl, Isaiah, Cumaean Sibyl, Daniel and Libyan Sibyl.

Ancestors of Christ are depicted between the windows.

One one wall are the Stories of Moses: Moses leaving Egypt, the trials of Moses, the crossing of the Red Sea, Descent from Mount Sinai, punishment of the rebels, and testament and death of Moses.

The other wall contains the Stories of Jesus: Baptism of Christ, Temptation of Christ, Vocation of the Apostles, Sermon of the Mount, Delivery of the Keys, and the Last Supper.

The back wall contains paintings of the Resurrection of Christ and the Disputation over Moses' body.

The front wall contains another magnificent (and enormous) painting called The Last Judgement; painted by Michelangelo. The top section shows heaven with Jesus and many Saints and Angels. The bottom section depicts hell.

A great story about this is that before the painting was completed, some Cardinals viewed the work in progress. One of them didn't like it and said there was too much nudity for a Chapel. Michelangelo took offense to that and after they left he painted that Cardinal's face on a body in the bottom right corner. This person is in hell and has a snake wrapped around its body, biting his genitals. Guess he got back at that Cardinal, huh? When the painting was revealed, the Cardinal recognized himself and complained to the Pope joked that his jurisdiction did not extend to hell and the painting would remain as-is.

One more section for St Peter's Basilica will be posted later!