Suggested Museums in Rome
There is a web site that provides a convenient listing of
admission prices and opening times for many of Rome's museums. And there
is
special pass that you can purchase that includes admissions to many museums and archeological sites at reduced prices.
The Vatican Museums (Web site) and the Sistine Chapel: These belong at the top of anyone's list. Indeed one may be able to say that
these are at the top of every tourist's list, since about 4 million people visit them each year. We had visited the museums in 1996,
and had hoped to go through them once more in 2005. But when we arrived at a little after 10 am, the line waiting to get in was so
long that, after our experience in Florence at the Uffizi, we decided to go directly to St. Peter's Cathedral instead.
The various museums in the complex were founded by various Popes starting in the 15th century to exhibit the art and historic collections
that belong to the Catholic Church. What we remember from our 1996 trip is being dazzled, rather, DAZZLED by the opulence of the series
of rooms and galleries we walked through on the way to the
Sistine Chapel to see Michelangelo's
ceiling. One of the galleries is the
Stanze di Rapphaello. Frescoes painted by Raphael decorate the walls of these apartments. Together with Michaelangelo's frescoed ceiling
in the Sistine Chapel, you are treated with a pinnacle achievement by the two artists of the
High Renaissance. We also seem to remember
that we passed a very early map showing
Vasco de Gama's voyage around the world via Africa's Cape of Good Hope in 1488. You walk through
the Gallery of Maps, its drop dead ceiling painted with 40 panels of maps of Italy (photo in the Wikipedia link above), but we are
not sure that was where we saw the de Gama map. The mueums also have collections of Etruscan and ancient Greek artifacts, art and
sculpture, and paintings by
Carravagio,
Giotto,
Leonardo da Vinci and
Titian. The experience is overwhelming. You can take virtual
tours through the museums on their official web site, on the link provided above.
The Galleria Borghese (Web site): Regrettably, we have not yet visited this museum which has in its collection some of the most famous
works of art . One of the artists featured is the sculptor
Gian Lorenzo Bernini whose works adorn the
piazza and colonade in front
of St. Peters Cathedral and several of Rome's public fountains. The Borghese has several Bernini sculptures, including two of his
most beautiful and astonishing pieces,
Apollo and Daphne, (look at Daphne's fingers metamorphosing into leaves) and
The Rape of Porsepina (look
at his index finger pressing on her thigh). In addition to these are paintings of several masters, like
Correggio,
Rubens,
Cranach,
