Il Vaticano

We visited the Vatican Museums on a tour that blew mum away. Me too. I have visited before, but the tour was great, it concentrated in particular on Michelangelo's influences and the consequent creation of the Sistine Chapel at evil Pope Julius' request. The torso statue below, for instance, was viewed by Michelangelo as the 'perfect torso'. It is the inspiration for the torso of David, which we will see in Florence, and also Rodin's famous The Thinker. We learned how Michelangelo was hired to paint the Sistine chapel to destroy him, in order for the succession of Raphael as the supreme artist of the time. In fact, Michelangelo was so good that Rafael quit his teacher, and learnt to paint like Michelangelo. He even like to paint Michelangelo in his paintings (bearded man in black clothes)