Rome, her Churches and Vatican

We had a very Holy New Year. Spent the entire day visiting churches and ending the day listening to Christmas arias in a church. The Basilicas are truly amazing. At St Ignatius church, a dome was painted instead of using bricks and mortar because she could not handle the weight of such a structure. The perspectives are so good, it looks virtually 3D.
InBasilica Santa Maria del Minerva, the mosaic work was so intricate and amazing.

The catholic church is full of contradictions. The earlier popes commission's artworks by famous artist like Raphael, Michaelangelo, and Leonardo Da Vinci, but the later popes became offended by the nudity. They then made a decree that the privates be covered with shroud or fig leaf. To me this is a terrible damage to priceless art.
At the Sistine chapel, the fresco are highly sensitive to vibrations so much so that the guide tells us to be silent for the entire time in the chapel, only to have the security announcing over the PA system saying, "Silezio, silence, no photo,no video." That must be the good vibrations.

This does not take away the massive scale and splendor of St Peter's Basilica and the massive square. Crowds made the visit less enjoyable.
The Borghese gallery on the other hand is very well organised. They limit the number of visitors and give a limited 2 hours to see there gallery. You won't get to all the exhibits but because of how well laid out the exhibits are you get a real good gist of the works. The gallery mainly houses Bernini's sculptures, paintings and ancient Roman works. Absolutely stunning gallery.
Because of the limited numbers, it is really hard to get tickets for it. The girls missed our as there were only 2 tickets left for the time we were in Rome.Read more