VATICAN TOURS, ROME - VISITOR INFORMATION FOR THE VATICAN MUSEUMS

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The Vatican Museums

People occasionally refer to 'the Vatican Museum', and the actual scale of the collection within the Vatican City comes as something of a shock. This is museums plural, ten collections forming unarguably the world's greatest collection of art and artefacts from the past few millennia. Classical antiquity, the Renaissance, the Etruscan era, booty looted from Egypt and the furthest corners of the ancient Roman Empire ... all this and much more is to be found in this cornucopia of world art. You could spend weeks exploring the museums and still need to come back for more. Any tours of the museums are necessarily selective, but these itineraries have carefully selected some of the 'must-sees' while incorporating some of the lesser-known gems.

There is the Galleria degli Arazzi, a superb display of tapestries, designed from cartoons by Raphael. The Galleria dei Candelabri (Gallery of Candelabra) is a collection of huge candelabra liberated from imperial Roman villas. The Galleria delle Carte Geografiche (Gallery of Maps) is a marvellous exposition of the world as the sixteenth century Papacy saw it. The Sistine Chapel is probably the most famous room in the whole complex, with its ceiling by Michelangelo, the Last Judgement (again by Michelangelo), and frescoed scenes from the Old Testament. In the courtyard of the Vatican Museums is the Cortile della Pigna (Courtyard of the Pine Cone), so named for the four-metre high bronze pine cone sculpture that resides on a plinth here, and dates from the first century AD.

There is the Museo Pio-Clementino - a superb collection of statuary, including the Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoon. There is the Sala a Croce Greca (Room of the Greek Cross), which Pius VI had constructed at enormous expense to house the two garguantuan porphyry sarcophagi of Saints Helena and Constantia. There are the Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael Rooms), decorated by great artist as apartments for the Popes. The Bibliotceca Vaticana (Vatican Library) is not only one of the world's oldest libraries it has some of the planet's most important, rare and valuable texts on its shelves. And there is the Pinacoteca - arguably Rome's finest picture gallery, with works from the early Renaissance, right through to the nineteenth century.

Tickitaly are official agents for the Vatican and offer both group and private tours - click here for information on arranging a private tour for you and your party, and click here for information on joining a pre-booked group tour (maximum of 20 people). Click here should you be searching for Rome hotels
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