After we left St. Peter's, it was already noon. We walked to Vatican Museum. I didn't make a reservation for Vatican Museum. It is said the line is much shorter during 1:00 to 2:00pm when everybody goes to lunch. I planned to visit the museum at 1:00pm. As we looked for a place to have lunch across the street from Vatican Museum, we found that those restaurants were kind of empty, which was a bad sign. They were probably very touristy and nobody wanted to eat there. We walked back to the museum and started lining up, it was about 12:30pm. The line was bearable. It took us 30 minutes to get in, which was not too bad actually. I heard people line up for more than one hour in summer. In that case, visiting during lunchtime is definitely better. There were people selling tour tickets outside the museum. They were not associated with the museum and quite verbally aggressive. The authority shouldn't let them harass tourists like that. It leaves bad impression.
We had lunch at the cafeteria inside Vatican Museum. Rick Steves says food is not so great here. It is so true. The only reason to eat here is to save time. We didn't want to miss the shorter queue during that specific time frame.
After all the hassles, we began exploring.
The Cortile della Pigna or The Courtyard of the Pinecone is named after the Roman bronze pinecone from an ancient fountain.
In the courtyard, we also found a giant globe called Sphere within Sphere. The globe contains many spheres and a mechanism working within the main sphere. It caught me by surprise the inner sphere rotated every now and then.
The next one is Chiaramonti Museum, which holds one of the most important collections of Roman statues.
This passage takes you from Chiaramonti Museum to Pio-Clementine Museum.
Pio-Clementine Museum is home to the collection of Greek and Roman sculpture. It features the finest of the Vatican's Classical statues. Some noted galleries include Octagonal Court and Round Room.
The Octagonal Court showcases great statues such as Laocoön and his sons. Laocoön, a Trojan priest, is crushed to death by two great sea-serpents. His sons are killing them. This statue group was a symbol of the Greek victory. It was taken by the Romans when Greeks were defeated by the Romans.
Another statue in the Octagonal Court got my attention. She looks very serene but the snake is sinister.
The marble torso, Belvedere Tors, is a fragment of a nude male statue. The anatomy and muscles are flawless. Laocoön statue and Belvedere Torso were major influence on the Renaissance Artists, including Michelangelo and Raphael. Did you notice these ancient statues all have 6 pack?
We reached a red colored room named Round Room. It is shaped like a miniature Pantheon. Each picture on its frescoed ceiling tells a story.
The dome of the Round Room creates interesting light and space.
Heading to Gallery of Tapestries, we passed by this mosaic on the floor. Stunning, isn't it?
The Gregorian Egyptian Museum holds Ancient Egyptian material. British Museum also houses a grand collection of Egyptian antiquities.
Looking through the window, we had a nice view of the courtyard.
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