Rome - lots of art and history

After a very smooth train ride from Florence, we arrived into Rome for a whirlwind two days. This is my second visit to Rome but Steve's first time so I was really keen to make sure Steve saw all the must-see's. The hotel suggested we use a private guide to get us around to see everything in our limited time... it wasn't a cheap option but it was definitely ended up being such an amazing experience. We were so lucky with our guide, Maria Grazia, she was excellent and after she took us around Rome, we left with a really deep level of appreciation of the city and its history - much much more than what you could get from a guidebook or internet. During our tour, we learnt from Gracie that to be an accredited guide in Rome, you have to pass a whole heap of tests so you really have to know EVERYTHING there is to know about Rome and its history. So, when you have private guide, you don't just get to relax and leave everything to her, you get to learn so much more.

So, first place we visited was the Vatican - we were taken through the Musei Vaticani. Last time I came here, I remember zooming through to get to the Sistine Chapel but this time, we were taken at a slower pace to view the art pieces on the way - basically all the stuff I missed last time!
Our guide showed us how art styles had changed over the years - from the medieval style (more 2 dimensional or flat style) to the Renaissance style which used shadows, drapery, light and colour to create depth and perspective.

Medieval style - but showing signs of renaissance style with draping detail and depth

Early renaissance

Continuing on, we saw many other pieces including this beautiful one by Raphael.

We passed a corridor of Roman busts - did you know that in the ancient Roman time, every citizen had to have a bust carved of them as a record of their identity (obviously way before the days of digital cameras....)??? And did you also know that scientific analysis has also shown that these busts and statues were painted with paint or make up so they were actually coloured rather than the plain white stone which we normally seen? Obviously due to the time passed, none of this colour survived.

Imagine these busts having full colour paint on them!

We also saw some amazing tapestries - all hand sewn...

Along the Room of Maps - it was insanely crowded but look at the detail in the ceiling... it contains maps of all the regions making up the Italy in the 1500's (which wasn't actually unified at the time). The colour in this room was dazzing.

Another famous piece in the collection - the School of Athen painted by Raphael. This painting depicts all the famous artists of the Renaissance period (Raphael's peers) as Greek philosophers. In the middle is Michelangelo as Heraclitus which was painted as an afterthought after Raphael walked around the Vatican and saw Michelangelo midway through his Sistine Chapel ceiling.