Visit the Sistine Chapel!
When I have friends who want to visit Rome, I always tell them to visit the Sistine Chapel early in the morning if they would like to be an experience which is even remotely peaceful.
The first time I visited the Sistine Chapel, we arrived in the early afternoon and it was bedlam! Prior to entering the chapel, we saw signs with two instructions:
- Be quiet
- Do not take photographs
However, as when we entered the chapel, we found lots of people talking, and not even very quietly. The custodians would periodically walk through the chapel saying “Silenzio….silenzio…”. We also saw lots of tourists taking photographs. Many were even foolishly trying to take pictures of the ceiling with woefully inadequate cameras. The custodians would walk past tutting at these people and wagging their fingers at them.
Needless to say, this irritated me greatly and I spent the rest of my time in the chapel planning how I would do things if I was in charge. Every camera I saw would be snatched from the tourist’s hands and smashed on the marble floor. A little harsh, perhaps, but the word would soon get out… I would pile up the remains of the smashed electronics at the entrance to the chapel as a warning to all future visitors, much in the same way monarchs used to put the heads of traitors on spikes. Under my regime guidance, the Sistine Chapel would once more return to being a peaceful sanctuary, away from the harshness of the outside world… 😉
Fortunately, if you would like a peaceful Sistine Chapel without my draconian rule, you can now visit it from the comfort of your own home! The Vatican has published on their website a panorama which allows you to explore (at least to some degree) one of the world’s most famous chapels:
