Poverty, chastity and obedience.

WARNING: If you are of particularly devout, closeminded or brainwashed by organised religion, particularly Christianity you may find this post offensive.

So yesterday I went to the Vatican museum with some lovely Irish ladies who I met at the hostel. There are four of them here to celebrate one of their birthdays and they are incredible lovely and friendly people who seem to have a urge to adopt and feed everyone. Two nights ago they made up a big pot of Irish Stew and roasted chestnuts in the oven and had wine and insisted everyone who was there have something.

We headed out early to the Vatican (the world's smallest country, but no passport control, so no extra stamp). But even when we got there the lines for both St Paul's and the Museum were *huge*. But there were buskers (am beginning to appreciate the piano accordion), beggars, sprukers for local pizzerias and I got to listen to a discussion on Irish politics during the 40 minute or so wait so it was all good.

After finally getting in you get entry to about a dozen different rooms and exhibits as well as the Sistine Chapel, so well worth it for your Euros (which seem to be getting more valuable by the day). Given the lines they must be making and utter fortune. It starts off with the Egyptian gallery. I am beginning to feel sorry for the Egyptians, it seems everybody has plundered their ancient art. Then a room full of Roman marble statues which were mostly of ancient figures and old Roman Gods. Very impressive. Then a room full of tapestry from the Raphael school. And then my favorite...

The Map Gallery. Think a long hall. Think of maps of the different regions of Italy. Think of them painted floor to ceiling fresco style (where you mix paint in with the wet plaster so that it is literally part of the wall). Think of the places on the west coast on one side, and the east coast on the other. A cartographical delight. The photos do not do the room justice (and for some reason there are alot of them). Also the ceiling has some fantastic paintings too and marbled floor throughout.

I likes maps. I especially likes them when they are 500 years old and painted floor to ceiling.

After that there is another room of tapestries. And then half a dozen rooms covered in art, mostly by Raphael. Some depicting the life of Christ, some showing Christianity destroying Paganism, some showing different aspects of Christianity over time.

And then there is the Sistine Chapel. Which I think really does deserve it's reputation. The painting is amazing, detailed and vast. Words really cannot do it justice. You do get a bit of a crick in the neck though! Absolutely beautiful.

Then there is the Library which has more trinkets and artifacts than books. Mostly because the Vatican is paranoid that someone will actually sit down and read the old books and discover that the church has been doing some creative editing over the years. There are some very old globes and star charts too which I found great. Even one of those models of the solar system and had a discussion on if it was the earth or the sun a the centre of the model.

The affect on your eyes and brain is huge. You start to get a visual overload and have to sit down and close your eyes for a minute or two lest your brain explodes from the amount of information it has to take in. One of the people I was with is an artist so she was also explaining the different styles and techniques used which was also really cool.

It is all very decadent, marble everywhere, a little gold leafing and heaps of totally priceless art work.

It is very commercial too. You can buy all sorts of trinkets from about a zillion shops, the most amusing we found was the pin up priest calendar. I kid you not, a calendar with young attractive men in Catholic priest outfits. Which was kinda funny and launched a discussion on "who on earth was it marketed at", possibly other priests, possibly nuns, possibly sweet little old church going ladies. Would have bought one, but I couldn't think of anyone who would possibly appreciate it.

So much wealth.

So much for poverty and chastity.

Also went to the Pantheon which was impressive and interesting historically. It was the first Pagan site to be converted to a Christian place of worship. Architecturally it is amazing. The first time concrete was used in a major construction and the dome roof should theoretically cave in given there is a hole in the middle, but those Romans were pretty good a building stuff I must say.

Been doing heaps of wandering around and around here you can just stumble over big fancy fountains, churches, ruins and the like. The coffee is good and the sorbetto is better.

Rio in less than a week- huzzah!