Vatican Museum, Vatican City

One of the most famous museums in the world, the Vatican Museum is a MUST see for every first time visitor to Rome. Filled with riches from all over the world, there are three suggested tour routes. Many people make a beeline straight to the Sistine Chapel, but take your time and you may discover something that captures your interest even more.

Opening hours vary. It's a good idea to check the Vatican Museum website to see what the hours are when you'll be in Rome.
Admission: 12,00 euro (one free day each month). Methodologies for arriving when the typically long lines are not so long are many.

The statue of Laocoön and his Sons, also called the Laocoön Group, is a monumental marble sculpture. The statue is attributed by the Roman author Pliny the Elder to three sculptors from the island of Rhodes, Agesander, Athenedoros and Polydorus. It shows Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being strangled by sea serpents. Both the Iliad and the Aeneid describe this as Poseidon's wrath for Laocoön's attempt to expose the ruse of the Trojan Horse.

Various dates have been suggested for the statue, ranging from about 160 BC to about 20 BC. Inscriptions found at Lindos in Rhodes date Agesander and Athenedoros to a period after 42 BC, making the years 42 BC to 20 BC the most likely date for the Laocoön statue's creation.

The statue, which was probably originally commissioned for the home of a wealthy Roman, was unearthed in 1506 near the site of the Golden House of the Emperor Nero (who reigned from 54 to 68 AD), and it is said that it is possible that the statue belonged to Nero himself.

The discovery of the Laocoön statue made a great impression on Italian sculptors and significantly influenced the course of the Italian Renaissance. Michelangelo is known to have been particularly impressed by the massive scale of the work and its depiction of the male figures.

When the statue was discovered, Laocoön's right arm was missing. The sculptor Michelangelo suggested that the right arm was originally bent back over Laocoön's shoulder. The Pope held an informal contest among sculptors to make a replacement right arm. The winner, in an outstretched position, was attached to the statue.

In 1957, however, the original right arm was found in a builder's yard in Rome, and was in the position which had been suggested by Michelangelo. The arm has now been rejoined to the statue.

The statue was seized and taken to Paris by Napoléon Bonaparte after his conquest of Italy in 1799. Following the fall of Napoléon, it was returned by the British to the Vatican in 1816.

The Vatican Museums originated as a group of sculptures collected by Pope Julius II (1503-1513) and placed in what today is the “Cortile Ottagono” within the museum complex. The popes were among the first sovereigns who opened the art collections of their palaces to the public thus promoting knowledge of art history and culture. As seen today, the Vatican Museums are a complex of different pontifical museums and galleries that began under the patronage of the popes Clement XIV (1769-1774) and Pius VI (1775-1799). In fact, the Pio-Clementine Museum was named after these two popes, who set up this first major curatorial section. Later, Pius VII (1800-1823) considerably expanded the collections of Classical Antiquities, to which he added the Chiaromonti Museum and the “Braccio Nuovo” gallery. He also enriched the Epigraphic Collection, which was conserved in the Lapidary Gallery

The most famous site in the Museum is the Sistine Chapel, which takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere (pontiff from 1471 to 1484) who had the old Cappella Magna restored between 1477 and 1480. The Capella Sistina or Sistine Chapel is the masterpiece by Michelangelo and reason that most people visit the museums. He painted this ceiling while lying on his back on scaffolding. The highlights include; The Creation of Adam, the Temptation and Fall of Adam and Eve, and the Last Judgment

All the rooms and museums are fabulous, but the Raphael Rooms cannot be missed.

PS. Sorry my camera didnt do very well in the vatican, our tour guide made us move so fast all the pictures came out blurry.

AAA Travel Guide- The Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael Rooms), one of the artist's masterpieces, were executed in 1508.

The Vatican Museums make up the richest and most extensive museum collection in the world. The Raphael Stanze and the Sistine Chapel are worth the price of entrance alone.

Nothing in the world compares to visiting the Vatican Museums, taking the beautiful Spiral staircase and continuing through the Gallery of the Tapestries and the Gallery of the Geographical Maps before arriving in the famous Sistine Chapel with its magnificent fresco of the Last Judgment by Michelangelo.

This museum is always crowded (for a good reason, though...), but it definitely is a *****must see activity!

Do avoid visiting on the last sunday of the month, when admission is free - you won't be able to even breathe, because then the place is packed.......

These two are so famous that I hardly think I need to say anything: except don't miss them.
I was on a guided tour both times when I was here, which on one hand was great as I learned a lot more history and info this way...but another way bad, as we had so little time to try and give this place justice.
It really was so much bigger than I could have dreamed...so make sure you allow lots of time.

Spiral Ramp is a magnificent staircase inside the Museum. You can either walk up or queue up to take an elevator. The staircase is unique in that if you are going up, it is one-way, and if you are coming down, it is one-way but when you look at it from the top, you cannot tell there are really two separate one-way staircases.

The halls of Vatican museums deserve your attention - you start with Belveder Court, then - the Hall of Animals, in the next hall you'll see the famous Belveder Torso (see the picture) - the figure of Hercules sitting on a fell. Michelangelo admired this creation and used to say that he was a 'student of Belveder Torso'. You'll also enjoy the Hall of Candelabra,the Hall of Tapestry and the Hall of Geographical Maps. In the next wing you'll find youself in Rafael Stanzas - they used to be private apartment of Pope Julius II.