Just like other churches, no loud noises are allowed here, and you cannot stay on the steps (the Vatican has a higher square platform)... In short, there are many rules here, and the guards are the strictest Yunluo has ever seen, so be careful. The Sistine Chapel has restored paintings that Michelangelo spent his entire life painting.

In addition to the "Genesis" on the roof, there is also a "The Last Judgment". The fingertips of God and Adam touching each other, which we often see in various TV dramas, is a part of the "Genesis" on the ceiling. And this is also where the Vatican elects the Pope and where the Pope worships... In short...

If the Vatican Museum can be described as an exquisite crown, the Sistine Chapel is the most brilliant gem on it. Leaving the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican has a gallery of various masters' works, including works by Titian, Caravaggio, Van Gogh and other famous masters.

But the most precious ones are Leonardo da Vinci's "Saint Jerome" and Raphael's three frescoes "Christ Apparition of the Holy Spirit", "Madonna of Foligno" and "Madonna Crowned". Raphael's three frescoes are placed in a special hall for people to watch and are guarded by special people. You can take pictures but flash is prohibited.

Other paintings also don’t allow for photography with flash, but there aren’t as many guarding people… (That’s why Yunluo has always believed that the “Christ Appearing with the Holy Spirit” here is the authentic one, because when you get to St. Peter’s Basilica later you’ll find that there’s also one hanging there…) How should I put it, visiting the Vatican Museum feels like Master Baggins falling into Smaug’s treasure.

There are masterpieces in every corner, and even a quick tour will yield a lot of rewards. If you come to Italy, please make a trip to the Vatican Museum. To put it in a high-level way, it purifies your soul, and to put it in a low-level way, it broadens your horizons! Messi and Marco can be clearly seen in the Vatican Museum's memorial exhibits of the Italian and Argentine football teams.

Chiellini…Vatican Museums Vatican Museums Argentina and Italy meet the Pope Vatican Museums spiral staircase upward perspective Vatican Museums spiral staircase Vatican Museums spiral corridor Vatican Museums Vatican Museums Vatican Museums Because I am not an art student.

It took Yunluo and An Chuyu only 5 hours to tour the entire Vatican (which was really not fast. The museum is so huge! The Xiaomi bracelet had already reached 8,000 steps just by walking half of it). They had originally planned to visit St. Peter's Basilica next, but on the outskirts they saw people surrounding the square for most of the day, looking at the scorching sun in Rome at 3 pm.

So they decided to give up the queue and go to other attractions first. The closest attraction to the Vatican should be the Castel Sant'Angelo, but for some reason it was closed on the day Yunluo and An Chuyu went there, so they could only watch the overall scenery from a distance. After being shocked by the Vatican, Yunluo was no longer the same Yunluo, and he still felt that a castle of this magnitude was just average.

But the Pantheon we walked to next was different. Although it was not big, the towering dome of the Pantheon once again made people marvel at the ingenuity of the ancient Romans! Then, here Yun Luo learned for the first time that the coffins under the large statues in those churches were actually buried with living dead people!

For example... Raphael... is buried in the Pantheon. You can see the exact location in the photo. Castel Sant'Angelo is very different from other Roman buildings. Why? Because it was built in 27 BC. What does it mean? That is, during the time when Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty favored Zhao Feiyan.

Octavian's son-in-law Agrippa built this temple. After more than 2,000 years, all the buildings of the same period in China have become ruins, but the Pantheon still stands. Pantheon Pantheon Pantheon The most famous dome of the Pantheon, even Michelangelo sighed that he was not as good as the Pantheon This is Raphael's tomb...

The Pantheon is most famous for its dome (not the dead buried there). It is said that this is a concrete specially made by Roman craftsmen to pour such a large ceiling without collapsing. You can feel it more. Next to the Pantheon (about less than 1 km) is the famous Spanish Square.

It is also a must-go place for shopping in Rome. On the way from the Pantheon to the Spanish Steps, you will find that Rome is really a magical city. The shops on the roadside that are not fashionable or exquisite and are not much different from ordinary shops may be the flagship stores of Hermès or Fendi...

Anyway, Yunluo remembered that apart from a luxury brand store with a slightly fashionable appearance, the luxury stores on the Spanish Square were decorated in the same way as other Roman buildings. The crowded square, the flagship stores are hidden in these ancient buildings. The Spanish Square is the most famous staircase in "Roman Holiday".

The Spanish Steps is the same as the steps where Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck ate ice cream in Roman Holiday. Maybe it was because Yunluo and An first met at around 5pm... It was full of people taking a rest and basking in the sunset. There were also many people around the fountain in front. It was rare to see so many people in Europe, so Yunluo was a little uncomfortable.

After a short break, we walked back to see if St. Peter's Basilica was still crowded. Fortunately, at around 6 o'clock, people could enter St. Peter's Basilica without queuing. Yunluo and An Chuyu passed the security check and entered the cathedral easily.

Oh, yes. This is the Beijing subway security machine that Yunluo saw on the second day in Italy. The first one was in the Vatican. The magnificence of St. Peter's Basilica cannot be described in words, and it can only show one tenth of its original appearance. Standing in front of the cathedral is a great respect for the Catholic Pope.

And Yunluo's personal sigh of idiot, how many years of money did the church extort to build this thing! For example, the statues in St. Peter's Basilica are basically more than 5 meters high. But for such a large statue, St. Peter's Basilica can put two vertically, and there is a huge gap to add beauty...

Moreover, this luxurious double-layered statue is casually installed inside the church like the wall of a two-bedroom apartment... People don’t think it is a luxurious wall at all... In addition, if you look closely at the marble patterns on the ceiling, floor and walls of the church, you will find that the patterns are very regular and have a sense of picture.

You can see the pattern when you put them together! In short, after seeing St. Peter's Basilica, you will find that all the other churches you have seen and thought were magnificent are nothing! This is a building that has never been seen before and will never be seen again! This is a building that you must see once when you come to Italy! Hundreds of seats in St. Peter's Basilica are reserved for believers who meet the Pope in St. Peter's Square.

The audience on Wednesday was very large. Although there were not many people in St. Peter's Basilica in the evening, please note that the church closes at 7 o'clock, and the surrounding shops and several other underground palaces are closed at 6:30. Priority is given to viewing and purchasing. St. Peter's Basilica St. Peter's Basilica St. Peter's Basilica Look!

Another St. Peter's Basilica passed by dinner as usual, but one thing to say is that if you eat an authentic Western dinner, please prepare about 2 hours, because after you finish one dish, they will serve you the second dish for a long time. And so on... It's not like the Yunluo country's tradition of wanting to finish the dishes in the first minute so that everyone can eat as much as they want.

Because I had to take a train to Florence at noon, I didn't plan a very tight schedule in Rome, but just continued to walk around. In addition to the Republic Square, there are two other attractions within a 10-minute walk from the central train station: the Basilica of Santa Maria and the Rome Opera House.

The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is one of the four "cathedrals" in Rome (the other three are the world's largest St. Peter's Basilica, the Basilica of San Giovanni in the suburbs of Rome, and the Basilica of St. Paul outside Rome), and was listed as a special papal basilica by the Pope. This church was built in the 4th century AD.

It is the first church named after Mary... That is, from the 4th century onwards, the church's endless funds were used to decorate it. The main structure of the church was determined in the 5th century, and the murals were completed in the 15th century. The golden decorations along with the murals were the gold looted from America in the 15th century...

So don't underestimate the golden decorations in the church, they are all real gold and silver! There is a basement in the Cathedral of Santa Maria, which contains a silver baby cradle and a golden manger. It is said that they are fragments of the manger in Bethlehem, where Jesus was born in Jerusalem. Pope Bernini...

In the coffins beside are Saint Jerome (the protagonist of the original Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Vatican), Pope Pius V, and the famous designer Bernini. (Influenced by Chinese tradition, every time I see the coffin under the statue... Yunluo feels embarrassed... Are you really worthy to be buried here?)

There is a square and a bell tower outside the church. The bell tower will ring at 9 o'clock every morning to remind everyone to go to church. Yunluo and Anchu met by chance at the church around 9 o'clock. The Church of the Virgin Mary is divided into many small rooms, and masses are being held in many of them (if you are not a believer, you are not sure whether it is a mass, but the kind with singing).

Visitors can still visit during mass, but they cannot enter the cell to participate... As one of the four cathedrals and the only one in the city (the other one belongs to the Vatican), it is highly recommended to visit here! It is best to visit around 9 o'clock. If you are lucky, you can see the hymns!

After visiting the church, you can go to the opera house which is not far from it (10 minutes walk)... Compared with the various ancient Renaissance buildings in Rome, the design of the opera house is very modern. There is an advertisement board in front of it, listing the names of the operas that will be performed recently. If you are interested, you can buy tickets to watch it.

However, when there are no performances, the doors of the opera house are usually closed, so you can only look around from the outside. Because the opera house is closed, Yunluo and An Chuyu still have a long time before the departure, so they finally decided to go to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels and Martyrs, which they passed by many times but never went in to see.

This church was designed by Michelangelo and built in the cold water bath of the Baths of Diocletian in ancient Rome (1,000 words of embellishments to Michelangelo's ingenious craftsmanship are omitted here)... Unlike other churches, this church does not have many gorgeous statues, except for a particularly modern statue placed at the door.

The most eye-catching thing in the whole hall is the zodiac line drawn on the ground. On the floor near the center, there is a line showing the trajectory of the sun, with specific time and constellations marked on the line. The end of the line extends to the right side of the hall and ends with an image of a constellation instrument. It is said that this is the original Roman version of the "prime meridian".

There is also a bronze statue of Galileo outside the temple, which was donated by Dr. Li Zhendao! After visiting the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Angelo and Santa Maria delle Martyr, Yunluo and An Chuyu's trip to Rome also came to an end. The next stop is Florence in central Italy! Florence is about an hour's drive from Rome, which is generally very convenient.

There are three train stations in Rome with trains to Florence at very close intervals. Yunluo and An Chuyu took the Italo train invested by Ferrari. It is also commonly known as the "rabbit train". The speed of this train is about 200 kilometers per hour, and the maximum speed reaches 285 kilometers. There are vending machines and automatic coffee machines on the train.

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

There is also free wifi and power sockets for everyone to use. The Rabbit Train does not use ticket machines. The conductor will check your ticket after you get on the train. You can bring paper or electronic tickets. Basically, in Europe, which has good order, the conductor will just check whether the train number and time are consistent. It is not mandatory to check every piece of information.

The central train station in Florence is called "firenzesmn". Be careful when buying tickets. If you buy "firenzecampodi", you will have to walk for a while to get to the city center. Compared with Rome, Florence has a smaller city area... Basically, if you really want to walk, you can walk all the way in one day.

When you plan your time, you can also pay attention to the fact that the attractions in Florence are very close to each other. Except for Piazzale Michelangelo, you can walk within 2 kilometers around the train station. The architecture in Florence is very distinctive, basically with yellow walls and red roofs. It is simple and generous (compared to Rome), and the architectural style is also the kind of medieval spires.

It is not the Renaissance style that is everywhere in Rome... When you come out of the central railway station, the first thing that catches your eye is the famous Santa Maria Novella Basilica in Florence. This church is the first papal basilica in Florence (it should be a Class B religious temple, lower than the Basilica of Santa Maria in Rome).

It is also the main church of the Dominicans (the main sect of the Catholic mendicant order, which is probably the Puritan sect that does not save property) in the city. Well... since it is the main church of the Puritan Dominicans, it is conceivable that the magnificence of the entire cathedral cannot be compared with those churches in Rome.

In addition to the gold leaf decorations that are no longer seen, there are far fewer sculptures in the entire church than in Roman churches. However! The Cathedral of Santa Maria Novella embodies the typical style of medieval churches, such as the particularly sharp oil painting style (the Renaissance was all about big breasts and big buttocks). For example, the stained glass windows...

These are all gorgeous styles unique to the Middle Ages (the Middle Ages were very poor compared to the Renaissance and later when maritime trade emerged!) However, because the New Cathedral of Santa Maria is connected to the museum, this church costs money! 5 euros per ticket! If you are not really interested in early Renaissance art.

It is not recommended to buy tickets to visit. You can consider visiting the free Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. There are two famous churches in Florence. One is the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which is located at the central railway station. The other is the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which is located in the city center. The two can be reached in a 10-minute walk. Different from the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.

In addition to the church itself, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore also includes the Giotto bell tower, the baptistery, the dome and the underground museum. The combined ticket is 10 euros per ticket and is valid for 24 hours. Unlike the Novella, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is the main church of Christianity (Orthodox Church, Catholic Church, Anglican Church).

The entire church is in Gothic style and is one of the five largest churches in the world (the five largest churches are St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, Milan Cathedral, Seville Cathedral in Spain, and Florence Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore).

Paul's Cathedral in the UK), it is characterized by the world's largest and most beautiful dome, even Michelangelo was inferior to it. Painted on the dome is Giorgio Vasari's huge mural "The Last Judgment". Visitors can climb to the top through the stairs outside to enjoy the scenery of the whole Florence. There is also a crypt in the church.

It is currently being renovated into a museum, exhibiting a series of sculptures and jars from ancient Roman Florence... Next to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, there is a place covered by plastic sheeting, which is the famous Baptistery of St. John. The three bronze doors of the baptistery are engraved with bronze reliefs of stories from the Old Testament, two of which were made by Ghiberti.

It was praised by Michelangelo as the "Gate of Heaven". The tallest building not far from the Baptistery is the Giotto Bell Tower. Visitors can buy a combined ticket at any one of the four places and visit these four places at any time within 24 hours. But to be honest, if you are not too physically fit, you can just choose either the Giotto Bell Tower or the Dome.

I personally recommend the dome, although the clouds are falling on the bell tower... Giotto's bell tower is divided into 4 floors, and the stairs on each floor are getting narrower and narrower. The top floor can only accommodate one person, and it is very steep, so if you want to climb the bell tower, please pay attention to safety! From the bell tower, you can see the scenery of the whole Florence, as well as the tourists on the dome of the cathedral not far away...

It is especially recommended to visit at sunset, because most of the buildings are old, so Florence under the setting sun gives people a very comfortable feeling. Leaving the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, it takes about 5 minutes to walk to the bustling Piazza della Republic (yes, it is the Piazza della Republic again, you read it right, there are many Piazza della Republic in Europe). (To be continued...)