Quick overview: Starting at Saint Peter's Square, from the elliptic colonnade devised by Bernini, utilising the optical illusions typical of the baroque period, we arrive at the Basilica, journeying through its history and the artistic masterpieces kept within it: Michelangelo's Pietà , Bernini's sumptuous canopy , the spiraling columns more than likely taken from Solomon's Temple , sacred relics including the lance that pierced Christ's side and the shroud of Veronica. We then move on to the Vatican Museums and the Art Gallery with works of art by Giotto and Titian, as well as Leonardo DaVinci's Saint Gerolamo , Raphael's Transfiguration , Caravaggio's Deposition from the Cross , etc. We break for lunch and then go to the Belvedere Courtyard to admire and ponder over what are amongst the most beautiful Greek statues to be attained by the Romans. After brief stops at the most important works of art in the many wings of the museums, we arrive at the Raphael rooms to learn how to read the images of the frescoes. We then arrive at the Sistine Chapel to appreciate and enjoy at length the beauty of the hundreds of illustrations through which Michelangelo recounted stories from sacred texts. We will also compare his works to the other great masters of the Renaissance, including Botticelli , a selection of whose work can be found in the same chapel. We will also learn the socio-political, spiritual and enigmatic history of the conclave , the mysterious process carried out in secret within these walls by which popes are reverently selected to sit at the center of the Catholic Church. Interpreting art and the stories it recounts, as well as the history of this powerful city-state is what you will discover during the tour.

Some themes of the tour: Why does the present day Basilica stand in the same location as Caligula's ancient circus, where Saint Peter was crucified in 67 A .D.? How many artists contributed to the construction of Saint Peter's , the world's largest basilica ? How much time was needed before they were able to cover the enormous dome which for years remained open? How has the way of thinking and representing humanity, suffering, ecstasy, and God changed in the last millennium? How and why have the faces, forms, colours and gestures of the human figures changed in the paintings from Giotto , Raphael , Titian and Caravaggio exhibited in the Art Gallery ? What immense tragedy is expressed in the marble group of Laocoon, which captures him and his children at the moment of death under attack by serpents sent by Athena ? Of what boundless admiration was this statue an object of, even at the time of Nero, who wanted it in his Golden House ? Why did Raphael depict himself, Bramante , Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci as the philosophers in his very famous painting of the School of Athens ? And why, in the Last Judgement of the Sistine Chapel, did Michelangelo paint in his own face in the flayed skin of Saint Bartholomew who was skinned alive ?