The Picture Gallery
We begin in the Vatican Pinacoteca (Picture Gallery), thanks to its being off the main tourist path, offers an incredible experience of art including many masterpieces. Among them are the Last Judgment from the 12th century, with a fully medieval style that uses the human figure symbolically and the space hierarchically, and the Stefaneschi Triptych by Giotto, c. 1315, that adheres to the beautiful 14th century forms for expressing spirituality while suggesting a new interest in materiality as well. There are the beautiful faces and graceful figures of the musician angels by Melozzo da Forli whose soft and humanized expressions present the Renaissance conception of form, and the extraordinary fresco by the same artist in 1477 that portrays Pope Sixtus IV, surrounded by his nephews outfitted in their important political and ecclesiastical roles, nominating the prefect of the Vatican Library. We will see the work of Perugino (Raphael's master) that breathes a renewed harmony of humanity and three-dimensional nature, in addition to the Transfiguration by Raphael from 1520. This is the masterpiece and last work of Raphael in which the artist composes two stories from the Bible with extreme drama and richness of gesture, detail, and character. There is also the St. Jerome in the Desert from 1480 by Leonardo da Vinci, imbued with the suffering and the spiritual search of the saint and showing the expressive force and the complex personality of a Renaissance genius that merits attention for itself. No less so does the Deposition by Caravaggio in 1602, in the new Baroque Rome, assume an explosive role that innovates pictorial language completely.

Greek and Roman Art
The Museums also preserve a collection of Greek and Roman antiquities that is likewise unique in the world. The fascinating myths behind these sculptures will be another fundamental subject of our guided visit. It was not by chance that during the years of the Renaissance, thanks to the new attention and valorization of the classical art it promoted, that many masterpieces came to light in excavations both accidental and intentional. It was specifically the great artists of the time, from Michelangelo to Raphael, who studied and greatly admired these works and who felt their influence.

We begin from the Cortile della Pigna (Courtyard of the Pine cone) whose display of ancient sculptures from Egypt as well as Rome introduces us to the collecting habits of the popes. Passing then into the papal halls we will find such famous treasures as the Apoxyomenos, a marble athlete in the act of scraping off sweat and oil and the Apollo Belvedere, a graceful figure not of a man but of a young god. Both are Roman copies Greek originals in bronze from the 4th century BC and their plastic form indicated a new turn in Greek art. No less wonderful is the Laocoon, Hellenistic work of the 1st or 2nd century AD, that represents a Trojan priest together with his sons overwhelmed by the fatal grip of the serpents, in the instant before death. We will tell you of his fatal words and the destiny of the city he tried to save.

You will see the Laocoon among others, in the same Cortile del Belvedere where this most famous of Julius's sculptures was displayed in 1506 shortly after its discovery in the Domus Aurea (Golden House) of Nero. It is a typically Renaissance palace of the 16th century, with a panoramic setting (belvedere means beautiful view), at a certain distance from the earlier papal palaces was subsequently attached to the others by Bramante at the will of Pope Julius II, giving place to a very large outdoor space (that you will visit) embellished with fountains and gardens that became the theatre for the sumptuous receptions and banquets of the Renaissance.

There are many other works that deserve a look, but here we want to mention only the Perseus by Canova from 1800, an emblematic work from yet another period of revival of classical art, the Torso Belvedere from the 1st century BC that was so suggestive for Michelangelo, and the imposing sarcophagi from the 4th century AD, of Helen and Costanza from the family of the emperor Constantine with the fascinating Early Christian symbolism. We note also the Gallery of the Candelabras with some singular works, the Gallery of the Maps, 1580, showing the new scientific conquest of that epoch, and finally the Gallery of the Tapestries, with its walls lined with 16th and 17th century tapestries.

At this point, having been immersed in the context of the epoch and familiarized with the ideals of the Renaissance, and with the lives of the artists and the popes, from Alexander VI Borgia to Leo X, from Julius II to Clement VII and Paul III, you will be prepared to comprehend and fully appreciate the culminating masterpieces of the Museums.

The Raphael Rooms
The wonderful frescoes of the Stanza della Segnatura by Raphael are the manifesto of the Renaissance: The School of Athens is a celebration of wisdom, an uninterrupted dialogue with the past in which philosophers, with the faces of some great Renaissance artists, are presented in the new architecture of the time. A vibrating sense of space is created by a masterful use of line, naturalistic light and shade define the bodies, while the gestures and expressions represent the highest artistic achievement. The fresco asserts philosophical teaching and truth, while theology is represented on the other side of the room. Poetry and art occupy a third wall. Each branch of thought is portrayed with a humanist approach that would have been unthinkable in the middle ages when theological truth was absolute and singular, casting into the shadows any other form of thinking or study.
We cannot forget that Raphael, handsome, charming, and much loved in his time, was working only a short distance away from Michelangelo, a person of much more solitary and intolerant character. Walking daily to the Stanze, Raphael passed close by the chapel where his grudging colleague spent hours and hours on top of a scaffold, struggling against even the weather to make his incomparable figures adhere to the fresh plaster. They were both there, both paid by Pope Julius II, both creating works never before imagined, both giving form and substance to dreaming man, interrogating himself about the human condition and divine projects, about daily life and our desire to project ourselves beyond it.

The Sistine Chapel
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo depicts the biblical story of humanity, narrated from creation, to fall, and redemption, with the figures of Old Testament prophets and ancient sibyls who predicted its fundamental moments. Each of these figures is caught in the vital movement of his being and inundates the space with his presence, creating it by revealing himself. In one scene for example, God bursts with life and Adam is without it, and between them they compose the contact that signifies both extreme closeness and unbridgeable distance. In another, we see God create day and night with an eloquent gesture that separates darkness from light. Yet another bold pose depicts the creation of the sun and the moon. The numerous scenes and figures - that we will show you one at a time, explaining why Noah is drunk for example, and who is the Cumaen Sibyl - express Michelangelo's particular genius as well as his moment's humanist vision. The ceiling is fantastic for its force, clarity, and innovations of superhuman beauty. Needless to say, the style and creative furor of Michelangelo will be addressed at length and with a passion for the comprehension and appreciation of the details as well as the whole conception, the anecdotes as well as the historical facts. 

Michelangelo returned to the Sistine Chapel about 25 years later, by then a 60-year-old, to paint the grand Last Judgment. In the meanwhile Rome had suffered the terrible assault and sacking by the Holy Roman Emperor with German Lutheran mercenaries in 1527, and Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation had strongly marked the history of the Church and the Pontifical State. In this climate of the Counter Reformation, which soon degenerated into dogma and Inquisition, Michelangelo found himself confronted with recounting the day at the end of time when the dead will have risen to be judged by an almighty God. From his own era of desperation, confusion, and loss, Michelangelo's powerfully depicted Judgment day with a tremendous accumulation of human forms in tortured poses - as opposed to the striking clarity of the ceiling - expressing chaos, confusion, and torment.

The Basilica of St. Peter
The Basilica of St. Peter from its iconic dome to the energetic colonnade that wraps it great arms around crowds of pilgrims and visitors to this day, represents the will of numerous popes, the creativity of generations of famous artists - including Alberti, Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Maderno, and Bernini - and the labor of countless thousands who together raised this monument. Founded in 1506, this new basilica of St. Peter was not consecrated until 1626 and the great piazza was completed over 40 years after that. The various phases of building and decoration necessarily express the diversity of styles, the availability of funds, the priorities of the different popes and the religious and political crises that broke out. We will discuss these influences with you and show you their visible traces.

But the Basilica of St. Peter above all takes us to the heart of a long history of faith, beginning with St. Paul and St. Peter who came to Rome to comfort the first Christian communities. In fact, St. Peter, crucified during the persecution of the Christians under the emperor Nero who falsely held them responsible for the fire of 64 AD that devastated Rome, was buried in the necropolis (city of the dead) that once occupied the area of the Basilica. Once Christianity was legalized and promoted by the emperor Constantine, he constructed an enormous basilica over the necropolis. The plan of the basilica was designed so that the altar, its spiritual center, would stand directly over the sacred ground where the remains of St. Peter lay. The basilica was consecrated in 326 AD by Pope Silvester.

By the 15th century this Early Christian basilica had structural problems, causing several popes to consider projects for reconstruction. But, as one of the most sacred buildings in Christendom, whose very form gave shape to all Western Christian churches throughout the middle ages, the basilica was itself a holy relic. However, Pope Julius II decided to demolish it and begin building a new church in 1506. We will explain the cultural, religious, and political circumstances that made such a momentous decision possible.

Inside the Basilica, once we marvel at the space itself and point out the important features of the overall design, we will look at numerous individual monuments and masterpieces. Among them are the bronze statue of St. Peter from the 13th century that has been an object of devotion for centuries with visible wear from the touch of thousands of pilgrims, the baldachin by Bernini that rises over the altar on four tremendous serpentine columns whose form echoes those of the original Basilica. Surrounding this central space stand the four great piers that carry the dome, and in them are housed the other principle relics of the church. These too are dramatically represented by massive statues, and the relics themselves are encased in reliquaries flanked by the actual columns from Old St. Peter's. The dome that crowns it all is another project of Michelangelo. He began work on it when he was in his 70s, but did not see it finished.

At the far west end of the Basilica we encounter again the work of Bernini. His triumphal and fantastic image of the Throne of St. Peter defines baroque theatricality, persuading you to suspend your disbelief, and witness the Holy Spirit as it bursts through the window amidst a host of angels and golden clouds that then envelope Peter's throne and the four saints who support it. No less dramatic is Bernini's final work in the Basilica, the funerary monument to Pope Alexander VII who kneels in prayer over a tremendous swath of marble drapery that billows from the gust of wind carried in by Death who awaits Alexander below, with a menacing hour glass in hand.

The last great work in our visit, and one from which we will draw lasting impression, will be the splendid Pieta' by the barely 24-year-old Michelangelo. A very young Madonna holds her dead son in her lap. The intimate embrace elicits a profoundly human and emotional response to the scene portrayed, while simultaneously expressing abstract ideas of sacrifice, pity, infinite love. Immediately welcomed as an incomparable masterpiece upon its completion, this work is the only one signed by the master.

Piazza San Pietro
The beauty and grander of St. Peter’s Square conceived with the new ideas of optical illusions and dynamic spaces that characterize the Baroque period, will certainly be widely explored.  We will conclude our visit with an image of the crowd packed into the Piazza on September 10, 1586 to participate in a long-awaited event projected by the architect Carlo Fontana. 140 horses, 800 men, and mechanical winches finally, at 11 o'clock at night, raised the immense obelisk in the center of the piazza, at the will of Pope Sixtus V, one of the most audacious, bizarre, and feared of the century. Here where the great celebrations of the faithful have happened over the centuries during the Jubilee, and where during the election of a new pope, crowds gather to determine whether the smoke coming from the Sistine Chapel is white or black, we will end our journey with you. And we will be happy to detect in your eyes too the enthusiasm of discovery and the satisfaction of experience that has gratified us in the faces of thousands of visitors over the last 12 years. See you soon in Rome.