They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in my case I had seen thousands of pictures and I wanted to see the real thing, I knew about it since the age of 10-11 when I used to turn the pages of an encyclopedia and the brilliant colors of the painting used to fascinate me and the name Michelangelo had a ring to it. I remember trying to figure out who was a greater painter Leonardo or Michelangelo and reading up and comparing paintings of both of these artists when I was in my teens and venerating them. For me, the entire renaissance era was epitomized by these two names. It was far easier to get information once I had access to internet and have spent countless hours reading up and admiring the works of these two painters. Of all the works I truly dreamed of seeing the 'Sistine Chapel'. The iconic image of 'God creating man' and the hand of god giving life to man which was highlighted in the movie Benhur as part of the overture,a movie which I have seen many times was something which captivated my mind since I was a kid.
So when I planned my Italy trip I knew what was on top of my 'Must see'. The Vatican museum opens at 9 am to the general public,but if you shell some extra money you get a 8 AM entry directly into the Sistine chapel with no crowds.For me it was a no-brainer to go for this.We met our guide at 7:30 am who gave a brief history of the sistine chapel and explained about the paintings by giving us a pamphlet most of it which I already knew before.The sistine chapel is the last exhibit as part of the Vatican museum tour,basically saving the best for the last. So we had to walk through a lot of rooms which we would see later but first the 'Sistine Chapel'. My pulse was racing, my adrenaline pumping, I knew I was finally going to see and feel with my own senses one of the greatest creations of art in the history of mankind. We went down a stair case and there was a very inconscpicous door to the left which we entered, I was thinking the chapel was still further away,the door led into a huge hall and I looked up and my heart leaped, I WAS IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL. Its amazing that one of the greatest art creations of man has such an unremarkable entry. The thing is, we enter through a small door which is to the bottom right of the wall on which the last judgement is painted. The minute I entered I looked up and was just stuck with the realization that I was in the sistine chapel and then I slowly turn to my right and see the entire wall of 'last judgement' and my heart stops for a few milliseconds seconds, I never imagined it to be so huge. I cannot contain my emotions and my eyes just get moist, for me the realization that I am finally seeing something which I had dreamt of seeing all my life finally strikes home. That immediately changes to ecstasy and i want to just leap and shout with joy,but there is strict silence enforced in the sistine chapel and that too only with about 25 people in the entire hall and security around,not a good thing to do. Once my emotions stabilize I start focusing on the paintings which I have seen all my life only in photos.I first admire the last judgement,take in each of the figures,its brilliant! Then i turn my focus to the roof and the first thing i want to see is the creation of adam and i spot it, I immediately get underneath it and crane my neck painfully upward to see it, after admiring it to my satisfaction then i focus on the other paintings. We get a total of close to 1 hour within the chapel with very limited people after which we move on to see the other rooms in the vatican museum. Towards the end of the day I force my wife to come back once more to have one last look at the sistine chapel and this time its jam packed with people with no space to move around and was I glad that I took the cadillac morning tour.
I think I will never forget the moment I entered the sistine chapel and realized it was 'the sistine chapel'.
The entire sistine chapel was much bigger than I imagined. The photos really dont give a feeling for how large this place is.
