Vatican Museum - reservations and binoculars? Part 1

Our trip to Rome has got to include art museums....but how many and which ones?  With all our viewing and reading about Renaissance artists, and those ancient Romans, the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel have got to be at the top of the list. 

I've got my copy of Rick Steves' Rome and he devotes some 35 pages to his Vatican Museum Tour.  I've always found him trustworthy so I intend to rip out those pages and take them with us when we tour.  But when?  The stories of crowds in the museum and the dash to get to the Sistine Chapel are legend.  Ricky (excuse the familiarity, but I hear his voice when I read the tour so I think he's my best friend) says, "The least worst time to visit is a weekday, late afternoon.  Mornings are most crowded.  The worst days are Sat, free Sundays, Mondays and rainy days." Weds. at 10:30 am are less crowded as many tourists are at the papal audience at St. Peter's Basilica, but I'm thinking somebody might like to see Pope Francis.
He also says, "This huge, confusing, and crowded megamuseum can be a jungle - but with this book as your vine, you should swing through with ease, enjoying the highlights and getting to the Sistine just before you collapse."  He concentrates on classical sculpture and Renaissance painting and that is just what we want.
The always crowded museum now has an online reservation system and a website with hours and information.  So we will plan ahead for our visit on the Vatican Museum site.
We will bypass the long ticket lines by reserving an entry time online.  It costs 20 Euros (16 for the ticket plus 4 booking fee).  Yeah, it seems steep, but I think MOMA is more.  We choose our day and time and they email a confirmation, and we print out the voucher.  When we get there we thumb our noses at all those tourist in line for tickets (it can be up to 2 hours), and queue up at the "Entrance with Reservations" line to the right. 
Then what?  Here is a schematic of the museum.

 Of course, Ricky leads us by the hand through the whole museum.  One option he suggests is seeing the Pinacoteca (10) at the beginning so we don't have to backtrack at the end (he has a shortcut).  There we will want to see Raphael's The Transfiguration, Leonardo's St. Jerome, and Caravaggio's Deposition. 

Caravaggio's Deposition

Then up the stairs to the Egyptian Rooms, past a balcony with a view of Rome through the windows to enter the Octagonal Courtyard with Greek and Roman Sculpture.

Apollo

Here we look for "the pure grace" of Apollo Belvedere, a Roman copy of a Hellenistic original.


Next the Laocoon, that very powerful and tortured portrayal of Laocoon and his sons being crushed by snakes.  And the BelvedereTorso.  The discovery of these sculptures spurred the Renaissance and the Laocoon and Torso are said to have inspired Michelangelo.

Laocoon

 

Belvedere Torso

Then we have the Etruscans, but there is a lot of that in the Metropolitan Museum, so this might be quick.
The Renaissance arrives on a quarter-mile walk down the long hall (Gallery of the Candelabra).   Along the way we see tapestries designed by Raphael's workshop, and the map gallery where we see all the regions of Italy and the windows give us our best look at the tiny country of the Vatican City.

And the Raphael Rooms!  You'll remember that Pope Julius II invited Raphael, then only 25, to paint the walls of his living quarters.  Here we will see the Constantine Room, the Liberation of St. Peter, the School of Athens and La Disputa.

Liberation of St. Peter

School of Athens

 And that's it for Part 1.  In the next installment we will stroll through the Modern Religious Art collection and finally arrive at THE SISTINE CHAPEL......