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Patrick Ledbetter Photography

Home»Europe»Italy 2015»City of Rome»The Vatican Museum

These are the pictures from our guided tour through the Vatican Museum. It displays works from the immense collection built up by the Popes throughout the centuries including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world.

Pope Julius II founded the museums in the early 16th century. The Sistine Chapel with its ceiling decorated by Michelangelo and the Stanze di Raffaello decorated by Raphael are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums. There are 54 galleries in total and it's one of the largest museums in the world.

© Patrick Ledbetter Photography

The Crossed Keys This is mounted on the outside of the Vatican Museum.

MVSEI VATICANI Letting you know you're about to enter the Vatican Museum. Very cool.

As the tourists make their way into the museum This is the more modern part of the museum. Through those glass doors, you start to enter the more expected Vatican.

Statue in the courtyard Just on the other side of those glass doors from the previous picture, you enter a courtyard with various statues.

The lower level of the courtyard This is the view looking down into the lower level of the courtyard. We didn't go down there so I took a picture from up top.

The dome of St Peter's as seen from the Vatican courtyard A beautiful view of Vatican grounds.

The Vatican Museum as seen from the courtyard The dome was to my back when I took this.

Courtyard of the Pinecone at the Vatican Museum The structure titled Sfera con Sfera, translated as Sphere within a Sphere, is a bronze statue that appears golden as the sun shines down on it. It is 4

The Pinecone at the Vatican Seemed like a good thing to take a picture of at the time.

The Vatican Keys again Notice the pinecone at the bottom of the picture. This is the part of the courtyard behind it.

A close up of the sphere in a sphere One of the courtyards at the Vatican Museum.

Our guide explaning the story behind the sphere She was an excellent guide; extremely knowledgable and easy to understand.

Looking back at the Pinecone I tried to avoid the tourists as much as possible when I was taking my pictures.

Looking over the Vatican walls That's the dome at St. Peter's in the background.

Statues during our tour Notice the numbers? We were told those are used for cataloging the many items on display at the museum.

So many statues to see I have no way to identify them for these pictues so I won't try.

Another picture out in one of the courtyards in the Vatican Museum

Artwork on the ceiling When you're walking through the musuem, you have to look everywhere because the amazing artwork is all around you.

More artwork on the ceiling It's hard to tell but this was quite a few feet above us.

This statue has been beat up a little This artwork is hundreds or thousands of years old.