This is Rafael's fresco,The School of Athens. After the Rafael Room, we entered the Sistine Chapel but no pictures are allowed and in fact Stefano had to leave us and instruct us where to meet him after we spent fifteen minutes in the chapel. They stopped allowing guides to accompany groups some time ago because of the irreverence caused by the talking, and also because people were lingering too long. Logistics demands that people be encouraged to move along. Silence was strictly enforced and absolutely no pictures were allowed. It is of course very beautiful, but after all we had already seen I would have to be a Vatican scholar to see how it was better. One simply has to drink it in. |