In the Sistine chapel alone

This morning we got up early to go on a tour of the Sistine chapel that we per-ordered. Justin really wanted to be able to enjoy the famous place and we decided to book a tour that would let us in before everyone else. What we didn't realize was that it would be a private tour....we were all alone with our own personal tour guide, and we were first in line. Our tour guide was fantastic and very sweet. We walked toward the chapel and she explained things along the way. We learned a good bit about the fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel.  So it turns it the Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor instead of a painter to go along with his "spit-fire" personality.  This lead to him denying the pope in the 14th century "aka god on earth" his requested services the first time he was asked to paint the fresco. When he did finally paint the ceiling it took four years in which he locked himself in the chapel without an audience. Michelangelo's hatred of painting the ceiling seemed like something of a legend.  So just a few stories...... in the creation scenes It was the first time that God was portrayed as a half dressed man where his rear end was painted in the scene where he is creating the trees.  Also for accurate imagery when painting Jonah and the whale he brought a live fish from the wharf into the Sistine chapel.  Apparently however, no matter what kind of crazy antics he pulled he was so good pope Julius II asked him to come back and paint the altar. Now, according to Catholicism the Sistine chapel is to worship to the Virgin Mary, however Michelangelo drew about 40 naked men in his portrayal of the final judgement. In fact there is only one portrait of the Virgin Mary in the entire chapel...haha. There was one member of the church with which he had a disagreement and he unfortunately ended up being painted as the gate keeper of hell. When this person complained to the pope he said there was notching he could do.  He only has jurisdiction over heaven not hell. So when we got to the entrance to the chapel we had to wait for 15 minutes for it to open. Then when it did I was the first person in the chapel with Justin behind me. Abut 30 second as later there was a tour group of about 10 people behind us but we were still only in there with a small group of people. It was an amazing feeling you were really able to appreciate the painting for what it was. We had 15 minutes before the rest of the public was allowed to come in to the chapel. When that time came we left with our tour guide who showed us how to get to the other parts of the Vatican museums that I wanted to see.  After we found the way we decided to have breakfast. Our idea to grab breakfast on the way in the morning failed because nothing was open.  After a pastry each and two cups of espresso in a cafe over run by an "asian invasion" we were happy to keep exploring the Vatican museums.

The whole ceiling. 

Awesome whale right?? Yea it looks like a fish from the market!