You'd look away too...

We have been blessed by the Sun since Friday and it looks like more of the same for the next few days. After thirty years, I finally got to visit the Sistine Chapel (along with the Vatican Museum). The last time I was in Rome, they had just begun preparation for the massive restoration of the ceiling, so it was closed to the public. I wished I had been able to see it before the cleaning because words cannot describe the phenomenal impact Michelangelo’s cleaned up frescoes make on the crowd over 65 feet below. I could have sat there for hours. The Vatican Museum is another must-see. Whatever our Protestant brethren may want to critique about the Catholic Church (and there are plenty of targets), one experience of the Vatican Museum and the visitor walks away with a powerful impression of how focused the Church was on preserving culture over the course of 2000 years. * This is the Delphic Sybil located just past the narthex in the Sistine Chapel. Believe it or not, of all the amazing figures, she is my favorite. The clarity of her facial expression is stunning. I also like the way she is averting her head to the left - perhaps she doesn't want to have to spend eternity looking at the fresco to her right - Judith holding the severed Head of Holophernes.