Today was special.
I’ve seen the Sistine Chapel enough times that I don’t need to see it anymore. But today we strolled into the museum 5 minutes before closing and ambled our way to the Sistine Chapel. I’ve never seen the museum so empty. Scarcely a patron at all, and no huge tour groups. Once at the Sistine Chapel we looked around for 5 minutes untilthey kicked everyone out. Everybody but us! Once everyone else left it was just me and my clients, a couple of my colleagues, and the man who runs the Sistine Chapel. He flipped on the overhead lights and we got to enjoy the Chapel ceiling fully illuminated on our own. It was only 15 minutes or so, but was truly a reawakening in terms of my enjoyment of the room and the artowrk therein. As we were escorted to the Basilica by the gentleman in charge I got saluted by a Swiss Guard. That was pretty sweet too. And another first time occurence. I kinda saluted him back, too, by accident.