La Bella Sistina

July 21

I'm struggling to say something meaningful about the Sistine Chapel. I have waited a very long time for the opportunity to see it, plotting my vacations, and saving my pennies - literally - the funds for this side trip to Rome came from a jar into which I have been throwing my change for the last eight years.

As a student, I have drawn Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, I have performed informative speeches about the restoration campaign on the ceiling, and I've written essays comparing the Last Judgement to Dante's Inferno (which Michelangelo could recite by heart). I even learned to use Adobe Illustrator by overdrawing Adam. I've lost count of the books about the Chapel that I own. So you get the picture... I really wanted this.

I managed to spend some 20 minutes craning my neck in awe. The photo is one that I snuck with the camera aimed up from the crook of my arm, set to autofocus with a healthy dose of hope and fingers mentally crossed - photography is forbidden, but this time I disobeyed. It came out so well that I'm chalking it up to Michelangelo's blessing.

It was everything I could have ever imagined. The guide said they called him Il Divino Michelangelo - Michelangelo the Divine. I second that.