Location: Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Italy (41� 54' 8? N, 12� 27' 23? E)
Date: 22 March 2006; 11.15am
Camera: Canon IXUS iZoom
The Sistine Chapel is the most well-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace which is the Pope�s official residence in the Vatican. The Sistine Chapel is well-known for a few reasons. It was made famous and widely-known from the novel �Angels & Demons� as the Papal conclave- the venue for the election of successive Popes. However, it is probably better known for its interior decoration especially the immense frescoes painted by some of the best-known Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Raphael and Bernini. Michelangelo probably painted his best in the Chapel; by expert account, his �The Last Judgement� was his best painting. But its popularity is overshadowed by perhaps the most well-known artworks of all time, Michelangelo�s �The Creation of Adam�. �The Creation of Adam� is so popular in modern pop culture that it has continuously been parodied in the last few decades. By the way, photography is strictly prohibited in the Sistine Chapel but this is often ignored. I was going to follow this restriction when I visited the Chapel and kept my DSLR in my bag to demonstrate my respect. However, the majority of the tourists in the few hundreds who were in the Chapel on that day showed no inhibition whatsoever- clicking away on their cameras, with some even using flashes (my observation is that most digicam users do not know how to operate their cameras and so, do not know how to turn off their flash). I could not resist the temptation and sneak out my digicam and took a photo.
