I visited the Vatican museum today, a wonderful and terrible experience. The terrible was the thousands upon thousands of people that visited with me. There must have been over 100 000 folks who spent time in the museum with me. At times it was absolutely suffocating and claustrophobic. Is there a limit on how many people they allow into the museum? I visited on a non high season day, how much worse would it be in the high season? Could they possibly fit more folks into that space?
At times it was impossible to see the museum exhibits as people were stacked 4 or 5 deep in front of what you were trying to get at. Part of enjoying art is viewing it in an environment where you can be alone in your thoughts, alone with the art. You need the space and solitude to figure things out. When there are as many people as I was with today it is almost impossible to find the tranquility of though necessary to get the most out of the piece. Many of the people who were at the museum seemed to not be terribly interested in the art but instead just following the queue robot like. This was especially evident in the tour groups, where people would just follow their tour leader who carried a flag on a poll. These tourists seemed to be lemming like, almost oblivious to what was around them and obediently followed that little flag wherever it went from place to place. Occasionally they would take a photo or pose for a selfie.
After a day of crushing Vatican crowds it was so nice to get away from it all, to have some empty space around me with enough room to think and breath.
At times it was impossible to see the museum exhibits as people were stacked 4 or 5 deep in front of what you were trying to get at. Part of enjoying art is viewing it in an environment where you can be alone in your thoughts, alone with the art. You need the space and solitude to figure things out. When there are as many people as I was with today it is almost impossible to find the tranquility of though necessary to get the most out of the piece. Many of the people who were at the museum seemed to not be terribly interested in the art but instead just following the queue robot like. This was especially evident in the tour groups, where people would just follow their tour leader who carried a flag on a poll. These tourists seemed to be lemming like, almost oblivious to what was around them and obediently followed that little flag wherever it went from place to place. Occasionally they would take a photo or pose for a selfie.
After a day of crushing Vatican crowds it was so nice to get away from it all, to have some empty space around me with enough room to think and breath.
