Gay and Lesbian Tour of Vatican Museums: 'The Gay Light' on Michelangelo and Art

Highlights

• 3-Hour Guided Tour
• Skip the Line Tickets
• Gay & Lesbian Focus

What's included

Itinerary

1. 1

   Vatican Museums

   2h

   This tour at the Vatican Museums will show you what one of the greatest artists of all : Michelangelo. The tour starts with the Vatican Museums’ tour. At first sight, you will be caught by the modern entrance built for the Jubilee in 2000, but then –inside the museums– the Sistine Chapel will amaze you. The ceiling was painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512. The order was originally to paint the twelve apostles, however Michelangelo demanded a free hand in the pictorial content of the scheme. He painted a series of nine pictures now worldwide famous. However, the Church had some big homosexual scandals in theXVIth century: for example, Pope Julius III and his young lover Innocenzo del Monte, who became Cardinal at the age of 17. You will be able to see the paintings of St. Sebastian, a Roman soldier and Christian Saint, patron of homosexuality. The history says that during the Black Plague St. Sebastian was invoked against pestilence and the identification of him with homosexuality strenghtened during Renaissance, when some artists painted him as a beautiful naked young boy tied up to a trunk or suffering the torments of piercing arrows. Also, one of the biggest love stories in Rome was the one that Hadrianus, a Roman Emperor, had with Antinous. They were together until Antinous died drowned on a trip up the Nile in 130. Here you will see their sculptures and hear the story. One of the masterpieces that you will see is the Torso del Belvedere, that probably represent the body of a muscle bear guy. It constitutes a real praise of the male body, that mostly of all of the artists tented to represent in their artworks. In the Vatican Grottoes, the tomb of Princess Christine of Sweden (XVII century) who converted to Catholicism but was deliberately lesbian. She had a love story with the beautiful young court lady Ebba Sparre. Christine wrote her many love letters, where she declares her desperate love to Ebba. Christine aways refused any wedding the royal family proposed her, as she said, because ‘unable to accept any form of awe, which a wedding with a man always includes’ The Parnasus Fresco (1510 -1511), by Raffaello Sanzi, represents Mount Parnasus which the Greek mithology depicts as the Place of Muses. Eighteen poets are also to be found in this fresco. Amongst them, Sappho, the Greek Lesbian poetress is showing her name to the others. In the Vatican Grottoes, the tomb of Princess Christine of Sweden (XVII century) who converted to Catholicism but was deliberately lesbian. She had a love story with the beautiful young court lady Ebba Sparre. Christine wrote her many love letters, where she declares her desperate love to Ebba. Christine aways refused any wedding the royal family proposed her, as she said, because ‘unable to accept any form of awe, which a wedding with a man always includes’ The Parnasus Fresco (1510 -1511), by Raffaello Sanzi, represents Mount Parnasus which the Greek mithology depicts as the Place of Muses. Eighteen poets are also to be found in this fresco. Amongst them, Sappho, the Greek Lesbian poetress is showing her name to the others.

2. 2

   St. Peter's Basilica

   1h

   Discover the hidden secrets of La Pietà and of St. Peter Basilica

Before you go

Location