Take a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel

Seeing the Vatican's Sistine Chapel is a hassle. It's constantly mobbed, you're not allowed to take pictures (unlike the sneaky photographer on the right) and you have to walk through a maze of rooms to reach it. But the minute you gaze up at the beauty of this Michelangelo masterpiece, all the pains of getting there evaporate. Now there's a totally new way to view this stunning masterwork without all the fuss, courtesy of the Internet and some high resolution photography.

The Sistine Chapel Virtual Tour offers web-surfers the pleasure of exploring this oft-packed wonder all by themselves, all rendered in gorgeous detail. You're free to zoom in on the most minute details of the frescoes, examining them up close in a way never before possible. To help get you in a properly pious mood, your Virtual Sistine tour is also accompanied by the sound of an ethereal chorus (get your mute button ready if you're not a fan of choirs). As you spin your cursor in circles around the room, you literally feel like you were there.

Thanks to technology, everyone can now get up close and personal with this amazing landmark. Best of all, there's nobody around to yell at you if you try to take a photo...

[Via Buzzfeed]

Filed under: Europe, Italy, Vatican City, Internet Tools