If you’re in Rome this summer, consider visiting the Vatican Museums on a Friday night. The special opening not only allows visitors to access the outstanding art collections at a less crowded time, it also features music concerts in the Courtyard of the Pigna and in the Museo Gregoriano Profano.
You can choose between an open or guided tour, with museum doors opening at 7 pm, and concerts beginning at 8 pm. The special Friday night openings continue until 26 October, and are part of the Museidisera initiative, which was successfully tested for the first time last summer.
Visitors can also enjoy taste a buffet aperitivo in the Courtyard of the Pigna before they begin their visit.
In addition, you may want to check out the special promotions currently on offer to see the ‘Giudizio universale - Michelangelo and the secrets of the Sistine Chapel’ show, an innovative format which combines live performances, spectacular special effects and immersive 270-degree 3D projections to narrate the history of art. The 60-minute show takes visitors through the early stages of Michelangelo’s creative process when he was commissioned the Sistine Chapel by Pope Julius II. Viewers will travel back in time to the 16th century, to Carrara where Michelangelo went to pick the perfect marble for his sculptures, and to the Sistine Chapel, which viewers can see as it appeared before Michelangelo worked on its ceiling; they will take part in the 1513 papal conclave and meet the new pope who emerged from it, Clement VII, the one who commissioned Michelangelo to create the fresco on the main wall.
The show was devised and directed by Marco Balich, artistic director of numerous Olympic Games ceremonies, in partnership with the Vatican Museums, and features music by Sting, and voice-overs by Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino (Michelangelo) and Susan Sarandon in the English version playing the biblical voice.
On Fridays, take advantage of the special 'Un venerdì in bellezza' ticket, which includes the Michelangelo afternoon show and the Vatican & Sistine Chapel night visit. Also, English-language shows are now 20% off, with free headphone simultaneous translation (usually €5) and a 2x1 drink deal at the bar of the Auditorium Conciliazione, where the show is screened.
More info:
Friday night at the Vatican - http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/visita-i-musei/scegli-la-visita/musei-e-collezioni/musei-vaticani-in-notturna.html
The Michelangelo show - http://www.giudiziouniversale.com/en/
