The eVatican

As a highly-if-not-quite-exclusively visual person, this story from the University of Villanova really caught my attention:

A team from Villanova University has made touring the Sistine Chapel a reality with just the simple click of a mouse. For the last two years, students and faculty from Villanova have been granted rare clearance to photograph some of Rome’s most sacred, and restricted spaces – work that has led to the creation of state-of-the-art Virtual Reality Tours for the Vatican. Anyone with access to a computer can now tour some of Italy’s most historic cathedrals, including the Sistine Chapel.

The “tour” of St. Peter’s at night is particularly spectacular, and the Sistine Chapel is none-too-shabby, either. I can’t seem to find a section of the Vatican website that includes a listing of every available tour, but I always get a bit lost on their website, anyway. It’s not all in English, which is probably as close to a “native tongue” as I am ever likely to have.)

(A nod of thanks to The National Catholic Reporter’s Thomas C. Fox, who also includes links to the various other churches available through the virtual tour. I was too lazy to do what he did, but I’m not above taking advantage of someone else’s hard work.)