A ceiling with almost no Christians on it

This is the fact that reorders the whole visit. Of the nearly 300 figures Michelangelo painted on the Sistine ceiling, the subjects are drawn overwhelmingly from the Hebrew Bible – the Book of Genesis, the prophets, the ancestors of David. In The Sistine Secrets, Rabbi Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner put the ceiling at roughly 95% Jewish and 5% pagan in its sources.

Michelangelo trained in the Medici household in Florence, in the years when Jewish scholars and Christian humanists were reading Kabbalah together, and he knew that world. His commissions, however, came from popes who did not share his view of Judaism – the same papacy that would wall the Jews of Rome into the ghetto in 1555. What he wanted to say, he had to conceal.

That tension is what a Jewish reading of the Vatican brings out: not a hunt for hidden codes, but a serious look at how much of this art is built on Torah, and what it cost to put it there.

What the visit covers

The Sistine Chapel, with a focus on the life of Moses, the Genesis panels and the arrangement Michelangelo chose – including the prophets and sibyls, and the details that have kept scholars arguing.

The Jewish Lapidarium, one of the most important collections of ancient Jewish funerary inscriptions anywhere, most of it taken from the Roman catacombs. It is not always open, and access depends on the day.

The Gallery of the Candelabra, the Gallery of Maps, the Tapestry Gallery and the Courtyard of the Pine Cone.

The Raphael Rooms, including the scenes drawn from the Hebrew Bible.

St Peter’s Basilica, where Bernini modelled the twisted bronze columns of the baldachin on what were believed to be the columns of Solomon’s Temple, and set two winged figures above the altar recalling the Keruvim of the Ark.

Practical notes

The Vatican Museums are closed on Sundays, except the last Sunday of the month, and on Catholic holidays. They are among the most crowded museums in the world, and in high season the queue without a pre-arranged ticket can exceed two hours.

Shoulders and knees must be covered, in the Museums and in the Basilica. Allow three hours for the route above.

Early-morning entry before public opening, and visits after regular closing hours, can both be arranged with pre-booked admission – which is the difference between seeing the Sistine Chapel and being pushed through it. Ask me how to skip the ticket line.