The Vatican (exhibit, not City)

Last week when I went to the Vatican Splendors exhibit at the MN History Center, I kept wondering why I was paying $20 to get in when I'd already been to the actual Vatican City. Then, when I discovered they had several paintings on display that had never before been exhibited to the public anywhere, I was okay with that. Well, maybe not twenty dollars okay, but okay with some form of monetary payment okay. The exhibit was quite good (and has been extended through later this month, so if you're in the neighborhood, you, too, can go see it should you so desire), but I'm still not sure if it was worth the whole twenty bucks. I mean, I'm quite positive I didn't pay twenty dollars to go to the Vatican, see the Sistine Chapel and some other museum areas and then climb the stairs to the top of the dome. (OK, maybe it was $20; right now it costs €14. Although when I think about it, I went to the Vatican so long ago that I actually paid with lire, anyway, so it might not have been so much...)

All this to say, the exhibit was interesting and very nicely done: not too little or too much information, and it combined a history of the papacy, Swiss Guard, all that, with actual Vatican artwork and objects.