{"id":9936,"date":"2013-05-21T16:07:58","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T11:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/?p=9936"},"modified":"2013-05-21T16:07:58","modified_gmt":"2013-05-21T11:07:58","slug":"vatican-forced-to-tighten-security-at-the-sistine-chapel-after-pickpockets-target-huge-crowds-of-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/en\/?p=9936","title":{"rendered":"Vatican forced to tighten security at the Sistine Chapel after pickpockets target huge crowds of tourists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/v21.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9934\" alt=\"v2\" src=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/v21.jpg\" width=\"634\" height=\"419\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/v21.jpg 634w, https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/v21-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/v21-453x300.jpg 453w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 634px) 100vw, 634px\" \/><\/a>Tourists craning their necks to admire the artwork by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel are being targeted by thieves taking advantage of the crowds.<\/p>\n<p>Holidaymakers have been leaving warnings on travel websites urging others not to get stung when they visit Vatican City.<\/p>\n<p>It has prompted calls for the Vatican to improve security and restrict the number of visitors it lets in during the day.<\/p>\n<p>Official guides have even threatened to go on strike if something is not done. A similar protest recently took place at the Louvre, in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Angela Bolton, a guide from Kent, told The Times: &#8216;The situation is getting out of hand.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The Vatican lets in as many people as they can. Up to 30,000 people have been going through the museum on a single day, which means crowds like those on the Tokyo Underground.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The Sistine Chapel, or\u00a0 Cappella Sistina in Italian, takes its name from the man who commissioned it, Pope Sixtus IV.<\/p>\n<p>Some 25,000 people a day, or five million people a year, visit the chapel.<\/p>\n<p>Entry to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel costs \u20ac16, earning the Vatican an annual revenue of around \u20ac80 million or \u00a370 million a year.<\/p>\n<p>The Sistine Chapel is most famous for Michelangelo\u2019s frescoes, but long before Michelangelo, Sisto commissioned painters such as Botticelli to fresco the two long walls of the chapel.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tourists craning their necks to admire the artwork by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel are&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[146,224,137],"tags":[917],"class_list":["post-9936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","category-world","tag-vatican","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.ankakh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}