Sistine Chapel Ceiling | Italy

Widely considered to be one of the artistic wonders of the world, Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" (1512) was not a labor of love. Painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, it took his 4-years laying on his back on top a scaffold to complete, all at almost 70-feet in the air but it wasn't the physical strain that pained Michelangelo. It was that this was a forced commission by Pope Julius ll (the pope who established the vatican museums).