Generally, flash is useless in galleries and churches because everything is too far away from your camera or, if you do get close up, you get all sorts of glare. Compact cameras and smartphone cameras can take great handheld snaps these days in fairly low light without flash. And you can always press the shutter two or three times if shaky hands are an issue to make sure you get one sharp shot. Compact and phone cameras can mute the shutter noise completely, to make things even more discreet. I'm not going to be told I can't take take pictures by anyone except the Turkish army (in northern Cyprus, for example). In return, I practise perfectly discreet and flash-free behaviour at all times.

I asked a jobsworth at the Sistine Chapel why I wasn't supposed to take photos. He muttered something about "copyright."

Michelangelo? Copyright??