St. Peter's Cathedral 5000 Piece F.X. Schmid Puzzle

The colors are dull. Very brown and not like the picture.

This was the most difficult puzzle we have ever done. Which is not to say we don't like a challenge, but the coloration is actually very brown, making it a little depressing to sort out the pieces. It is going into our small pile of one other puzzle that we will never do again.

When beginning this puzzle, looking at the image and seeing all those vertical, diagonal, and arched lines, it looked like it would be a straightforward and fun puzzle. I have never before been so drastically wrong in assessing a puzzle. This is easily (nothing else remotely close) the most difficult, frustrating, and least enjoyable puzzle I have ever encountered. Working this puzzle felt like working on a picture of forest trees covered in indistinguishable leaves and ragged branches. I would work on it for a few weeks, then become so frustrated with how difficult and slow it was that I would carefully box it up. After some years (and working lots of other puzzles) I would get to thinking that surely I was mistaken, it really could not be that onerous so I would get it out, continue working on it, and after some more weeks box it up again and be annoyed at myself for not remembering and learning from my own past. It took fifteen years and getting it out four times before it was finally finished. Maybe there are some rare puzzlers who will delight in this puzzle and give it a high rating, but in my estimation most puzzlers will not enjoy this puzzle and instead just find it tedious and grueling. Another reason for the low rating is because the puzzle is considerably duller and darker than the image on the box. In addition, the puzzle is printed on two sheets of cardboard that join vertically in the center of the puzzle where the color printing on the two sheets is mismatched.