March 13th

Wow I shall just say that Rome is AMAZING. Rome is built on 7 hills and consists of three different cities that were built at different times. The room that we are staying while in Rome is adorable. The name of the hotel is Antica Roma which means Ancient Rome. The rooms’ well suite is like something out of the 1800s simply charming. I took pictures of it all. We took a tour of Rome on a tour bus and I learned several interesting tidbits. For example, the Conte family and the Kalona family despised each other and built fortified buildings to protect themselves from each other. They had many battles… and they lived across the street from each other. Another family that was shall we say …. Interesting was the Barbarini family, in fact they earned themselves the phrases “What the barbarians didn’t do the Barbarini did” the Barbarini family believed that they were entitled and so they acted quite ill behaved. They took marble and stones from the coliseum in order to beautify their own palace or plazzo. WE visited the Pantheon which was built as a house of worship for all the gods and it also houses the house of Raphael who is a famous artist. I also visited Ponto San Angelo which is lined with the arch angles that were sculpted by Bernini. The arch angels represent Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. One angel carries the cross; one angel carries the crown of thorns, and so on. Rome is filled with 3,000 years of history I have only seen a small portion of it I can’t wait to uncover more