{"id":91,"date":"2011-06-19T13:08:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-19T13:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/19\/a-lesson-in-roman-history\/"},"modified":"2017-03-16T09:11:12","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T09:11:12","slug":"a-lesson-in-roman-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/19\/a-lesson-in-roman-history\/","title":{"rendered":"A lesson in Roman history…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619924783557895778\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We were fortunate enough to spend five days touring Rome with the family. It was an interesting place and we were able to take a few private tours. While not cheap, I believe this is the best way to tour Rome. The history makes the buildings, art, and even religion much more interesting. (But let’s not get ahead of ourselves as the most important thing is the food: fantastic.)<\/p>\n

I learned a great deal on this trip. For example, I was unaware that St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican was built by the Barberini family literally destroying and taking all the artifacts, marble and gold out of Rome and delivering it to St Peter’s building ground. I was also unaware that Caesar’s Palace was built long after Julius Caesar had died. The Caesar salad isn’t named for Julius Caesar, but rather after all Caesars (rulers) going forward. Who would’ve thought…\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619923640028728258\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps some of the biggest learnings came from touring the Vatican (believed to be the richest “state” in the world). Hmmmm? It is comprised largely of Roman artifacts stolen by the Barberini’s. Hmmmm a little more? Michaelangelo (painter of the Sistine Chapel, among other things) was literally forced to paint the chapel. He was previously only a sculptor and architect. The Pope insisted he painted it, so he spent four years in misery painting the chapel. What isn’t widely publicized is that Michaelangelo was a known homosexual… Seem inconsistent? To add to that, the women that he painted appear to be (as our tour guide said) men with breasts. Also, through a crack in the door, you can see into the (current) Pope’s residence. Amazing and baroque and over the top. Seem inconsistent yet? It goes on, but I will stop now. Below a sculpture by Michaelangelo inside St Peter’
s Basilica.
\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619926134182773426\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Probably the coolest thing we saw was the Pantheon<\/a>. Words don’t describe it, so I won’t bother. Suffice it to say that the engineering that went into this building is simply amazing.\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619922750129008674\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Coliseum was interesting. It is simply amazing that this big and complex of a structure could be built 2000 years ago. Just recently they have opened the underground of the Coliseum for private tours where you can see where the gladiators, slaves, and animals were kept. They even had elevators then! \"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619923081789044578\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course the kids’ highlights of the trip were the zoo and the horse drawn carriage ride. We had a curious horse.\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619923383579125602\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All in all it was a great trip. I had always wanted to see Rome and am thrilled that we had the opportunity. It is rich in history, art, architecture, and religion (Pagan and Christianity). You can’t help but learn while you are there. It is a must see for a European traveler.
<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n

Honorable mentions:<\/p>\n

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619924061683826322\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619924336368958818\"<\/a>
\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619926630795084226\"<\/a>
Toga Party!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were fortunate enough to spend five days touring Rome with the family. It was an interesting place and we were able to take a few private tours. While not cheap, I believe this is the best way to tour Rome. The history makes the buildings, art, and even religion much more interesting. (But let’s…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41,49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-91","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-italy","7":"category-micha","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8k10v-1t","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/19\/the-garrisons-hit-london\/","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":0},"title":"The Garrisons hit London","author":"Micha Lunt Hooper","date":"May 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of our good friends from Houston visited us over the last weekend. Tanya and Darin are our neighbors in Texas and it was fun to see some friendly Texan faces.We had a big time exploring bits of London that we hadn't yet seen. We hit the Winston Churchill\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "London"","block_context":{"text":"London","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/europe\/united-kingdom\/london\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1978,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/30\/arizona-after-tucson\/","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":1},"title":"Arizona After Tucson","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"April 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Petrified Forest Petrified Forest was so much better then I thought it would be. It is my favorite national park we have been to on this trip. The best part of it was you felt like you were on a different planet. Nothing there looked like Earth. I would definitely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arizona"","block_context":{"text":"Arizona","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/united-states\/arizona\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/F0ED22B3-9328-4181-BD2F-AB163C7DC419-1024x768.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/F0ED22B3-9328-4181-BD2F-AB163C7DC419-1024x768.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/F0ED22B3-9328-4181-BD2F-AB163C7DC419-1024x768.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/F0ED22B3-9328-4181-BD2F-AB163C7DC419-1024x768.jpeg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/07\/exploring-iceland-an-outdoor-family-adventure\/","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":2},"title":"Exploring Iceland… an outdoor family adventure.","author":"Micha Lunt Hooper","date":"June 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a very exciting six day trip to Iceland last weekend. We took advantage of the Queen's Jubilee four day weekend and scooted off to Reykjavik. What an amazing place!Our first day we strolled around Reykjavik. We visited a cool cathedral that overlooked the entire city. We ate some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iceland"","block_context":{"text":"Iceland","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/europe\/iceland\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1353,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/18\/a-winter-visit-to-auckland-new-zealand\/","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":3},"title":"A Winter Visit to Auckland, New Zealand","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"July 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We made the easy flight from Brisbane to Auckland, New Zealand on July 4. We were all excited to arrive New Zealand, and in fact, Keali announced that it was the one place she was most excited about visiting: a \"dream country\" as she called it. It was cold and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Auckland"","block_context":{"text":"Auckland","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/new-zealand\/auckland\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/P7100005.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/P7100005.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/P7100005.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/P7100005.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/P7100005.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":90,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/25\/a-journey-in-germany\/","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":4},"title":"A journey in Germany…","author":"Micha Lunt Hooper","date":"June 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"With our imminent move to London coming up, our family had to go Germany to get our visa application submitted. Due to some timing problems, we ended up going for a 3.5 day trip prior to the trip to go submit applications.We spent our first night in D\u00fcsseldorf. The driving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Germany"","block_context":{"text":"Germany","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/europe\/germany\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":229,"url":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/08\/the-last-day-of-taipei\/","url_meta":{"origin":91,"position":5},"title":"The last day of Taipei","author":"Micha Hooper","date":"February 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Our last day in Taipei was a busy one. \u00a0The kids' school assignment was to figure out a place to go and then use the MRT (subway) to get us there. The MRT is extremely easy to use, clean and impressively cheap. One can get virtually anywhere in the city\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Micha's Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Micha's Blog","link":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/category\/blogs\/micha\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_3777.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_3777.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_3777.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_3777.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_3777.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/img_3777.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300,"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/passportsnothallpasses.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}