Romeing

Ciao friends! Today was our first full day in Florence (Firenze). This city is smaller than Rome and a lot less busy. It is also much easier to get around! Today, the highlight was going to Museum Accademia to see Michelangelo's David . Remember one of my older posts where I talked about an artist who considered himself primarily a sculptor, but still agreed to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Well, the city of Florence is home to perhaps the most famous and incredible sculpture of all time - no surprise that it is also a creation by Michelangelo. It's called "The David." The statue was sculpted between 1501 and 1504 AD when Michelangelo was in his mid 20's. Like the story of how Michelangelo persevered for hours on end in his efforts to create the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, this statue represents a labor of love. In fact, the block of marble from which it was chiseled was rejected by many other sculptors who did not want to work with a stone th...

Hi kids and blog followers! Today’s note will focus on the Palatine Hill. Though Rome is a city that includes seven hills, this one is the most important and well known. Think of the word “palatine” – does it remind you of any English words? If you guessed “palace” then you're right. The Palatine Hill is where the emperor lived! This picture is of me starting up the hill. Mrs. Kinahan and I are lucky enough to stay in a hotel that is minutes away from the Palatine Hill, Colosseum, and ancient Roman Forum. Every morning, when we start our day, we walk through and around the ruins of these areas – the heart of the ancient city. Historians who want to protect them have built bridges and passageways along and through the remains of the buildings, but at every turn you can see something that functioned as an important element of the empire long ago. I’m including a picture of a current excavation happening in this location as we speak! These students are carefully brushin...

Hello friends!                             The highlight of today was a visit to the Pantheon. This structure is Rome's best preserved ancient building. It is very old indeed, but not at all a ruin . "Pan" means "all" and "theos" means "gods" so this was a place where people of all faiths could come to worship. I'm sure it sounds as though much of my blogging so far has been based on religion, but it is a hard subject to avoid in this city! I'm also reminded that thousands of years ago whether living in ancient Egypt, Greece, or Rome, people were focused on a major question: "Where did we come from and why are we here?" Many of us still pause to ask this question of ourselves today. Some believe that religion was formed to help humans to make sense of their existence. Anyhow, this amazing building called the pantheon was originally dedicated to all the gods and for people of all walks of life and styles of worsh...

Another amazing day in this city that astounds me at every turn. Though pretty hard to navigate, with roads that meander this way and that, Mrs. Kinahan and I walk everywhere (likely about ten miles a day) often off course, but eventually arrive at our planned destination. Today we left our hotel at 9:30am and returned at 11pm. There is just too much to see and do! Today, our focus was the Vatican which includes several other VERY important religious and historical sites. Once we figured out how to best tour these places, we made great friends with our guide named Roberto, who wowed us with his ability to show us the most special and tremendous areas of a hugely impressive religious mecca. In this blog, I'll just focus on some of the most meaningful and interesting stories. It seems to me, that everything historical in Rome has a story within a story within a story. I think this is part of the reason this city is so intriguing. There are layers of history everywhere. We walk ou...

Buongiourno from Rome! Today was so busy and full that it will be hard to write about all of it, so I'll focus on the most important event - touring the Colosseum! We had a wonderful guide who shared his impressive knowledge of the history of the building. Before going in, we met at a small grassy area just outside the Colosseum where we were told Nero (you remember him, the guy who charged the Romans a huge amount of taxes to pay for his lavish lifestyle) built a gigantic statue of himself - 30 meters tall and made of bronze! This was called the Colossus of Nero. Once Nero was forced to his death and his emperorship ended, this statue continued to bother the Romans. Their new emperor named Vespasian (of the Flavian Dynasty) did two things to help improve his people's feelings about the Roman government. #1: He melted the face of Nero off the statue and replaced it with the face of Helios (god of the sun.) #2: He began constructing the Colosseum...

Hi there! Mrs. Kinahan and I arrived in Rome this afternoon, checked into our hotel, and immediately went out to see the city! It is hard to explain how magical this place is. Everywhere you turn there is something breathtaking to see. Just outside of our hotel we can see the ruins of ancient times. Mixed in with all of the modern day comings and goings are major archaeological treasures each step of the way. We had a ball wandering this way and that until we were starved and started looking for somewhere to stop for dinner! We walked and walked and walked until we came to the Trevi Fountain. I'm posting a few pictures below. This fountain was constructed as a celebration of the Roman's ability to bring water to the city center by way of their aqueducts. The fountain represents the area where locals gathered daily to fetch their water. Central to the fountain is an enormous statue of Poseidon (Neptune) who shows a plentitude of water spouting from as many as twenty-four are...

Hi there! I'm at Logan Airport in Boston and my flight departs at 10:45PM. I'll be in the air for eight hours, but I land at about 12:45PM. Can you figure out the time difference between Rome and Boston? Stay tuned for more tomorrow! Mrs. B.