Rome, Italy Part II

St. Peter's Basilica
We went to St. Peters Basilica to meet a friend of Msg. Art who gave us a private tour. His name is Father Paul Vu. He took us around St. Peter's. He talked about all the sculptures. He said that all of the paintings weren't paintings, they were mosaics! We saw La Pieta. Michelangelo sculpted it when he was 24. We then went out and looked at the outside and how huge it was!

Gelato! 
We got lots of Gelato and saw the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. The gelato comes in all kinds of flavors. My favorite is mango and chocolate.

Ancient Rome

We went to the old City in Rome and saw the Colosseum and the Forum. We also saw the Arch of Constantine.

At the Colosseum, 50,000 people could fit in there. People watched gladiators and wild animals fight each other. It was started when Vespasian was the ruler. It was finished 8 years later when his son Titus was the ruler in 80 A.D. Titus had slaves (many were Jews) finish building the Colosseum. Titas is the ruler who destroyed Jerusalem and brought Jews to Rome as slaves.

Romans worshiped many different gods. The Pantheon was a temple dedicate to these gods. Then it became a church where people worshiped one God.

The Forum is near the Colosseum. It was a big public square. It had shops and offices. Many orators came here to make speeches. Crowds of people would gather to listen to speeches. Cicero was a famous orator in ancient Rome.

The Arch of Constantine, who was the first Christian emperor. He was one of two sons who were emperors, Constantine and Maxentius. Their fathers ruled together just fine. But Constantine and Maxentius did not rule well together. They decided to fight to have the whole empire to themselves. One night before going into battle to see who would rule Rome, Constantine saw a vision of a flaming cross in the sky. He won the battle the next day with Maxentius. Because of this, Constantine became Christain. He allowed people to worship one God and not be killed for it. The Arch shows different scenes of his Constantine's life.