Italy & Vatican City

We’re in Italy the place of pizza , pasta and the Colosseum.  Italy is in the middle southern part of Europe. The country looks like a boot. 

It’s population is 60.93 million and also its the 23rd most populated country with 0.78% of the world’s population.   It’s bordering country’s are France, Austria, Switzerland, Vatican City, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Tunisia. 

It’s flag looks like this.  

It’s  green on the left ,white in the middle and red on the right. The flag’s green part means hope ,the red charity and the white means faith. We are staying in Rome near Vatican City. 

Did you know that Italy had one of the longest history starting in Rome? Called the Roman Empire! That’s pretty cool.

First, we went to the Colosseum.

The reason that it called the Colosseum is because it was near the a colossal statue of Emperor Nero until it was torn down.

Nero

Now, its in the Domus Aurea. It was used for Gladiator battles where 2 people , 3 or even 10 battled animals or other gladiators! 

They had different types gladiators. Here are some of them:

• Andabatae, who were pretty unlucky because they had to fight blindfolded… Lol
• Dimacheri who were pretty likely to win because they can use two knifes during battle
• Retiarii they used tridents and nets
• Hoplomachi they got to fight in armour 
• Laqueatores, who were very very unlucky  because they could only fight with rope
• Secutores very lucky because they had armour and shield.                       

Did you know that they think 400,000 gladiators died at the Colosseum and 1,000,000 animals died!  That is crazy.

Next, we went to the Trevi fountain the most crowded fountain in the world!

It was made in 1762 and is 257 years old. The fountain has beautiful statues. It was so crowed we had to squeeze in to through to the front so we could throw a coin into the fountain to make a wish. It’s also the oldest water source in Rome and uses a lot of water! It uses 2,824,800 cubic feat of water. Also, it makes 3000 euro a day but sends all of it to charity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to the Vatican City. It is the smallest country in the world and is surrounded by Rome.

It is only 0.44 km!! That is less than a 5000 steps! Also, it has the smallest population of the world at less than 1000 people. (The exact number is 799 people.) The only people who can live there are people who belong to the church or work for the Swiss guard. It’s also called the Holy see because the Pope lives there. 

Pope Francis

This is what the flag looks like

Yes, it looks pretty weird.  The yellow key represents spiritual power and the grey key represents worldly power. The keys were given to St.Peter from Jesus.

We went to the main church called the St Peter’s Basilica ……  It has the tomb of the first pope who is St Peter. 

Michelangelo's Pieta

After that, we went up the dome there we had a great view of the Vatican City… it does not look like a city it just looks like a big block with smaller blocks in side.  

the dome up close

the view from the top 

Finally, we went to the Vatican Museum. 

We saw stuff from ancient Egypt like mummies ,dolls that come to life in the after life. 

dolls to go to the afterlife 

We saw pantings from around the world made by famous artists like Michelangelo. 

One picture is the Coronation of the First Holy Roman Emperor Charlemane.  He was made emperor By Pope Leo the 3rd. 

Last but not the least, we went to the Sistine Chapel!! We were not allowed to take pictures inside it. 

The Famous artist  Michelangelo painted the ceiling of it... Do you want to hear something? When I was in Grade 2, we pretended to be Michelangelo by lying on our backs and drawing art under our desks..…don’t worry we used paper and it was for a project.  Our teacher of that year was Mrs.Hammond. It was cool.

Next time, I write we will be in Cyprus.  We will be spending Christmas and New Years there.  

Merry Christmas everyone.

Nate.