{"id":7744,"date":"2014-12-17T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/?p=7744"},"modified":"2015-11-05T19:40:22","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T00:40:22","slug":"raymond-around-the-world-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/raymond-around-the-world-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Raymond Around the World: Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"

After travelling to London<\/a>, New York City<\/a> and the Blue Ridge Mountains<\/a> this year, Raymond and I thought it would be interesting to visit another city where we could soak up a lot of history. Raymond was particularly interested in checking out old ruins and historic buildings, so we decided to make our way down to Rome, Italy!<\/p>\n

It was incredibly hot while we were in Rome?possibly even hotter than when we went to South Korea<\/a> last year. Let me tell you, when you live at the North Pole, you aren’t used to heat and humidity! In between surveying the sites, Raymond and I ducked into the shade and made sure to drink plenty of water.<\/p>\n

For our first stop, Raymond and I visited the Pantheon, which was built nearly 2,000 years ago. Used as a Roman Catholic church since the 7th century, the Pantheon is beautiful and incredibly well-preserved.<\/p>\n\n

Raymond in the hot sun outside the Pantheon<\/h6>\n\n
Admiring the coffered concrete dome and oculus inside the Pantheon<\/h6>\n\n
Tempted to hop into the water of the Fontana del Pantheon<\/i> to cool off in Piazza della Rotonda<\/h6>\n

Next we decided to stop for some lunch. As you may remember, Raymond and I are both vegetarians, and thankfully there is a plethora of vegetarian Italian dishes. Some days we couldn’t decide? Pasta? Pizza? Salad? Gelato? All of the above? \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n

About to chow down on a caprese salad. Yum!<\/h6>\n

Raymond and I could eat Italian cuisine all day, but we had other sights to see, so we ventured forth in the Roman sun. We came across a large building that turned out to be Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II. Built in the early 1900s, this monument was erected in honour of Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of unified Italy.<\/p>\n\n

In front of Altare della Patria, also known as Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II<\/h6>\n\n
With the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the background<\/h6>\n

From Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, we passed the Roman Forum on our way to the Colosseum. Raymond was fascinated by the ruins, as some of them date back nearly 3,000 years!<\/p>\n\n

Enjoying a visual history lesson<\/h6>\n

A trip to Rome would be incomplete without a visit to the Colosseum. Completed almost 2,000 years ago, the Colosseum is the largest amplitheatre in the world. Raymond and I both loved the Colosseum in its beautiful ruined state.<\/p>\n\n

Excited to check out the Colosseum<\/h6>\n\n
Some estimates say the Colosseum could hold between 50,000?80,000 spectators?yowza!<\/h6>\n\n
“Buongiorno!”<\/h6>\n

Raymond and I had a blast in Italy, taking in the historical sites and tasty cuisine. Where else do you think Raymond went this year? Stay tuned to find out! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After travelling to London, New York City and the Blue Ridge Mountains this year, Raymond and I thought it would be interesting to visit another city where we could soak up a lot of history. Raymond was particularly interested in checking out old ruins and historic buildings, so we decided to make our way down…Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-raymond"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7744"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8058,"href":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7744\/revisions\/8058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.northpole.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}