Tuesday, November 13, 2012

What I Learned In Rome

One of the amazing things about travel is that it opens your mind to so many things you never knew or experienced.

Having visited many of the world's most famous antiquities, I learned a lot of things I never knew about ancient Rome and its amazing people. Here are just a few:

  • Every Sunday afternoon, Pope Urban VIII and Galileo would go out for Chinese. 
  • All the skulls in the catacombs are from people who were once alive!  
  • The modern Papal Apartments have surround-sound.
  • Many Roman scholars believe Michelangelo invented chocolate milk.
  • Cardinals are not allowed to live blog NFL games, but bishops are. Figure that one out!
  • The Vatican dry cleaning bill is over $1 million a year, and that doesn't even include the drapes.
  • When Emperor Constantine issued his proclamation legalizing Christianity, he simultaneously issued a proclamation outlawing handball.
  • In ancient Rome, the concepts of "reality tv" and "gay pride" did not exist. 
  • The pagans had hundreds of unreliable gods. We only have one.
  • One week after Pope Stephen II named Charlemagne the first Holy Roman Emperor, the two men, playing in a 3-on-3 game, invented the give-and-go. It would take over three centuries for the Phoenicians to introduce the pick-and-roll.
  • The original Papal States included Siena, Florence, Venice, and parts of modern-day Michigan.










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