February 4, 2010 My 13th Roman Birthday!

In the morning (10am) I woke up, and heard Mom and Alex singing "Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birth..." which I enjoyed. We had brunch at 11:30ish of freshly bought baguettes with Nutella and peanut butter, and lemon marmalade (which we spread on top). I was given a "gift" (in the German language ‘gift’ means poison) of Dark Chocolate Peppermint Crisp, which I pointed at many times when we walked past the chocolate stand inside London Mennonite Centre flat, as we went to go outside while we were staying in London. From our apartment, we walked all the way across the Ponte (bridge) Sant'Angelo to Castel Sant'Angelo. Castel Sant'Angelo was…"built as a tomb for the emperor, used through the Middle Ages as a castle, prison, and a place of last refuge for popes under attack, and today a museum, this giant pile of ancient bricks is packed with history." (Rick Steve's Italy 2010 Guidebook). There was a beautiful, scenic, panoramic view from the terrace on the building. You could see most of Rome from this point. We came back to our apartment because Mom had a head cold. We did our Blog while mom slept. In the evening, we walked to the Pantheon. Pan means ‘many’ and Theo means ‘god’; a place to worship many gods for the Romans. When Romans would conquer a city or land, they would bring back captives as slaves and allow them to worship their gods and so the Pantheon was an open place of worship for any god. Today, because of Catholicism, the Pantheon is a place of worship for only one God. There was a open hole in the middle of the dome of the Pantheon (as seen in one of the family photos with the dark hole 142 feet above our heads) because it's symbolic of the Heavens where the gods are. The hole is 142 ft in diameter, reflecting the distance in height. As we walked home we looked for a restaurant. I chose a Tretorian restaurant, which is small family run kitchen restaurant. Before the meal, I opened a gift from Tante Karin. It was a special bracelet given to her when she turned thirteen. Dankeschön Tante Karin! I had the Tretorian Thursday special: gnocchi with tomato sauce and basil leaves on top. Delicious! Mom had rabbit in a broth/sauce: very good! Dad and Alex had pasta, which was very similar to mine. Then we went to a gelato shop and bought gelato. The flavors we chose were: dark chocolate, wild berry, licorice, lemon, and tiramisu. I went to bed and had very sweet dreams.