Archive for 'Central Italy'

The beautifully built town of Assisi lies in the region of Umbria close to Monte Subasio. It’s most famous for being the birthplace of St. Francis who founded what is now the worldwide Order of Franciscan Monks.

Stay in a beautiful holiday rental in Assisi where you can easily visit all the delightful cultural gems in this area.

As the fame of Assisi’s beloved St. Francis grew large and more widespread, more and more elaborate plans were set in place to build basilicas, churches and chapels in his honour in the surrounding area. And St. Francis is not the only endeared saint to hail from here; St. Clare, St. Agnes and St. Sylvester also came from here and also have sacred buildings erected in their honour.     Read More

Continuing on from our introductory article on the gods of ancient Rome, here are some more familiar faces that you may already know a little about!

Pluto was god of the underworld and another brother of Jupiter’s. He was a gloomy fellow, jealous of his siblings who had a better life of it high up in the clouds!

Mars was a son of Jupiter and god of war. He wasn’t that popular with the other gods as he was extremely vain and quite cruel. The only other deity that liked him was Venus, goddess wife of Vulcan.     Read More

The civilisation of ancient Rome was a major believer in higher powers. They had gods and goddesses for almost anything imaginable! There were gods of war, sea, love, and wisdom for example and each one would be specifically prayed to for a corresponding crisis or wish in that area.

There were hundreds of Roman gods, many of which transcended into being through influences of Greek and Latin civilisations. In many cases, each of these cultures had equivalent gods for different purposes.

For example the Greek god, Zeus was the god of gods and was the equivalent of the Roman god Jupiter. Hades was the Greek ruler of the underworld, very similar to Pluto the Roman version.     Read More

The origins of what went on to become one of the largest and most powerful empires in the ancient world began on the peninsula of Italy around the 8th century BC near the site where Rome city now stands.

Through its 1200 years of existence the ancient Roman civilisation went through stages of monarchy, classical republic before transforming into the formidable empire that expanded across much of Europe and around the Mediterranean.     Read More