Do you know any music stores in Rome or Milan or any major northern Italian city which sell Rigotti Reeds?

I recently visited Rome for the first time in 9 years, and I have to say, it was a deeply disappointing experience. The city that I once loved seems to have deteriorated significantly, and I wanted to share my experience in case others are considering a trip.
First off, the tourist traps were everywhere. Restaurants, accommodation, tours – everything was overpriced. I found myself paying exorbitant amounts for mediocre food and services. One particularly frustrating incident involved the transport police, who tried to fine me 50 euros for a ticket I supposedly didn't pay. It felt like a scam, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
The city was unbelievably crowded, even in mid-May. Everywhere I went, there were massive lines. The sheer volume of people made it hard to enjoy any of the attractions. Once inside, the crowds were overwhelming, making it difficult to appreciate the historical sites and their significance.
Accommodation was another major letdown. Despite paying a premium, the place I stayed in was a rundown house with humidity issues, unpleasant smells, and constant noise. It was far from the charming Roman experience I had hoped for.
Moreover, the streets of Rome seemed much dirtier than I remembered. The once picturesque alleyways were now littered with trash, adding to the overall sense of decline.
I hate to say it, but Rome is no longer a nice place to visit. My fond memories from 9 years ago starkly contrasted with the reality of this trip. It’s sad to see such a beautiful city lose its charm. If you’re planning a visit, be prepared for a far less enjoyable experience than you might expect.

Is the Story of Adam and Eve literally true, parable, or pure myth?

According to The Book of Akash, the story of Adam and Eve is a Midrash (Jewish story for children meant to teach a moral lesson) based upon Pharaoh Ay (as Adam) and Queen Khiyah (as Eve), who lived in the walled Garden of Meru-Aten and were cast out of Meru-Aten by General Horemheb who wanted to become Pharaoh.The Book of Akash says:*Ay was a reincarnation of the the soul of the first Adam (Adapa of Eridu), who later reincarnated as Enoch, Adamu the second king of Assyria, Melchizedek king of Salem, and then as Ay son of Yuya.
*Ay was the father of Nefertiti who married Amenhotep IV who changed his name to Akhenaten. Nefertiti had six daughters and one son: Tutenkhamun (Tut). Akhenative closed down the temples to Amun, putting the priests out of business, and built the City of Aten (Atentaten), and also a royal residence called the walled Garden of Meru-Aten, in what is now Amarna, Egypt. Meru-Aten had fruit trees of all kinds, and a sacred fig tree dedicated to Hathor goddess of fertility. It also had a petting zoo and evaporation pond.
*After Tut died, Ay was made Pharaoh, at the age of 70, but his wife died years before. Soon after being made Pharaoh Ay's only son, Nakhtmin, died. This left Ay without an heir to the throne.
*Ay knew that if he begot another son, that son had to have the blood of Amenhotep III (father of Akhenaten) in order to have the divine right to the throne. So Ay marries Khiyah (Ankhesenpaaten) who was Queen as wife of her brother King Tut. Khiyah was the daughter of Akhenaten, the son of Amenhotep III. Amenhotep III was married to Ay's sister who was the mother of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten). Akhenaten claimed to be Aten in the flesh and Ay was given the title "Father of the God".
*Horemheb, general of the army, desired to be Pharaoh. So he had Akhennaten poisoned, then Nefertiti, then Tut, and tried to marry Khiyah, but she rejected him and she tried to marry a Hittite prince but Horemheb had the HIttite prince assassinated as soon as he reached Canaan (then controlled by Egypt).
*Ay married Khiyah (Ankhesenpaaten later renamed Akhensenpaamun), so that his "claim" to the throne would be strengthened (her paternal grandfather was Amenhotep III and her maternal grandfather was Ay son of Yuya father of Nefertiti. Yes, Ay married his own granddaughter. Why? So that he could beget a son (Nakhtmin was dead) who had royal bloodline back to Amenhotep III, and thus had a "divine right" to the throne of Egypt.
*Akhensenpaaten/Akhensenpaamun (nicknamed "Khiyah") agreed to marry her grandfather because she was "tempted" by the Cobra Crown: symbolic of the Wisdom of the Gods. Only the King and Queen of Egypt wore the Cobra Crown. This is the meaning that Eve was "tempted" by the serpent. It was not real serpent, but a crown. It "tempted" Khiyah like diamond rings "tempt" women.
*Eve being made from the "rib" of Adam is a play on Hebrew words, since "penis" and "rib" is the same word in Hebrew: TSELA. Eve (Khiyah) was made from the TSELA (penis) of Adam (Ay): meaning she was made out of his seed (i.e. daughter or granddaughter).*The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil does not refer to a literal tree, but to "carnal knowledge" (sex) which can be both for good and for evil.
*The Tree of Life is not a literal tree, but a symbol of the placenta. Every placenta has large veins that resemble a "tree" on it. YWHW "took away the tree of life" and prevented Adam and Eve from partaking of it: the meaning is that YWHW prevented them from conceiving a son (because what they were doing was a sin unto death).
*Egyptians in that time ate figs and wore fig leaves when they wanted to conceive a firstborn son. The firstborn son was heir of the family and responsible for taking care of the parents when they became too old to work. The fig tree was sacred to Hathor, goddess of wisdom. The Garden of Meru-Aten had a sacred fig tree. Eating figs and wearing sewn-together fig leaves (sacred to Hathor) was thought necessary to ensure that a couple would conceive a healthy first-born son.*Via his spies at Meru-Aten, General Horemheb discovered that Ay and Khiyah were trying to conceive a son. Horemheb then took his generals and raided Meru-Aten at night. They tied their swords with rags and poured oil on them and let them in order to see (flaming sword). Egyptian generals wore armor of polished brass and thus were called "Shining Ones" (Hebrew: "Cherubim"). Horemheb cast them out of the Garden of Meru-Aten into the desert where they perished. Their servants found them and buried them in sheep skins.*Horemheb becomes Pharaoh, but has no heir (he was gay).
*Ay was the reincarnation of Enoch. Enoch was made the Angel Metatron and adopted by YWHW as a firstborn Son (Third Book of Enoch). As Metatron he was "Mediator" between YWHW and human kind. But with his major sin as Ay, the Soul of Enoch lost his "station" as Metatron. He lost his inheritance. He became the Prodigal Son.
*Ay and Khiyah had to reincarnate, be born of literal virgins (Mary and St. Ann), live sinless lives, celibate lives, and Ay, being Adam/Enoch reincarnated, had to die on a fig tree in order to atone for the "original sin" of the Soul of Adam in the Garden of Meru-Aten in 1320 B.C. in Amarna, Egypt.*Jesus knew who He was. He called himself "the Son of Man" (a term for Enoch). He knew that he would have to die on a fig tree in order to atone for committing the "original sin" with Khiyah in the Garden of Meru-Aten: where Ay and Khiyah ate figs, and wore fig leaves, and tried to beget a son and heir to the throne
.*The punishment of Khiyah (who became Mary) was to lead a celibate life, and to watch her beloved Son be tortured and die on a cross made from a fig tree. This is why Jesus cursed a fig tree on His way to Jerusalem: because it reminded Him of the Original Sin, and that He needed to die on such a tree. He was not looking forward to it, but knew He had to do it in order to regain His lofty station as the Angel Metatron.
*Atonement was made, and the Soul of Adam/Enoch regained the station of Metatron (Mediator) and First-Born. Ay was the Prodigal Son who lost his inheritance, and Jesus was the Prodigal Son who was welcomed back by the Father.*How do I know this? Guessing ? No. I was to the right of Jesus, on another cross, and said to Him : "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom" and Jesus replied: "Truly I say unto you, today you will be with me in Paradise." My name was Ebion. I was an Essene, and the Romans crucified me for "stealing from Rome" (i.e. not paying taxes and telling other Jews not to pay taxes to Rome either). In the eyes of Rome I was a "thief". But I was a celibate and spiritual man, an Essene. I knew Jesus was the Messiah, and he called me to follow Him, but I refused because I did not want to lose my position as Treasurer of the Essenes in Jerusalem. I knew Who He was, but I could not leave my high station and the admiration of the other Essenes. How do I know this? I was told that by a psychic woman, and also Jesus appeared to me, emerging from a wall in my room, when I was 18. He was porcelain white, and had a crown of thorns. He moaned, and I saw a large drop of white blood running from a large thorn in His temple running down the right side of His head. As God and Jesus are My Two Witnesses: that is what I saw and what I heard.
*Jesus never wrote a book during His life. But He wrote a book through my hand, called The Book of Akash. It contains the truth about God and the Cosmos: the only two things that exist. Answers to all the mysteries of the Cosmos can be found therein.*The following YouTube video explains somewhat about the history of Ay son of Yuya, Khiyah, Tut, and Horemheb (played by a black man in the video). The video suggests that Ay had Tut killed in order to become Pharaoh. Not true at all. Ay loved his grandson Tut. It was Horemheb who poisoned Akhenaten (because he closed down the Amun priesthood and temples), and Nefertiti, and Tut, and Nakhtmin. Horemheb was a very evil man, and did evil, and gained the throne for himself by murder and strategy.
*The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis is a Midrash (Jewish moral parable story for children). It was based upon the real story of Pharaoh Ay and Queen Khiyah. The "details" of the story were hidden in metaphors (talking snake, Eve being made from the "rib" (tsela) of Adam, Cherubim with flaming sword, etc.). The story is not "myth" but based upon real people and real events in ancient Egypt in 1324 to 1320 B.C.
*Jesus has reincarnated five times. I met His fourth reincarnation, who was a miracle worker from Lebanon who was born in Jerusalem in 1909 and died in New York City in 1984. I first saw His face in 1977 when I was 16 years old. He visited me with lightning with no thunder, to my home, in the year 2005. His fifth incarnation is alive on Earth today, incognito. No...not me (God forbid!) but a man who works miracles. Jesus will incarnate for the 7th time in the 24th century (2300s), and, after Armageddon, will establish His Kingdom, called the United Order, a political, judicial, economic, and religious Order, that will last a thousand years.*We all have up to 6,000 lifetimes in order to reach Nirvana, and if we do not reach Nirvana by that time we shall be thrown into the Lake of Fire (when the Giant Red Sun engulfs the Earth) and simply cease to exist.
*Our current life is our Day of Account for our deeds in our last life, and our next life will be our Day of Account for our actions, good and bad, in this life.
*We are all judged by the Universal Law of Karma, and we are all judged according to our works, good and evil, and receive an exactly just recompense for our actions: good and evil. Whatsoever we shall sow, that also shall we reap.
Watch the YouTube video. It is a good introduction to the true historical story of Ay and Khiyah. But, again, please note: Ay did not harm Tut, but loved him. Ay did not marry Khiyah for sex, but to beget a son and heir who had a divine right to the throne of Egypt. It was a sin unto death, and they died. And they came back and atoned. Jesus is the Prodigal Son. Watch the video. It is not long. Please share this post with others. Thank you.
https://youtu.be/J2dEV9MO8_U

Is the Story of Adam and Eve literally true, parable, or pure myth?

According to The Book of Akash, the story of Adam and Eve is a Midrash (Jewish story for children meant to teach a moral lesson) based upon Pharaoh Ay (as Adam) and Queen Khiyah (as Eve), who lived in the walled Garden of Meru-Aten and were cast out of Meru-Aten by General Horemheb who wanted to become Pharaoh.The Book of Akash says:*Ay was a reincarnation of the the soul of the first Adam (Adapa of Eridu), who later reincarnated as Enoch, Adamu the second king of Assyria, Melchizedek king of Salem, and then as Ay son of Yuya.
*Ay was the father of Nefertiti who married Amenhotep IV who changed his name to Akhenaten. Nefertiti had six daughters and one son: Tutenkhamun (Tut). Akhenative closed down the temples to Amun, putting the priests out of business, and built the City of Aten (Atentaten), and also a royal residence called the walled Garden of Meru-Aten, in what is now Amarna, Egypt. Meru-Aten had fruit trees of all kinds, and a sacred fig tree dedicated to Hathor goddess of fertility. It also had a petting zoo and evaporation pond.
*After Tut died, Ay was made Pharaoh, at the age of 70, but his wife died years before. Soon after being made Pharaoh Ay's only son, Nakhtmin, died. This left Ay without an heir to the throne.
*Ay knew that if he begot another son, that son had to have the blood of Amenhotep III (father of Akhenaten) in order to have the divine right to the throne. So Ay marries Khiyah (Ankhesenpaaten) who was Queen as wife of her brother King Tut. Khiyah was the daughter of Akhenaten, the son of Amenhotep III. Amenhotep III was married to Ay's sister who was the mother of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten). Akhenaten claimed to be Aten in the flesh and Ay was given the title "Father of the God".
*Horemheb, general of the army, desired to be Pharaoh. So he had Akhennaten poisoned, then Nefertiti, then Tut, and tried to marry Khiyah, but she rejected him and she tried to marry a Hittite prince but Horemheb had the HIttite prince assassinated as soon as he reached Canaan (then controlled by Egypt).
*Ay married Khiyah (Ankhesenpaaten later renamed Akhensenpaamun), so that his "claim" to the throne would be strengthened (her paternal grandfather was Amenhotep III and her maternal grandfather was Ay son of Yuya father of Nefertiti. Yes, Ay married his own granddaughter. Why? So that he could beget a son (Nakhtmin was dead) who had royal bloodline back to Amenhotep III, and thus had a "divine right" to the throne of Egypt.
*Akhensenpaaten/Akhensenpaamun (nicknamed "Khiyah") agreed to marry her grandfather because she was "tempted" by the Cobra Crown: symbolic of the Wisdom of the Gods. Only the King and Queen of Egypt wore the Cobra Crown. This is the meaning that Eve was "tempted" by the serpent. It was not real serpent, but a crown. It "tempted" Khiyah like diamond rings "tempt" women.
*Eve being made from the "rib" of Adam is a play on Hebrew words, since "penis" and "rib" is the same word in Hebrew: TSELA. Eve (Khiyah) was made from the TSELA (penis) of Adam (Ay): meaning she was made out of his seed (i.e. daughter or granddaughter).*The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil does not refer to a literal tree, but to "carnal knowledge" (sex) which can be both for good and for evil.
*The Tree of Life is not a literal tree, but a symbol of the placenta. Every placenta has large veins that resemble a "tree" on it. YWHW "took away the tree of life" and prevented Adam and Eve from partaking of it: the meaning is that YWHW prevented them from conceiving a son (because what they were doing was a sin unto death).
*Egyptians in that time ate figs and wore fig leaves when they wanted to conceive a firstborn son. The firstborn son was heir of the family and responsible for taking care of the parents when they became too old to work. The fig tree was sacred to Hathor, goddess of wisdom. The Garden of Meru-Aten had a sacred fig tree. Eating figs and wearing sewn-together fig leaves (sacred to Hathor) was thought necessary to ensure that a couple would conceive a healthy first-born son.*Via his spies at Meru-Aten, General Horemheb discovered that Ay and Khiyah were trying to conceive a son. Horemheb then took his generals and raided Meru-Aten at night. They tied their swords with rags and poured oil on them and let them in order to see (flaming sword). Egyptian generals wore armor of polished brass and thus were called "Shining Ones" (Hebrew: "Cherubim"). Horemheb cast them out of the Garden of Meru-Aten into the desert where they perished. Their servants found them and buried them in sheep skins.*Horemheb becomes Pharaoh, but has no heir (he was gay).
*Ay was the reincarnation of Enoch. Enoch was made the Angel Metatron and adopted by YWHW as a firstborn Son (Third Book of Enoch). As Metatron he was "Mediator" between YWHW and human kind. But with his major sin as Ay, the Soul of Enoch lost his "station" as Metatron. He lost his inheritance. He became the Prodigal Son.
*Ay and Khiyah had to reincarnate, be born of literal virgins (Mary and St. Ann), live sinless lives, celibate lives, and Ay, being Adam/Enoch reincarnated, had to die on a fig tree in order to atone for the "original sin" of the Soul of Adam in the Garden of Meru-Aten in 1320 B.C. in Amarna, Egypt.*Jesus knew who He was. He called himself "the Son of Man" (a term for Enoch). He knew that he would have to die on a fig tree in order to atone for committing the "original sin" with Khiyah in the Garden of Meru-Aten: where Ay and Khiyah ate figs, and wore fig leaves, and tried to beget a son and heir to the throne
.*The punishment of Khiyah (who became Mary) was to lead a celibate life, and to watch her beloved Son be tortured and die on a cross made from a fig tree. This is why Jesus cursed a fig tree on His way to Jerusalem: because it reminded Him of the Original Sin, and that He needed to die on such a tree. He was not looking forward to it, but knew He had to do it in order to regain His lofty station as the Angel Metatron.
*Atonement was made, and the Soul of Adam/Enoch regained the station of Metatron (Mediator) and First-Born. Ay was the Prodigal Son who lost his inheritance, and Jesus was the Prodigal Son who was welcomed back by the Father.*How do I know this? Guessing ? No. I was to the right of Jesus, on another cross, and said to Him : "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom" and Jesus replied: "Truly I say unto you, today you will be with me in Paradise." My name was Ebion. I was an Essene, and the Romans crucified me for "stealing from Rome" (i.e. not paying taxes and telling other Jews not to pay taxes to Rome either). In the eyes of Rome I was a "thief". But I was a celibate and spiritual man, an Essene. I knew Jesus was the Messiah, and he called me to follow Him, but I refused because I did not want to lose my position as Treasurer of the Essenes in Jerusalem. I knew Who He was, but I could not leave my high station and the admiration of the other Essenes. How do I know this? I was told that by a psychic woman, and also Jesus appeared to me, emerging from a wall in my room, when I was 18. He was porcelain white, and had a crown of thorns. He moaned, and I saw a large drop of white blood running from a large thorn in His temple running down the right side of His head. As God and Jesus are My Two Witnesses: that is what I saw and what I heard.
*Jesus never wrote a book during His life. But He wrote a book through my hand, called The Book of Akash. It contains the truth about God and the Cosmos: the only two things that exist. Answers to all the mysteries of the Cosmos can be found therein.*The following YouTube video explains somewhat about the history of Ay son of Yuya, Khiyah, Tut, and Horemheb (played by a black man in the video). The video suggests that Ay had Tut killed in order to become Pharaoh. Not true at all. Ay loved his grandson Tut. It was Horemheb who poisoned Akhenaten (because he closed down the Amun priesthood and temples), and Nefertiti, and Tut, and Nakhtmin. Horemheb was a very evil man, and did evil, and gained the throne for himself by murder and strategy.
*The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis is a Midrash (Jewish moral parable story for children). It was based upon the real story of Pharaoh Ay and Queen Khiyah. The "details" of the story were hidden in metaphors (talking snake, Eve being made from the "rib" (tsela) of Adam, Cherubim with flaming sword, etc.). The story is not "myth" but based upon real people and real events in ancient Egypt in 1324 to 1320 B.C.
*Jesus has reincarnated five times. I met His fourth reincarnation, who was a miracle worker from Lebanon who was born in Jerusalem in 1909 and died in New York City in 1984. I first saw His face in 1977 when I was 16 years old. He visited me with lightning with no thunder, to my home, in the year 2005. His fifth incarnation is alive on Earth today, incognito. No...not me (God forbid!) but a man who works miracles. Jesus will incarnate for the 7th time in the 24th century (2300s), and, after Armageddon, will establish His Kingdom, called the United Order, a political, judicial, economic, and religious Order, that will last a thousand years.*We all have up to 6,000 lifetimes in order to reach Nirvana, and if we do not reach Nirvana by that time we shall be thrown into the Lake of Fire (when the Giant Red Sun engulfs the Earth) and simply cease to exist.
*Our current life is our Day of Account for our deeds in our last life, and our next life will be our Day of Account for our actions, good and bad, in this life.
*We are all judged by the Universal Law of Karma, and we are all judged according to our works, good and evil, and receive an exactly just recompense for our actions: good and evil. Whatsoever we shall sow, that also shall we reap.
Watch the YouTube video. It is a good introduction to the true historical story of Ay and Khiyah. But, again, please note: Ay did not harm Tut, but loved him. Ay did not marry Khiyah for sex, but to beget a son and heir who had a divine right to the throne of Egypt. It was a sin unto death, and they died. And they came back and atoned. Jesus is the Prodigal Son. Watch the video. It is not long. Please share this post with others. Thank you.
https://youtu.be/J2dEV9MO8_U

So I wanted to do a few posts about this because I’ve been very interested in studying the New Testament the past year or so. My views have changed quite a bit- I realized to be a Christian doesn’t mean you have to believe everything that is written in the Bible. There are problematic passages and different contradictory viewpoints- the authors were different people and human, after all. What’s really interesting is that several of the books in the New Testament made it in simply because some of the early Church fathers got duped because they make authorial claims that critical scholars see as highly problematic. Take 1 Peter and 2 Peter.
These books are not written by the same author. They have different writing styles, and different concerns. Both are written by highly educated Greek Christians with knowledge of the Greek translation of the OT- the Septuagint. They both claim to be written by Jesus’ closest disciple, Simon Peter. But would this be feasible?
Most likely not. Peter was a fisherman in Capernaum- a rural fishing village in backwoods Galilee. He very likely wouldn’t have had an education, as the majority of people in antiquity were illiterate- especially those in the lower classes. And even if he had an education, it wouldn’t be writing in Greek. Peter spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus. There was little contact with Gentiles in Galilee (despite what’s shown in The Chosen.) And Acts 4:13 even calls him and John the Apostle “agrammatoi,” the Greek word for illiterate.
Ok, now let’s look at some clues in the letters. 1 Peter has a passage where the author sends greetings from “she who is in Babylon, who is also chosen” (1 Peter 5:13). Babylon was the city that destroyed Jerusalem and the first temple in the 6th century BC. Early Christians began to refer to Rome as the new Babylon after the destruction of the 2nd temple in 70 AD (see Revelation). So this letter likely dates post-70. But Peter was martyred in Rome in the year 64! So unless he somehow wasn’t martyred and learned how to read and write highly rhetorical Greek, there’s no way this is by him.
Which brings us to 2 Peter. First off, this book contains numerous verbal agreements with the letter of Jude. And there are clues that this book almost certainly post-dates Peter. The author covers the delayed return of Jesus- who many early Christians expected to imminently return in their lifetimes (see 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.) When that didn’t happen, the author of 2 Peter provides an explanation: “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8). He indicates Paul himself taught this, in “all his letters, which the ignorant and unstable people twist, as they do with all the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” (2 Peter 3:16). But Paul’s letters didn’t start circulating as scripture until after Peter’s lifetime (they didn’t have the printing press, remember. So while they were written during Peter’s lifetime, they would’ve had to be copied down by someone who got a hold of it, and then that copy got copied, etc. It would take decades for works to widely circulate). For this reason many scholars think 2 Peter is the last book of the New Testament chronologically.
So, should the fact that there are books in the NT that are forgeries provide a crisis of faith? Absolutely not! The New Testament is a collection of writings written by early Christians, and they provide extremely valuable insight into the early Christian beliefs. The authors of 1 and 2 Peter wanted to use a highly respected figure’s name to legitimize what they were writing- who better than Christ’s closest apostle? And they did get legitimized, as they made it into the New Testament.

Ok. So I’m going to Italy this summer, for 2 months, mostly to see my bf, but I was curious if there was anything that could be good for college applications. For background, I’m a sophomore, and am interested in doing Architecture and Art in college. I’m staying in Messina (in Sicily) but will be traveling to many of the major cities (Rome, Florence, etc.) Knowing that Italy is known for both of these things I figured it could be an opportunity to not only learn, but use it as a way to show my interest in these areas. If anyone knows anything that would amazing.

I wanted to share a fantastic resource I found for anyone planning to visit Rome. Check out this site where you can book a variety of tours across Rome. The prices are super affordable, and you can choose between guided tours or skip-the-line tickets, making it perfect for both first-time visitors and seasoned travelers.
Here are some of the top attractions you can book through this site:
The Colosseum - Skip the long lines and explore one of the most iconic landmarks in the world. Guided tours are available for a deeper dive into its history.
Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel - Marvel at the incredible art and architecture with a knowledgeable guide or breeze past the lines with a skip-the-line ticket.
St. Peter’s Basilica - Discover the beauty of this architectural masterpiece and learn about its significance with a guided tour.
Roman Forum and Palatine Hill - Walk through the heart of ancient Rome and imagine what life was like thousands of years ago.
Pantheon - Visit one of the best-preserved ancient Roman buildings and be amazed by its grandeur.
Trevi Fountain - Make a wish at this famous fountain and learn about its history with a guided tour.
Borghese Gallery and Gardens - Enjoy some of the finest art collections in Rome and take a leisurely stroll through the beautiful gardens.
Catacombs of Rome - Explore the ancient underground burial sites with a knowledgeable guide.
Piazza Navona - Discover the history behind one of Rome's most famous squares with a guided tour.
Castel Sant'Angelo - Learn about the fascinating history of this former mausoleum turned fortress and papal residence.
Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour - Explore Rome at your own pace with the convenience of a hop-on hop-off bus. It's a great way to see all the major sights without the hassle of navigating public transport.
Culinary Tours - Experience the flavors of Rome with guided culinary tours. Taste authentic Italian dishes, explore local markets, and learn about the rich culinary heritage of the city.
Booking through this site ( https://ticket.mptour.it/?code=521788 ) is easy and convenient. Whether you're looking for an in-depth guided tour or just want to skip the lines and explore at your own pace, they’ve got you covered.
Happy travels!

• 1/2 Red Riding Hood
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• A Juggler's Tale
• A New Beginning - Final Cut
• A Valley Without Wind
• A Valley Without Wind 2
• A.I.M.2 Clan Wars
• A.R.E.S.: Extinction Agenda
• Aces & Adventures
• ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)
• Adventures of Chris
• AER Memories of Old
• Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders
• Ageless
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• Airline Tycoon 2
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• Alchemy Garden
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• Alien Spidy
• Almost There: The Platformer
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• Amberial Dreams
• American Fugitive
• Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy
• Ampersand
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• Anna - Extended Edition
• Anomaly Über Bundle
• AquaNox
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• Arcade Spirits
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• Astalon: Tears of the Earth
• Astervoid 2000
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• Avalanche 2: Super Avalanche
• Avernum 3: Ruined World
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• Awesomenauts
• Bad Rats
• Bang Bang Racing
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• Battle Group 2
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• Bear With Me - Collector's Edition
• Beat Hazard
• Beat Hazard Complete
• Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians
• Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
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• Bionic Commando: Rearmed
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• BLACKHOLE
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This is the final installment in the series about N.T. Wright's 'Into the heart of Romans'. Originally a collection, that feature has since been deprecated by Reddit, leaving this series as a bunch of separate, unorganized posts :-( I'll add a flair to each of them later to make them searchable (edit: flair added!)
What I've learned about myself: I am bad at finishing books. By the time you've read 80% or so, the main conclusions and revelations have usually been drawn, and I have a hard time pushing through and finishing the whole thing. This weekend I finally made time to finish writing this final part for this book, after beginning this series months ago. I apologize for the delay.
I am grateful to Wright for writing this book. It is a grandiose view of God's love, the work of the Messiah and the Spirit in and through us. It is really worth checking out!
Without further ado, the final chapter.

Romans 8:34-39 Nothing Can Separate Us From God’s Love

‘Romans 8 ends on a note of wonderful confidence’. Philosophers have always tried to find solid ground, how can we know? Decartes claimed ‘I think, therefore I am’ (cogito, ergu sum) and ‘much subsequent western thought has tried to build on that, with (to say the least) mixed success’. Bishop Leslie Newbigin even altered that statement some time ago into ‘tesco, ergo sum’: I shop, therefore I am!
But Paul says something different: Amor, ergo sum: I am loved, therefore I am. ‘The gospel urges upon us an epistemology of love’, not simply the feeling, but agape, the generous self-giving which affirms the reality of what is known and loved. When Paul says ‘I am persuaded’ in verse 38, he isn’t just summing up Romans 5-8 but he’s also looking at ancient intellectual life and philosophy, saying ‘this is where you can stand’.
This is the love of God the creator, anchored in Jesus. In this passage Paul lists grave threats and forces aligned against us, but ‘the gospel itself, the message about Jesus crucified, risen, ascended, interceding, holds us in place despite everything: God’s love in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord’.
This answers the first common question, about the beginning and the end of the section, we’ve answered in each chapter so far: it begins and ends with God’s love, in verses 35 and 39.
For the second question, we’d usually look at the small connecting words, but again Paul isn’t using careful argumentation here, but a rhetorical device: seven threats in 35, and larger powers in 38-39a. Paul invokes Psalm 44 when speaking of the threats, but then claims that ‘the one who loved us (37) will enable us to be not just victorious, but super-victorious (hypernikomen). Why (gar, 38)? Because no forces on earth or in heaven can separate us from that same love.
The third regular question: what about the wider world in which Paul’s hearers would receive this message? The ‘question of confidence’ is vital, today as it was back then. We know God will look after us after death and we can cling to Jesus when bad things happen, but there is something else going on here.
People in Paul’s culture (and today!) might interpret the bad things happening to Christians as a sign that God was angry with them. They assume that if you live your life in tune with God, you wouldn’t have any problems. But if there are problems such as persecution, ‘the people or indeed the whole movement had obviously gone off the rails.’ Wright here devotes a few paragraphs to criticizing the western world, as pandemics and wars disrupt what seemed to be a success story but made victims along the way. ‘How should we look out upon a world in a mess?’ That question must have occupied the minds of Roman thinkers as well, as the empire’s rhetoric of peace and prosperity sounded hollow, especially to Jews at times of anti-Jewish riots or for instance when Caligula tried putting a statue of himself in the Jerusalem temple. Jews read Daniel’s prophecy about the 490 years and they too expected God to step in when the situation became very bad or dangerous. ‘For all these reasons, the two lists of dangers and hostile forces would represent real and present threats to Paul’s hearers’.
Paul had been questioned about this before. In Corinth, some wondered whether God would allow a proper apostle to lead such a bizarre life as Paul had, including persecutions and dangers. In 2 Corinthians, Paul turns that argument on its head in a ‘glorious, ironic rebuttal’: all the bad things that happen to Paul, he insists, are actually ‘the defining marks of genuine apostleship’. Romans was written not long after 2 Corinthians and Paul may have thought about vulnerable Christian groups in Rome, too. For instance, the gentile believers in Rome might regard the Jews, who were expelled under Claudius, as ‘obviously under divine displeasure’, which could lead to these gentile believers becoming ‘Job’s comforters’ to these Jewish Christians when they returned under Nero.
Wright ‘suspects’ that Paul isn’t just talking about ‘assurance of final salvation’ here but also about ‘penultimate assurance’, which his part of the doctrine of justification. This assurance is what we as Christians ought to give to one another: ‘we are to see one another’s misfortunes and sorrows, not as signs of God’s displeasure, […] but rather as part of the calling to share in the messianic woes, in wich – as in verses 26 and 27 – the spirit is calling out to the father from the heart of the pain and perplexity’.
Christians still make mistakes, some still step off ‘the steep ladder of vocation and settled for a gentler climb’. Compromised Christians or a worldly church no longer challenge their wider community. But those who refuse to slide into the world’s ways of thinking may well face real trouble. Paul makes that point in verse 36, where he cites Psalm 44. In that psalm, the psalmist celebrates God’s promises, but complains that they have not been coming true, even though they have kept the covenant. They have remained faithful, and yet this is happening. The psalmist concludes: it must be because of you, it is ‘for your sake’ (Ps 44:22). He knows God is in charge, but there must be ‘stranger, darker and deeper things going on in the world than one would see on the surface’. There were earlier allusions to Ps 44 (Rom 8:27 echoing Ps 44:21) and now Paul points to the next verse, Ps 44:22 to express the belief that the ‘severe troubles of God’s people are somehow for God’s sake’. As seen in 17-30 already, ‘the point seems to be that those facing severe troubles are somehow sharing in the Messiah’s present redemptive sufferings’, a point on which Wright will later elaborate.
Paul isn’t simply saying ‘everything is going to be all right, nothing else really matters’. He is saying that in a way, but he is doing so in a world that saw misfortune as a sign of divine misfortune. No, this is part of our vocation, our calling to bear in the spirit the pain of the world. This is part of our salvific ministry in and for the world. ‘Paul is, as it were, applying the unique fact of Jesus’ crucifixion to the present sufferings of Jesus’ people as they stand in prayer, as in verses 26 and 27, at the heart of the suffering world’. Our sharing in the messianic woes makes us part of the way in which Jesus’ victorious death is applied to the world (Colossians 1:24). ‘With the spirit groaning within us, we are called to share in God’s rescue plan for the whole world’.
Let’s remind ourselves how the last five verses work. There aren’t many connecting words. The troubles mentioned, just like the cross of Christ, aren’t unpleasant or ghastly things we have (or Christ had) to endure, but actually the setting for the greater victory, in which ‘all opposition is not just defeated but swept off the board’. Twice Paul uses alla, but, to make this point, in verses 36 and 37. In 38, we then get a gar which explains this seemingly counter-intuitive super-victory, which is based on the ‘unbreakable love of God himself, of which Paul has become utterly persuaded’. This love is the framework for these verses, opening with the Messiah’s love in 35 and ending in 39 with ‘the love of God in the Messiah Jesus our Lord’. Verse 37 too mentions love, as a halfway stepping stone. And with this, this major portion of Romans (5-8) returns to where it began, in Romans 5, where God’s love is displayed in action in the death of Jesus, and is being poured out in our hearts by the spirit. Paul has now, at last, worked his way back to that ‘great statement’.
Paul offers two lists here, as part of his heightened rhetoric: 7 bad things that might happen to you in verse 35, and ten power structures that might be arranged against you in 38-39. Seven plus ten, in ancient rhetoric, indicates a kind of completeness: ‘anything and everything the world, the flesh and the devil might throw at you.’ 31-39 draw together ‘the whole scripture, all human experience, the whole hostile world, and the whole victorious gospel’. Nothing can sepate us, those in the Messiah, from the love of God. And for the first time since Rom 5:6-10, Paul makes clear that it is all about that love.
Wright thinks we don’t ‘sufficiently ponder’ what that means. We know about Gods love, but to we really understand it? Wright proposes to ‘rattle the cage a bit’. First, many Romans believed Rome had a secret name, its Latin name spelled backwards: Amor, Latin for Love. Romans believed they descended from Aeneas, the son of the love goddess Venus. It’s ‘quite possible’ that Paul here is reclaiming love (agape), as ‘the deepest truth of the creator God’ instead of as a secret name of a pagan city. This matches with the other ‘subversive’ way in which Paul appropriates Roman imperial language for the Gospel, such as ‘gospel’ and ‘Lord’ (kyrios), words Rome used for its own rulers and messages of imperial benevolence and peace. Paul reclaims those words and applies them to Jesus as the true ‘Son of God’ and lord of the whole world, bringing true justice and peace. ‘No wonder the rulers and authorities of Paul’s day struck back in every way they could’ and that is the context for the final passage. Second, in verses 35 and 37 Paul speaks of the Messiah’s love, the love of Christ. That is actually quite rare. Wright lists a few examples in 2 Cor 5, Gal 2, Eph 3 and 5, but that’s about it. Paul speaks often of the love of God ‘that sent the son to die’. And when Paul speaks of grace, he speaks of ‘the grace of Lord Jesus’, not of the Messiah. So why, here, the Messiah’s love? In scripture or extrabiblical sources, there ‘is nothing to suggest that if and when a Messiah turned up he would act out of love. Ruling, bringing justice, defeating enemies, but not love. So where does it come from, here at the heart of the passage and the rhetorical climax of the letter so far?
The answer must be ‘the great Biblical theme of the love of YHWH himself, Israels God’. And the idea of the Messiah’s love must mean that the Messiah is the personal embodiment of Israel’s God. God loves his people (as we see in scripture, Wright cites examples) and the Messiah ‘clothes that love in human flesh and blood’.
And to speak of God’s love is to speak of the covenant, God’s unbreakable loyalty to his people and covenant renewal through the Messiah. Now, European philosophers since Hegel have thought in terms of progress through either evolution or revolution. It can’t be both, and theologians have likewise said that Paul’s theology can’t be both ‘covenantal’ (evolutionary) and ‘apocalyptic’ (revolutionary). These categories have joined ‘forensic’ which has been used to analyse Paul, which means ‘belonging in a law court’. But, in Romans 8 we have ‘in the same breath, the covenant with Israel, now focused on the Messiah, and at the same time we have the sudden inbreaking of God’s powerful rescuing love in the new messianic exodus’. ‘Apocalyptic’ and ‘covenant faithfulness’ fit together in ancient Israelite and Jewish thought. Paul has also spoken of the unveiling (apokalypsis) to the world of the justice of God. All this explains, says Wright, why he sometimes translates the key term dikaoisyne not as ‘righteousness’ (which has its own modern theological misleading connotations) but as ‘covenant justice’, which draws together the covenantal and forensic categories together, in line with the Hebrew tsedaqah which in the Septuagint is often translated with dikaiosyne. We have to stop applying post-Enlightenment, modern categories; we shouldn’t give 19^th century answers to 16^th century questions, but 21^st century answers to 1^st century questions. We have to think like ‘first-century, Bible-soaked, Messiah-focused Jews’. That’s the only way to learn to understand our own world.
This agape love of which Paul speaks, what is that exactly? Not some special sort of Christian love; the Septuagint uses it for God’s love for his people as well as for destructive lust. The early Christian use of agape picks up on the theme of the Hebrew hesed (mercy, loving kindness, generosity) rather than a linguistic phenomenon. Both Paul and John use it to indicate the ‘biblical theme’ of divine love and God’s faithfulness to his covenant and its purposes, now fulfilled in Jesus. But, again, Jewish and Biblical thought never links this to the Messiah. There are three other (converging) answers as to why Paul speaks of the Messiah’s love. **First, ‘**early Christian throught began with reflection on the resurrection of the crucified Jesus’. This had to be the revelation-in-action of the long promised divine love, if it was the new exodus: God the Creator had at last remembered his long promised mercy. God had promised to reconcile the world to himself in reconciling love, and this had happened through the Messiah. God’s plan for himself and the Messiah converged in a way that was not apparent from contemporary Jewish readings of Scripture, but it became obvious in the light of Jesus. Wright connects this to the hesed Adonai, the loving kindness of YHWH himself. Second, Jesus’ first followers did not separate his resurrection from their memory of him before his death. Jesus displayed a ‘sovereign kindness in so much of what he did’, his closest followers knew him, and they spoke of his crucifixion itself as the supreme act of love. (John 13:1). Third, ‘the church’s present awareness of the person of Jesus himself’. ‘That strange presence’, always loving, promised and experienced in the sacraments for instance. ‘The Jesus who was experienced as a man of love before his crucifixion was known personally as the loving Lord in the intimate prayerful life of his followers’. ‘Memory and experience dovetail with the scriptural promises of YHWH’s rescuing love’, resulting in this remarkable theme, written less than 25 years after the crucifixion (!). This is, then ‘a radical innovation in Jewish messianic thinking’, as Jesus’ first followers came to see him as the human embodiment of Israels God. This passage is designed to give comfort and assurance, but underneath is a revolutionary theology of incarnation. Coupled with what has been said in Rom 8 about the spirit (pneumatology), this is ‘one of the greatest expositions of Trinitarian thought from any point of Christian history’. Not in the shape of cold theory, but in the shape of gratitude, allegiance, faith, hope and answering love.
At last, we can now walk through these verses and see how they work.
In 35b, Paul lists ‘the physical dangers and threats he himself had met’ or expected to meet, and his hearers might encounter soon as well. In the Greek, the list has an ‘audible punch’ which is not easy to pick up in English.
·Suffering and hardship: physical pain and cultural challenges such as loss of home or job.
· Persecution: Paul had experienced it and he could see it coming for the community in Rome.
· Famine: uncommon for us westerners, but a regular occurrence in those days.
· Nakedness: could happen after a shipwreck or at a public beating.
· The sword, machaira, a short sword used for executions, not in battle.
In Paul’s days, many would have said that if these things happen to you, the gods must be angry with you, you must have done something wrong. But in vs 36, Paul cites Ps 44 to ward of any suggestion that divine displeasure is causing these things. In Ps 44, the psalmist says that ‘all these things have come upon us, but we have not played you false or denied the covenant’. We suffer ‘because of you’ says the psalmist and Paul echoes that, we suffer ‘on your account’ (heneken sou), because of you we are sheep destined for slaughter. These sufferings are not signs of heaven-sent anger, but but ‘actually the outworking of the purpose which was sketched in 8:18-27’. What’s more, this verse closely echoes the Isaianic language for the suffering Servant, in Is. 53:7. That means these sufferings can be seen as ‘Messianic afflictions’, not just some nasty things to get through. They are to be embraced as part of the ‘redemptive vocations’. ‘This is where the wounds of Jesus meet the wounds of the world’. We are ‘reckoned’ sheep for the slaughter, just as the Messiah, when we are baptized and justified in him.
BUT… verse 37 begins with alla, ‘but’. Don’t let all these things ‘dominate your horizon’, because ‘in all these things we are super-conquerors, hypernikomen’. The enemy has been completely wiped out. Through our participation in the messianic sufferings, the ‘pain and the anger of the world may itself be exhausted and overcome’, through the supreme act of love of the Messiah and our participation in those sufferings, when we go ‘prayerfully to the dark places, to bring God’s light and healing right there’.
The reason for this ‘extraordinary analysis’ is given with the gar of verse 38, pepeismai gar. Paul is persuaded, he ‘has done the math’. He has listed 7 dangers and 10 powers that could attack us, ‘and he declares that none of them can come between the believer and the lof of God in Messiah Jesus’. The list of ten dangers is mostly arranged in pairs. We can read this list as ‘north, south, east, west’: Paul is covering the bases, it includes our possible states (life and death), the past and our (uncertain) future, powers in heaven and on earth, and anything in the cosmos. All of this is created, they are all creatures, ‘part of the world made by God, whereas the gospel is about the incarnate love of the creator himself’. These creatures, taken over by powers darker than themselves might indeed try separate us from the divine and messianic love, that is part of the ‘groaning of creation’, the out-of-jointness of God’s good creation. That creation will be rescued from its slavery to decay (8:19-25), that is the ultimate answer to that problem, and therefore also to any intermediate problems that might arise from the ‘creatures’ as they still are. Paul has lived experience with these powers, but he knows they will fail to separate us from the love of God.
Our human love experiences separation regularly (travel, work, death), but this love gives assurance of eternal unbreakability. Hard to imagine, but that is what the gospel provides. And with Paul, we need to be persuaded of all of this, ‘because of the resurrection of the crucified son of God’. It doesn’t all depend on the cross like some think, either because of a theological liberalism or because their specific atonement theory doesn’t really seem to need the resurrection. But the resurrection is the victory, where the creator God declared that the crucified and risen was indeed really his son, Israels Messiah and the world’s lord.
That’s after all where Romans began, from 1.3-5. Wright briefly recaps Romans from 1-5 and then 5-8. In the end, 8 ‘comes back full circle’ to the introduction in 5:1-11: ‘justification leads to glory, marking out the path of suffering and hope, sustained by the spirit-given love of God’, ‘this in itself is rooted in God’s action of utter self-giving love in the Messiah’. ‘That is where this first half or Romans now concludes’.
The victorious covenant love of God isn’t some fuzzy generalized sense of the transcendent or something like that. It’s not some conviction you have to talk yourself into. No, his conviction, persuasion and assurance all follow from the central ‘good news’ event of Easter. ‘If God really did raise Jesus the Messiah from the dead… then everything follows’. Wright here repeats an anecdote he often shared as a speaker, about a London cabbie who saw Wright was a bishop, and said to him: ‘What I always say, is if God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, then everything else is just rock ‘n roll, innit?’ ‘That is Paul’s doctrine of assurance in a nutshell. Nothing else in all creation can separate us from God’s love in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord’.

As recorded in the Acts of the Apostles (16:12-30), Lydia of Philippi was the Apostle Paul’s first convert to Christianity in Europe. Her conversion came after hearing Paul’s words in Philippi proclaiming the Gospel of Christ during his second missionary journey.
As described in the Acts, Lydia was a “seller of purple”, a person who traded in purple dyes and fabrics for which the city of Thyatira was noted. Purple goods were part of a high value industry and were used by emperors, high government officials, and priests of the pagan religions.
Tradition relates that she and her husband may have been involved in this business. At some point Lydia and her household moved from Asia Minor to the city of Philippi in Macedonia. The reasons she moved may have been business related as Philippi was a Roman colony on the major east-west trade route, the Egnation Highway, between Rome and Asia. Also, she may have been a Jewish convert who no longer could worship in the custom of the Thyatirans.
Lydia met with the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey about the year 50. Paul and his companions started their journey visiting the established churches in western Asia Minor when he answered a vision in which he saw a man dressed in a Macedonian manner calling upon him to “Come over to Macedonia and help us.“
Paul’s custom was to find local synagogues in which he would preach. But, apparently the Jewish population in Philippi was not sufficient to allow holding Sabbath Services for the Jewish men. Thus, Paul’s party walked out of the city following the Gangites River (now called the Angista River) when they came upon a group of women praying in the manner of Jews, along flowing water. After greeting the women, Paul and his companions sat down and shared the good news of Christ’s salvation with them. Lydia, among the women, had listened attentively and took the message to heart. She and her family were then baptized in the Gangites River along which they had been praying. Thus, Lydia became the first person in Europe to become a follower of Christ.
As Acts notes, Paul and his companions were well received by Lydia as they stayed at her house after their release from the Philippi prison. Surely, during their imprisonment, Lydia and those who assembled in her home spent the night in prayer for the release of Paul and Silas, making her home the first Christian Church in Europe. When Paul departed from Philippi he left Luke behind to preach the Gospel and to establish firmly the church in Philippi, using as its core Lydia, the jailer, and their households.
Paul speaks fondly, in his letter to the Philippians, of the brethren who were members of the church of Philippi, calling them ”…my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown…” (Philippians 4:1).
Saint Lydia was recognized as a Saint in the Orthodox Church by the Ecumenical Patriarchate under Athenagoras I on 23 May 1972. She is commemorated annually on May 20th.
Source

As recorded in the Acts of the Apostles (16:12-30), Lydia of Philippi was the Apostle Paul’s first convert to Christianity in Europe. Her conversion came after hearing Paul’s words in Philippi proclaiming the Gospel of Christ during his second missionary journey.
As described in the Acts, Lydia was a “seller of purple”, a person who traded in purple dyes and fabrics for which the city of Thyatira was noted. Purple goods were part of a high value industry and were used by emperors, high government officials, and priests of the pagan religions.
Tradition relates that she and her husband may have been involved in this business. At some point Lydia and her household moved from Asia Minor to the city of Philippi in Macedonia. The reasons she moved may have been business related as Philippi was a Roman colony on the major east-west trade route, the Egnation Highway, between Rome and Asia. Also, she may have been a Jewish convert who no longer could worship in the custom of the Thyatirans.
Lydia met with the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey about the year 50. Paul and his companions started their journey visiting the established churches in western Asia Minor when he answered a vision in which he saw a man dressed in a Macedonian manner calling upon him to “Come over to Macedonia and help us.“
Paul’s custom was to find local synagogues in which he would preach. But, apparently the Jewish population in Philippi was not sufficient to allow holding Sabbath Services for the Jewish men. Thus, Paul’s party walked out of the city following the Gangites River (now called the Angista River) when they came upon a group of women praying in the manner of Jews, along flowing water. After greeting the women, Paul and his companions sat down and shared the good news of Christ’s salvation with them. Lydia, among the women, had listened attentively and took the message to heart. She and her family were then baptized in the Gangites River along which they had been praying. Thus, Lydia became the first person in Europe to become a follower of Christ.
As Acts notes, Paul and his companions were well received by Lydia as they stayed at her house after their release from the Philippi prison. Surely, during their imprisonment, Lydia and those who assembled in her home spent the night in prayer for the release of Paul and Silas, making her home the first Christian Church in Europe. When Paul departed from Philippi he left Luke behind to preach the Gospel and to establish firmly the church in Philippi, using as its core Lydia, the jailer, and their households.
Paul speaks fondly, in his letter to the Philippians, of the brethren who were members of the church of Philippi, calling them ”…my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown…” (Philippians 4:1).
Saint Lydia was recognized as a Saint in the Orthodox Church by the Ecumenical Patriarchate under Athenagoras I on 23 May 1972. She is commemorated annually on May 20th.
Source

Hi I am a bit confused as to what the website has. However, I will in Italy, France, and Germany for 2 months from August to October. I need some guidance on how the pass will work and how do the seat reservations work.
In each country we are based in major towns eg. bari, rome, Florence, nice, Paris, cologne. but we plan to do plenty of day trips to smaller towns - how does the seat reservations work and the difference in cost?
we will also be getting the train from each major town.

1. Simile:
Definition: A figure of speech that compares two different things using the words "like" or "as."
Example: The night sky was like a vast canvas, scattered with stars as bright as diamonds.
2. Metaphor:
Definition: A figure of speech that implies a comparison between two unrelated things, stating that one thing is another.
Example: Time is a thief, silently stealing moments from our lives.
3. Hyperbole:
Definition: A figure of speech involving exaggerated statements not meant to be taken literally.
Example: The suitcase weighed a ton, making it nearly impossible to carry.
4. Understatement:
Definition: A figure of speech where a writer deliberately represents something as much less than it actually is.
Example: The storm brought a bit of rain; nothing too major, just a small flood in the living room.
5. Personification:
Definition: A figure of speech where human qualities are attributed to non-human entities.
Example: The wind whispered secrets through the ancient trees.
6. Assonance:
Definition: The repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words in a sentence.
Example: The melody of the evening breeze gently swept through the fields of wheat.
7. Onomatopoeia:
Definition: The use of words that imitate the sound they describe.
Example: The door creaked open, and footsteps echoed in the empty hallway.
8. Alliteration:
Definition: The repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words.
Example: The playful puppy pranced through the park, chasing butterflies.
*9. Oxymoron:
Definition: A figure of speech that combines contradictory terms.
Example: The comedian's humor was both dark and lighthearted, creating an unsettling joy.
10. Irony:
Definition: A figure of speech in which words express a meaning opposite to their literal interpretation.
Example: The fire station burned down while the firefighters were on vacation—what a twist of irony.
11. Pun:
Definition: A play on words that have multiple meanings or sound similar but have different meanings.
Example: Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
12. Juxtaposition:
Definition: Placing two elements side by side to present a contrast.
Example: In the bustling city, the serene park offered a juxtaposition of tranquility amid the urban chaos.
13. Synecdoche:
Definition: A figure of speech where a part represents the whole or the whole represents a part.
Example: "All hands on deck" implies the need for the assistance of the entire crew.
14. Metonymy:
Definition: A figure of speech where one term is substituted with another closely related term.
Example: The White House issued a statement on the recent policy changes.
15. Zeugma:
Definition: A figure of speech where a word applies to multiple parts of the sentence.
Example: She stole both his wallet and his heart that fateful night.
16. Epiphora:
Definition: The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.
Example: The forest was mysterious, the mountains were majestic, and the rivers were enchanting.
17. Euphemism:
Definition: Substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for a harsh or blunt one.
Example: She passed away peacefully in her sleep, euphemizing the concept of death.
18. Anthimeria:
Definition: The use of a word in a grammatical form it doesn't usually take.
Example: She bookmarked the page to return to the thrilling story later.
19. Chiasmus:
Definition: A figure of speech in which the order of terms in one of the clauses is inverted in the other.
Example: "Do I love you because you're beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you?" - Cinderella
20. Allusion:
Definition: A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance.
Example: His ambition was Caesar-like; he aimed to conquer not only Rome but the hearts of its people.
21. Allegory:
Definition: A narrative in which characters and events represent abstract ideas or moral qualities . Example: Orwell's "Animal Farm" serves as an allegory for political corruption and the abuse of power.
22. Metonymy:
Definition: A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted with another closely associated with it.
Example: The pen is mightier than the sword, emphasizing the power of the written word over physical force.
23. Sarcasm:
Definition: The use of irony to mock or convey contempt.
Example: "Nice job on the presentation," she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm as the audience chuckled.
24. Understatement:
Definition: A figure of speech where a writer deliberately represents something as much less than it actually is.
Example: The mountain climber faced a slight challenge as he ascended Everest, navigating only a few treacherous crevices.
25. Cliché:
Definition: An expression or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning.
Example: The detective followed the suspect's trail like a bloodhound, relying on the cliché methods of his trade. *

Ciao! I’ll be using the high speed trains from Venice to Rome soon, and I had a question specifically with luggage. I’m using a larger hiking backpack to carry my luggage since I did some hiking in the Dolomites as well. Is Italo strict with luggage regulations? I believe my bag is a bit larger than their stated rules, but I just now realized this. Will this be a major issue?

I always liked the fact Billy & Mary had different gods & mythological figures from Greco-Roman mythology as their patrons but I was never satisfied with the original list as Solomon is a Biblical figure from the Near East & Zephyrus was a male god. So I like to share my ideas for their patrons gods. Since the Etruscan civilization was the dominant power in Italy before the rise of Rome & had an equivalent pantheon to Greece & Rome I decided to names of some of their deities to fill in the gaps
Billy's new patron gods

1. Sethlans (the Etruscan equivalent of Hephaestus/Vulcan) - Stamina
2. Heracles - Strength
3. Apollo – Skills (Mary has 'skill' as part of her skill set which I always liked & prefer over courage)
4. Zeus - Power
5. Asclepius (god of medicine & student of Chiron the wisest of all centaurs) - Wisdom
6. Mercury – Speed & Flight

Mary's new patron goddesses

1. Selene/Salacia - Stamina (not many major goddesses start with "S")
2. Hera - Power (to balance Zeus)
3. Artemis – Skills (to balance Apollo)
4. Zerene (the Etruscan equivalent of DemeteCeres) - Strength; as Demeter was the one who bless wonder woman with the strength of the earth in George Perez's run
5. Arcus (the Roman version of Iris, the female messenger of the gods) – Speed & Flight
6. Minerva - Wisdom

What do you guys think?

I (23F) am heading to italy from croatia and have about 5 days to kill before i have to be in Milan and unsure where to go (also have about 5 days after Milan as well to go to Bologna)
i have been to the major cities, milan, rome, venice, naples so not super keen on going again but i am looking for somewhere nice n social for solo traveller. i love to enjoy the nightlife as well though im not expecting clubs etc just nice vibes drinking and meeting people
Anyone hv any recommendations of where to go?
been researching either cinque terre & amalfi coast, but also keen on Sardinia/Sicilly

now senior so i thought id take a look back. most TFs or lab instructors missing bc i don't remember them and never attended most office hours.
Courtney Martin - FY101 freshman fall. utterly useless class (was an undeclared major so took it hoping to get some guidance, basically got nothing out of it.) very chill instructor though, no issues there, just waste of time.
Scott Possiel - WR120 freshman fall and WR152 freshman spring, grad student teacher. pretty chill and class was interesting (mediterranean religion [roman religions]), learned strong amount about writing. no complaints, hope he's on to great things.
Alexander Nikolaev - CL/208LX208 freshman fall. awesome class on zoom, funny and knowledgeable dude, learned so much about about indo-european linguistics, and sparked basically all my interest about linguistics. assignments were fun and refreshing. one of my favorite professors at BU despite only having had one class with him. unfortunately he disappeared (left?) after 2020 and I have no idea why, nor did any of my classmates. lucky to have had his last BU class in first semester of freshman year.
Christine Papadakis - CS112 freshman fall. her ratemyprofessor 1.9 score says all: bad at explaining topics, strange class vibes, pretty unhelpful. seems like a nice person though. she is the main reason i did not continue with compsci after 1 semester at BU. class wasn't too difficult (got B+ and could have done better if i tried harder), but it was so utterly boring that it was the dread of every week. it was genuinely difficult to find any will to do work for it. lectures were insufferably boring, especially on replay when studying. avoid her at all costs.
Edward Loechler - first half of BI107 freshman fall, BI108 freshman spring? (i remember him and spilios teaching some class together or two part or something). chill old man vibes, class was solid and well taught. don't remember anything else except no issues. recommend.
Kathryn Spilios - second half of BI107 freshman fall. chill professor, class was solid and well taught. don't remember anything else except no issues. recommend.
Leah Kronenberg - CL102 freshman spring. awesome professor, very kind and good at teaching. recommend
thomas keyes - CH101 freshman spring. worst professor i had in all of BU hands down. so utterly useless and incompetently lazy that his syllabus was barely even divided into paragraphs, just a spam wall of text. lectures were monotonous and uninteresting, he was bad at answering questions, mean to students, generally seemed like he was on the verge of suicide or homicide or both at any given moment. thankfully he retired so i do not have to say avoid him at all costs.
special shoutout to Alyssa Kranc - TF for CH101, grad student. actual angel sent from heaven to guide the class thru the horror that was CH101 with thomas keyes. great at explanations, patient, and brought good vibes. i actually really liked chemistry and it was only thru Alyssa's help and lab review meeting things that I learned anything in this class and got an A. Hope she is onto greater things and epic research.
jane x. luu - AS102 sophomore fall. chill professor, kinda made class easier as time went along when she realized nobody really gave a shit about the subject and was just there for hub or get chance to look thru telescope. actually discovered some really awesome things in her research (the kuiper belt). was visiting professor so dont think she'll be back.
brandon jones - CL101 sophomore fall. awesome professor, good lectures, chill guy. recommend.
john thornton - HI175 sophomore fall. most boring history lecturer ive ever had. quiet so had to sit in the front to even hear him (maybe cuz covid masks made everything quieter). chill guy, easy class, probably cooler to talk to at office hours than for survey history class. recommend.
cathal nolan - HI284 sophomore fall. Lowkey kinda pompous guy, but classes were always insightful and really felt like attending a speech moreso than a lecture. history of war was one of the few classes where i felt like i really gained wisdom and not just knowledge, but it also fell short of my expectations at the same time if that makes sense. pretty easy if you like history / are good at writing. he needs to learn how to use slides though lol, windows photo app and USB stick photos can only last so long. recommend.
Christopher McMullen - FY102 sophomore spring. genuinely do not remember a single thing about this class or instructor. pretty sure we unironically did a meyers personality test thing, hilarious waste of time. or that was in FY101.
hannah culik - CL237 sophomore spring. very kind professor, learned a lot in the class. 0 official dealines so u can turn in everything late but i do not recommend leaving it all to the last minute. pretty political charged, but i think in an engaging way. she left BU but i would recommend if she were still here.
simon payaslian - HI176 sophomore spring. felt like high school class but i guess that's how history survey courses go. chill dude, kinda tough grader? dumb assignments. average lecturer. recommend.
bruce schulman - HI231 sophomore spring. very kind professor, i turned in my final research paper like a week late LMFAO and he still accepted it (with some completely justified points off for lateness of course). good lecturer. recommend.
Christopher Daly - HI231 sophomore spring. kind professor, chill lecturer, same course as schulman (double professors). retired, otherwise would recommend.
Alexis Peri - HI200 sophomore spring, HI272 junior fall. one of the best professors at BU hands down. kind but pushes you to truly learn. my writing excelled under her and i felt i improved my overall skills as a student / scholar in every way. she grades easier as class goes on. genuinely proud to have achieved an A in both her courses, pushed myself to get there. maybe a bit too much class discussion for my tastes though, i don't really enjoy sharing out. recommend.
shoutout to Margot Rashba, TF for HI272. helpful explainer since I couldn't go to professor Peri's office hours due to time conflict. hope she is onto great things.
clifford Backman - HI101 junior fall. chill professor, class pretty boring but funny lecturer. completely ghosted my email sent in the following semester discussing my idea for senior thesis lol, and wasn't at the office hours listed on website, idk what happened. apparently went on leave after some controversy regarding speech. so yeah lol. recommend.
Stephanie Nelson - CL161 junior fall. awesome professor, kind and fun class. recommend
Timothy Clark - CL162 junior spring, CL322 disorganized and seems like he didn't really care about the class tbh, but overall chill guy. really likes parthia and didn't really care about Rome at all. dumb assignments at times, but he did have no issue with me consistently missing a language class every week due to schedule conflict, which I appreciated. don't recommend, but he was visiting professor so he's not at BU anymore anyway.
eugenio menegon - HI363 senior fall. hard to explain but going to class just felt... uncomfortable every time? does lot of cold-calling. lecture was kinda boring, didn't learn very much, felt more like a high school survey class of china than a 300 level class on ancient China. covers way too long a time period in too little detail. dude seems pretty chill though. don't recommend.
christopher ell - CL300 senior fall. very boring lecturer but he clearly does try to make it funny, which is appreciated. chill guy, some leniency on scheduling and assignments, very clear about all his instructions and overall taught well. very fair and no conflicts at all. enjoyed his class. recommend.
spiridon-iosif capotos - CL261 senior fall, grad student teacher. hilarious, deadpan dry humor. fun class, learned a lot of greek, hope he is onto great things. recommend
simon anderson - SY101 senior spring. chill guy, class not the most useful but was alright. not really that indepth, prob waste of time could've learned everything reading online guides. instructor was fine though, no issues.
hannah kloster - CL262 senior spring, grad student teacher. awesome and kind instructor, very fun class, learned a lot despite having no interest in Greek poetry. hope she is onto great things. recommend.
jilene chua - HI500 senior spring. very kind professor, chill class and great vibes, but too much discussion for my taste. new professor to BU, had her on her second or third semester teaching as a professor ever (i think); class was kinda unorganized or ad hoc at times. will only get better as time goes on. recommend.
stephen scully - hi406 senior spring. no interest in the subject (iliad translations) when i joined class and minimal interest in the subject as I leave the class (and BU). chill professor, but grades harshly and requires a lot of writing. cold calls often. class was also quite unorganized for entire first half. in terms of material, honestly a lot of stuff in class felt quite arbitrary in understanding (as is probably the case with most literature classes, which i did not take outside of this). recommend if you really love classical literature / mythology / philology (or anything humanities), don't recommend for classical history (or anything social sciences).
Rui Hua - HI364 junior fall, HI370 junior spring, HI553 senior fall. the most energetic, fun, chill professor i've had at BU, every lecture was a blast and even if i went to class in a bad mood it was impossible to leave without a smile on my face. took us on field trips to relevant destinations when possible. I had the first 3 classes he's ever taught as a professor ever (I think), and it definitely showed bc they were somewhat unorganized and spontaneous. i am sure his teaching will only get better as time progresses, learned a lot and had a great time in all his classes. he does cover some overlapping material so if you take multiple of his classes you will repeat some stuff. also super lenient on deadlines but i do not encourage delaying all of them to the last minute as I did like an idiot. easy classes overall, but if you like the subject he definitely is encouraging for those who want to learn more. recommend.
Loren J. Samons - CL321 junior fall, CL303 junior spring, CL202 senior spring. best professor i've ever had at BU: hilarious, funniest lectures of all time. i learned so much and samons brings so much old man sardonic energy to every class. CL303 fall of roman empire was another class where I felt I genuinely attained wisdom and not just knowledge. assigned readings are some of the few I actually did. class might be difficult if not ur a good writer / not a social sciences person, but u'll definitely improve if you take the effort to do so. otherwise easy class got As in all of them. very straightforward. recommend.
feel free to ask individual questions about any of these professors / instructors in comments.

TLDR; seeking recommendations for a non-touristy but convenient homebase town for a month in Northern Italy over the holidays
Hello friends. I’m considering renting a place in Northern Italy for 4-5 weeks over December and would love thoughts on a homebase town.
A little about me/what I’m looking for:
I spent a week over Christmas in Venice in 2019 and while I was warned by local friends that it may be “dead,” I loved it and found it festive and serene even though some things were closed. I spent five weeks on the Amalfi Coast in the spring last year, and rented a flat in Atrani as my homebase. I went on day trips to explore the other towns and islands, and explored further via ferry and/or train for 2–3 days to Rome, Naples, Florence, and Ischia, or just relaxed in Atrani. I work remotely and love finding a more peaceful and less touristy homebase where I can settle in, and then bouncing around as I want, and I like staying for a while so that I can explore in a more relaxed way.
I am not a person who needs or wants to be in the middle of all the action—I liked that Atrani was quieter day to day in the off season, but was easily accessible to larger shops, more restaurants, and a bus and ferry terminal in Amalfi. I share all that to say: I am looking to replicate a similar experience in Northern Italy, and I’m okay if I’m a bit bored! :) I don’t mind if it’s quieter or if the weather that time of year is what some might consider dreary.
Must-have criteria: - a town, walkable to shops and cafes (not countryside or a very busy city) - safe for a single woman (will have friends/family with me sporadically, but primarily on my own) - convenient to transit opportunities. I am open to renting a car if it will help me get around; I would just prefer to rely on trains to get to cities or towns further abound.
Places on my list that I would love to visit during the trip: - Milan - Verona - the towns on Lake Como - a few days in either Cortina d’Ampezzo or at the San Luis retreat in Hafling (just north of Bolzano) - possibly a few days in Venice to see friends
What do you think? Thoughts on a good homebase? Anywhere absolutely unmissable for spending 4–5 weeks in the region? Any major red flags? Thank you in advance!

I visited this beautiful country between May 1 - 11, but was not prepared for the amount of tourism, which I must say ultimately left me a little sour about the experience. We stuck with all the major attractions and sights so I know we shouldn’t be surprised by the crowds, but I’ve still never seen tourism at this level. That said, I may have had a better time if I didn't try to pack everything in as much as I did.
Our itinerary was:
Day 1: Land in Milan
Day 2: Train from Milan to Lake Como
Day 3: Train from Lake Como to Cinque Terre (my favorite part of the trip)
Day 5: Train from Cinque Terre to Florence
Day 8: Train from Florence to Rome
Day 10: Train from Rome back to Milan for our departing flight the next day
Lake Como and Cinque Terre (CT) were my favorite parts that I wish I allotted more time for.
While Lake Como is beautiful and I wish we had more time to explore some spots I had saved, it did feel a little soulless. We stayed in Varenna and took the ferry to Bellagio. Both areas feel like resort towns that exist solely for tourism. Other areas might have a less catering vibe. Also, the number of young women taking shots for the 'gram and giving you dirty looks because you ruined their 20-minute photoshoot is nauseating.
The train that runs between the 5 towns in CT gets packed to the brim with people during peak hours (~10 a.m. - 5 p.m.). On our arrival day I tried to get off the train for our final stop and I literally got stuck between people; I was able to lift my feet off the ground for a few seconds and not get anywhere like a cartoon character.
We visited CT to hike the Blue Path and no regrets there. Absolutely stunning and the only time we didn't feel overwhelmed with people (started hiking around 8 a.m. in Monterosso). But if you're just taking the train between towns you'll do almost as much hiking from the train stations to the main parts of all 5 towns. The only one we didn’t properly visit was Manarola so maybe that town has a short walk from the train station? I think there are vans/buses that take people from some of the train stations into town, but you'll be waiting amongst crowds and nothing is clearly noted.
Florence: we stayed right near the Ponte Vecchio and I do not recommend. Again, the number of people and crowds ruin it. I thought it would be nice/convenient staying near the Uffizi and the bridge, but it wasn't worth it. Unless you’re shopping for jewelry, the bridge can be much more appreciated from a distance. The location also isn't ideal because no matter what I tried we couldn't get a taxi; I downloaded apps, called taxi hubs, tried Uber, but no one would come to our location or offer alternative pick up spots. The city is very walkable, but we came down with food poisoning so by the end I was hoping to grab a taxi to the train station to alleviate some of the dejectedness I was feeling. We visited the Uffizi, Accademia, and the Piazzale Michelangelo, but I was happy to leave Florence. I felt like I couldn't escape the smell of cigarettes the entire time.
Rome: I think by this point were a bit weary from the food poisoning, crowds, and the amount of walking we did with our backpacks. Thankfully though no issues getting taxis/Ubers around Rome. Despite what people say about Trastevere being "overrated" now, stay there. It's easily the nicest part of Rome. My second recommendation would be Prati. We had tickets to visit the Vatican Museum and I wish we made the effort but this was the last leg of the trip and we were just over it so we spent our full day in Rome walking to all the sights: Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Roman Forum, and Janiculum Hill.
Rome was nice and I enjoyed it more than Florence, but it also felt run down. We had a running joke that ambulances were following us because we could not escape the sirens. I know, it’s all part of history and maybe I’m just not sophisticated enough to appreciate its historical magnitude, but honestly, pass.
Public transit: Getting on ferries and trains felt like a fight each time which added some physical and mental fatigue. I highly recommend sticking to high-speed trains if possible because you can reserve your seat; it doesn’t matter if you book first class or standard, they’re basically the same. Trains where you don’t reserve your seat, good luck. We stood for 1.5hrs from CT to Florence CRAMMED in. Each time the train stopped more people would squeeze in but eventually we had to stop people from boarding.
The trains were occasionally running a couple minutes late and there was a 24hr strike during our stay but nothing that impacted our trip. Don’t feel like you must show up for your train more than ~10 minutes in advance, your train’s platform number likely won’t be displayed until about 5 – 10 minutes out. You’ll just stand around unnecessarily stressing yourself out otherwise.
Was this a magical trip? No, not really. Would I visit Italy again? Possibly with some time and with plans to stick to the more natural scenery. I did want to visit the Italian Dolomites but they were still snow covered during our visit.
I think another factor that contributed to it not being the “magical” experience you hope for is we had to stick to schedules the entire time and that’s not a typical fun vacation for me; whether it was the trains, museum/attraction entrance times, or dinner reservations, we frequently had somewhere we had to be. This type of trip didn’t allow for spontaneity. E.g. when we visited Scotland we rented a car and were able to visit random castles and museums without prep work or fighting crowds. Perhaps I could’ve had more fun or spontaneity by seeing less (I definitely wouldn’t want a car within Florence or Rome proper but I think the countryside/smaller towns would be okay), but when you only get so much time off for work, you try to squeeze it all in.
Food: Everyone comes for the main attraction which of course is the various pastas, but Italy does so much better than pasta. Yeah, I said it. The chicken I had there on two separate occasions from two different restaurants? Immaculate. I’ll never have more perfectly cooked chicken again. The deli meats? So flavorful. I ordered a yogurt with lemon and honey in CT (where they grow a lot of lemons) and I’ll think of that fondly for years to come. I also had a fantastic affogato in Florence.
As I mentioned, we did get food poisoning which can happen while traveling, but I did notice unless you’re going to a proper sit down restaurant, you might see people handling your food in ways that are unappetizing. In cafes and sandwich shops and quick bite places like that you won’t see food handlers using gloves and you’ll likely have dirty cups/plates/utensils. Not a big deal for some, not for me though.
We avoided the super touristy areas for our real dinners, but while the pasta was done well, the red sauce just wasn’t hitting for either of us.
I apologize if this comes off as a less than idyllic portrayal of Italy. It’s a beautiful country that is worth a visit, but I wanted to share my experience and maybe highlight it’s not for everyone and that’s okay.
Edit: formatting