A Path through Rome, a Travel Treasure Hunt for Your Family!

A Path through Rome, a Travel Treasure Hunt for Your Family! Several years ago, it must be over ten years now, (can that be possible)….??? Anyway, Randy and I took our teenage children on their first trip to Rome.  Dan Brown’s novel Angels and Demons (he is famous for the Da Vinci Code) was a favorite book of mine at the time, and my son also loved it.  The history, the symbology, secret societies…Dan Brown does it well, and my son and I love our fiction mixed with history, truth and a little mysticism. I decided that Wesley, my son, would lead us on our path around the Eternal City. If you are not familiar with Angels and Demons, it is predicated on the ancient secret society, The Illuminati, and their secret great artist who created the Illuminati Ambigrams with the scientific elements embossed upon them.  In the book, Bernini was the secret artist. Using the ambigrams, and my own clues mixed with those in the book, Wes was given a clue every day which he had to solve, then he had to map the location, and lead us to it! First, it was:

Santi was none other than the famous Raphael, an architect as well as an artist. He designed an “earthly” tomb, and Bernini’s work, Habakkuk and the Angel, is in the chapel filled with Pyramids and earthly phenomena.  Wes solved the clue, which took us to the Piazza del Popolo, one of the most famous squares in the city.  On that square is the Church of St Maria del Popolo, and in that church, Chigi’s Chapel and the statue waited for us.  The Angel pointed the way toward the next clue!

The next day Wes received this clue:

Well….off we went to St. Peter’s Square, where a bas relief sculpture by Bernini waits by the obelisk. Bernini designed the “square” as an ellipse.

And our next clue:

This clue is a bit of a combination: “he whose son’s faults were his failure as a father” was a line spoken by Marcus Aurelius to his son in the movie “Gladiator“, a movie that Wes absolutely loved. We still ask one another, “is it Gladiator good?” The clue took Wes to the statue of Marcus Aurelius at Capitoline Hill, in ancient Rome.

Capitoline Hill was the site of one of my more spectacular falls….it had been misting a bit, and I slipped. I will never live that one down. It is a miracle my camera didn’t break!

The Coliseum is truly one of the great sights of Rome, not to be missed under any circumstances!

Wesley’s next clue was:

The Beautiful Fountain of the Four Rivers is at Piazza Navona, also the site of the incredible Pantheon.

Wesley’s search ended near the Vatican, at the Castel d’Angelo, the Castle of Angels. His reward?  A Ferrari cap!

Rome is a treasure. After looking at these photos, I’m ready to go back! Of course, I’m always ready to travel…Italy sounds just right! I’m sure I can come up with another treasure hunt through Rome!

**CLUES BASED ON DAN BROWN’S ANGELS AND DEMONS!

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