Ancient Rome, Christian Rome, and the restored Gosple of Jesus Christ

Coloseum * Moses * Roman Forum * Holy Stiars * San Giovani * Rome LDS chapel - 

10 miles, 62 flights of stairs

We started out our day in pagan Rome visiting the Colosseum and Roman Forum.  Both really cool.  We were on a tour of the Colosseum with a darling Italian girl that had such a thick accent and the listening radios were so bad we couldn't understand a thing.  I quickly learned that Charlie needed the camera to be entertained.  All of today's pictures are ones he took.  I had to delete about 100 fuzzy ones as well as the pictures of the Army Jeeps and soldiers with guns - most fascinating for Charlie.  The Roman Forum was amazing. The kids really liked it, but they were getting hungry and tired so we did our "giro" of the forum quickly and went home for our afternoon nap, something we have enjoyed each day now.  In between the Colosseum and Forum we snuck up to Saint Peter's in Chains to see the Moses.  Eric ran into a Priest from Toledo Spain and we had a great chat with him.  At the end he offered a blessing upon us.  We ran into him again later on in the day at San Giovani.

After the nap we took the kids to the Holy Stairs by San Giovani.  It's been very interesting for them to experience Catholicism up close and in personal.  I think they are learning to respect other faiths, even if it's different. After the Holy Stairs (which by the way, is where Pilgrims climb, on their knees a staircase believed to have been where the Savior walked before his crucifixion), we saw San Giovani and had some gelato - our favorite to date - at RivaReno.  To end the evening we traveled some distance before finding the Rome "chapel" where I was a missionary.  Lucky for us, someone was there to open the door and let us walk around.  It's too bad we won't be here for a Sunday, but church will be great wherever we go in Italy.

My daughters think they need to use my keyboard each night for their own blogs (I didn't realize they planned to blog while we were gone) so my posts are going to be short while we share the keyboard.  Perhaps when we leave the city and move to a slower place of living, I'll get more keyboard time.

A note about our apartment.  A small 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom with galley kitchen smaller than my closet on the 3rd floor of an apartment building sandwiched between 2 leather shops on a really cool street 5 minutes from Piazza Navona and 10 minutes from the Pantheon.  It has twisting Roman streets just as you would imagine.  Our windows are open all the time and there's a nice breeze as well as constant sounds from the restaurants below us.  We like it though.  It's prefect and puts us right in the middle of things.

LDS Chapel, Lara's first missionary area

Resting at the Forum

Roman Forum

Michelangelo's Moses

Charlie fascinate with the heavy military presence

Walking Rome - 9 miles, 57 flights of stairs

Campo Dei Fiori*Largo Argentina*Il Gesu*Michelangelo's Stair Case*Piazza Campolino,*Victor Emmanuel*Saint Peter's Dome Climb*Saint Peter's Basilica*The Pantheon - 

9 miles

I've managed to get the keyboard up and working, but I'm still trying to figure out how to get my pictures to download in the right order and how to move them around on the blog. I'm not going o worry about perfection - otherwise, this won't get done.  Today we walked 9 miles according to my fit bit and climbed 57 flights of stairs.  That seems right considering we climbed Michelangelo's staircase to the top of the steepest hill in Rome.  We then climbed to nearly the top of the Victor Emmanuel Monument before taking the elevator to the top.  Finally, we climbed Saint Peter's Dome (not from ground level - we cheated and took the elevator up 1/3 of the way first).  I think the kids really liked being inside the dome with it's twisty staircase and slanted walls.  

Gratefully we arrived later in the day to Saint Peter's and avoided long lines to enter the Basilica. Since it is a special year of Jubilee, the Pope has opened the Bronze door for pilgrims to enter.  Even though we aren't "pilgrims" we decided to take this chance to enter the Basilica through these special doors.  It won't happen again for another 25 years.  Of course the highlight inside was Michelangelo's Pieta.  Such a beautiful, reverent piece.

This evening we joined a free tour of the Pantheon given by a guy from Dublin.  We enjoyed the history lesson of the oldest standing church in Rome.  It's my favorite church in Rome.  As a missionary I loved to go here, wandering through the the labyrinth of old Roman streets to to be suddenly surprised when around the corner the Pantheon would appear.  It's an amazing neighborhood.  Our little apartment is about a 10 minutes walk from here passing Piazza Navona on our way.

We decided the view from the top of Saint Peter's is 10 times better than the view from Victor Emmanuel.  Rome just looks better with the Saint Peter's Piazza and the Tiber River out front.  For a moment we thought we could see the construction of the LDS temple and as we pulled out the camera to get a better look with the telegraphic lens, the sun went behind a could and it disappeared.  Hum?

Pieta

Pantheon

No caption needed!

View from the Dome of Saint Peter's

View from Piazza Campolino

Lunch of bread, cheese, meat, and fruit all purchased from Campo Dei Fiori

Campo dei Fiori

Piazza Campolino

Il Gesu - amazing frescos inside

The longest day ever

Piazza Navona * San Ignazio * Pantheon * Santa Maria Sopra Minerva * San Luigi * Trevi Fountains * Spanish Steps - 4 miles. 

Flight from SLC to LAX

This will be a common theme:  Lara looking at guide book and Eric looking at map

Playing in the water, Trevi Fountains

This was church today, we'll have to catch the Mormons next week

Photo Credit - Maren

Emma, Sydney, Lara

More journaling tomorrow when I have my keyboard and I've figured out how to do this blog on an iPad. After 24+ hours of traveling we walked 4 miles just to stay awake.  Everyone collapsed by 9:00 pm. 

Letter to Stewart

I was really hoping to put a letter in the mail, but it just didn't happen - so I'll take a few minutes while I wait for Emma to finish up an Art Project before I run her back to school.  She was up until midnight studying for a test, so I told her to finish the Art project in the morning, and miss a few periods.  It's Friday short-day anyway, which at the Jr. High is a big waste of time.

We've have a typical busy May week.  Last night we had a piano recital at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  You might not have known, but Maren has been teaching piano this year as her job.  She has 10 piano students (including Charlie and Sydney).  It's been a good, flexible part-time job.  The perfect kind for a busy student (remember your job with Nate - infact, I saw Nate this week and he was wondering your plans as he would hire you in a second if you'd be in Salt Lake).   Anyway, Maren is a beautiful, natural pianist.  She plays all the time, it's like we live in a piano bar.  She's photocopied several piano pieces to take to Europe, she's hoping to get some piano time while we travel.  Maybe you can help us with that in Madrid.  Hey - if you want to continue playing the bagpipe when you get back, Dad and I will help you with that.  You'll have to see if there are any bagpipe teachers in Provo :)

Emma got an award last night at the OJH in Math.  I'm so proud of all my Mathematician children.  I wish I had taken more Math classes when I got to college.  I took Physics Light and Sound (fun class!) and the next level Calculus, but I wish I had done more.  I had some math in my Stats and Chem classes - but wish I'd done more math.  Oh well :)

Sydney went to Lagoon yesterday with the 6th grade - can you believe she's that old?  She's still pretty short, but she's going to be a big Jr. High Student next year!  (She also got accepted in the premier Math class at OJH - they only took 30 students).

Dad and I are frantically crossing things off our check-list to get our family out of town for 80 days.  Nothing like a summer-long trip to get things done.  Next week I'll send you our itinerary so you can follow-us around Italy & France.  We leave May 28th.

I'm so inspired by your service as a missionary.  I have many proud Mama moments and I have to remind myself not to get too proud (remember the Nephites), but it's hard as a Mama when you see your children doing good things and excelling and moving forward and up.

Here's to onward and upward!  Just what the Lord wants.

Love you!

MOM