Malta Week 20 - Part 2

Part 2: ROME

On Wednesday afternoon, we took a flight to Rome accompanied by Shane and Sam. A member of our Branch was celebrating their wedding in Rome and invited us to join. Having Shane and Sam with us made the trip even more special, allowing us to enjoy Rome together. We packed as much as possible into the brief two days we spent there.

Upon our arrival, it was raining. Our Airbnb was conveniently located just outside the Vatican. We discovered a quaint cafe for dinner and later strolled to view the Vatican by night. It resembled a scene from a fairy tale, with lights reflecting off the glistening pavement.

Even with the drizzling rain, it was a beautiful night.

We had to try some Italian Gelato, so we found this charming little restaurant to indulge.

The following day, we located the Metro and made our way to the Coliseum. I had no idea this was Sam's first subway ride!

As we came out of the subway station and stepped outside, the immense Colosseum stood directly before us! It was truly breathtaking to be welcomed by such a grand historical monument!

We had a nice morning touring Rome and then we headed to the temple.

We had scheduled in advance a 3:00 pm session. Finding a taxi willing to go as far north as the temple was quite challenging. We got ripped off by the taxi driver who could see how desperate we were, so we paid nearly triple the normal fare, but we managed to arrive on time.

The time of day was perfect for taking pictures in front of the temple.

After our session, we arranged for Shane and Sam to meet with the Sister Missionaries for a tour of the Visitors' Center.

They captured this stunning photo. It was the perfect time of day to catch the beautiful reflection of the Christus statue in front of the temple. Fantastic photo, Sam!

While they were taking the tour, we made our way to the wedding reception.  The couple was originally planning to be sealed in the temple that day, but they decided to postpone because their grandfather was ill and couldn't attend.  We thought it was going to be a come and go reception, but instead, it was a huge and elaborate wedding program.  It might have been nice, but we don't know.  It was all in Italian and our Google Translator wasn't working!  It was fun seeing our mission president and his wife (my cute cousin) Cindy at the ceremony.  Shane and Sam joined us after their tour.

When we came out of the church, the temple was beautifully illuminated against the night sky.

The Airbnb where we stayed with this charming little courtyard.

On Friday morning, we had scheduled a Vatican tour. The tour itself was amazing, but it was so crowded, it made it less enjoyable than we had hoped.

Below are a few photographs from the Vatican Tour.

This guy reminds me of a character I've seen in the Haunted Mansion at Disney.

The ceilings, walls, everything was stunning!

Steve's favorite picture!

We loved this spiral staircase!

St Peter's Basilica 

Sadly, they set up chairs for an upcoming event.  It was much nicer that last time we were there without the chairs. We had hoped to tour the Basilica, but due to the lengthy lines, we were unable to do so.

We had a delightful lunch at a charming little pizzeria!

We bid farewell to Shane and Sam as they returned to the USA, and we made our way back to Malta.

Saturday was my birthday and I felt like I had already celebrated by spending 2 days in Rome, but Steve insisted on taking me out to dinner.  We decided to try out this quaint little Italian Restaurant. I'm not sure why we went to an Italian Restaurant after just returning from Italy, but we enjoyed it.  

Most people here like to eat later at night.  We went at 5:00 PM and had the restaurant to ourselves!

Happy Birthday to ME!

This is a beautiful couple from our branch, Ivan and Diana.  We met them when we first moved here and then we never saw them again.  They started coming to Institute and they told me that they were never at church because they had to work on Sundays.  After coming to Institute, they decided they had to have more faith and they told their employer they couldn't work on Sundays anymore.  We are excited they are coming to church every week now.  We are praying the Lord will bless them for taking this leap of faith and that they will be able to make ends meet.  We have loved getting to know them!

We ended the week by having all of the missionaries to dinner!  We love our missionaries so much.  It is a pleasure to have them in our home!  

This is a video of them singing me Happy Birthday in Italian.  It didn't work on my computer, so it probably won't work on yours either!  It's a super cute video and it made my heart so happy when they broke out in song!

It was a beautiful ending to a wonderful week!!!