Italy

Saturday morning we woke up and had breakfast at our hotel with Christian’s parents.  They were lovely people and we were so glad we got the chance to meet them.  We headed to the temple in Bern after to do a session of sealings.  The only sealer for that session was Italian so that was an interesting experience!  Thankfully one sister spoke Italian and German so she told the boys what he’d say and they pass the info to us.  It was nice for a change to not be the only one who knows what is going on!  Fortunately the spirit can communicate in any language and it was a wonderful experience!  

 After the temple we headed to the airport in Basel.  Unfortunately we rode a small European airline that doesn’t allow much luggage and so we got nailed with heavy bag fees!  We had lunch with Christian and it was so sad to say goodbye at the end.  We had so much fun with him!  He was the greatest tour guide and we saw and did so many things we would have never done without him!  I hope we will be seeing him again.  It was a little sad leaving German and Switzerland behind.  Blake is certain we will be back there someday.  We’d both LOVE to go and live there for a time.  I completely fell in love with Germany and the people and would go back in a heartbeat!!!  We had a short plane ride and then we were in Rome.  Our hotel sent someone to pick us up.  Our hotel was in the most prime location, directly across the street from St. Peter’s Basilica right in the heart of town!  When we walked in we could not believe our eyes! 

A real normal sized bed, air conditioning, adorable decorations, free wifi, a bedae, and the most amazing shower you have ever seen (sprays from every direction imaginable, plays the radio, has lights…..its kinda amazing!)  They just bought the place 2 months ago and so everything still looks brand new, we totally lucked out!

Jake Anderson’s sister, Sara (he is one of Preston’s best friends from high school), has been living here for 2 months and she came to our place and gave us a walking tour of the city.  I felt like I was walking on the set of a movie.  This is the real deal that people always try to recreate.  It is so surreal to see it in person!  We started right across from our hotel at St. Peter’s Basilica by the Vatican.

 Everywhere we went we kept having flash backs to the movie Angels and Demons, it’s crazy to see all the places from the movie!  Next we walked to St. Angelo’s Bridge which is lined with Angel statues. 

 All the streets have these great little fountains that flow with fresh drinking water all day!

Its great because you could really walk everywhere there.  The streets all smelled so delicious with all the yummy food.  There was music everywhere and everyone seemed to be smiling, its magical!  The next stop was the 4 Rivers Fountain.

 After that the pantheon which had these massive columns which were all made from one piece of stone cut perfectly.  How they made these amazing building I will never understand! 

  Next came the Trevi Fountain.  That place was packed with tourist.  We got to the front and threw in a coin which means you will return to the fountain again someday, I sure hope it works!

 Such a romantic city:)

 Another view of the gorgeous Trevi Fountain

 After the fountain we walked to the top of the Spanish steps and walked along a wall that gave the most gorgeous view of the entire city, it was spectacular!  We hadn’t eaten since we’d arrived so we stopped at a cute little pizzeria and got some pizza.  They made big long pizzas and you tell them where to cut it.  They weigh it and that is how much you pay.  For both of us to get pizza and a soda was 9 euros, it was sooo nice to finally have normal priced food again!

    This morning we woke up and got ready for the day.  We are the only ones staying in this hotel right now (and we’re pretty sure we are the first guests they’ve had since opening about a month ago, everything is BRAND new and looks like its never been used).  For breakfast they give us vouchers and we go across the street to an awesome bakery.  We all had fresh paninis, pasteries and orange juice which they squeeze right in front of you, DELIZIOSO!  After breakfast we had to wait for the bus to go to church.  Public transportation in Italy is VERY different from Germany.  They have no set schedule and you really never know when the bus will show up.  The buses are dirty and stinky.  I got stuck next to a man with Tourettes, let’s just say it was a very akward and I couldn’t wait to get off that bus!  We got off the bus and walked down the street a bit until we reached the church (the same church Sara and her family go to).  They had headsets you could wear for English translation so that made it really nice for us!  The meeting was about the spirit with new conversions.  It was a great meeting.  While talking to the sisters we found out one of the sisters was a daughter of a dear friend of Pres and Sandy, Dick and Brenda Miles.  My parents also knew them from the U of U days.  Crazy what a small world it is!  

 We walked down the road after and grabbed a kebab (like a doner in Germany but wrapped in a tortilla), they were pretty good!  We took some public transport and had to run all around and up a million steps.  We couldn’t believe the climate change from Germany to Italy.  It was super humid and really warm!  We were all sweating buckets.  Finally we made it to the Borghese Gallery.  Sara’s husband, Clint, is studying art in Italy and so he really knows his stuff!  He showed us all around the gallery, it was amazing!  Our favorites were the Bernini sculptures, they are unbelievable!  The David especially,  he is in action with his slingshot and the muscles and veins are absolutely perfect!  So fun to see those amazing works!  After that we headed to the Termini to get bus passes for Pompeii the next day, it ended up being a major ordeal and the train ride was going to cost $400 for the four of us.  I think we may end up just renting a car, which should save us quite a lot!  After we got that all sorted out it was back to the Metro to get back to town.  We had a delicious dinner at a cute little restaurant with Sara, Clint and their two little boys Zach and Abe. 

  The restuarant makes the pastas from scratch and they were fabulous.  Everything we had tasted so fresh and we loved all the flavors!  Of course as usual the kids were in love with Blake and we couldn’t get enough of them. 

The oldest, Zach, know everything you could ever want to know about animals and loves to tell you all about it.  They are full of energy and are sweet as can be!  It was a super fun meal and a great way to end a great day!  Of course Pop could not let the kids leave without getting some ice cream first so we had to stop off and grab gelato and as you can see the kids thought that was a brilliant idea!