Italy: Rome/Vatican City

    We did our best squeezing everything in our last two days in Italy.  We decided to go to Vatican City/Sistine Chapel on Saturday (since they are closed to the public on Sundays).  Vatican City is considered a different country in and of itself--it is HUGE.  We walked all over it and even climbed to the top of St. Peter's Basilica--almost as many steps as the Eiffel Tower!

St. Peter's Basilica

Views from the top

The Swiss Guard

    
Sunday:

    We decided to find a ward to go to Sunday morning.  It was a ward but without the tourists it seemed more like a Branch.  It was a great way to start our day--and thank goodness for the headphones/translator.  I have a nephew serving a mission right now in the Rome, Italy mission.  He was recently transferred to Sicily but we asked about him anyways--since he was in Rome for 2 transfers.  One of the elders--Elder Garrity--(who spoke in church today) turned out to be an old companion of his so we had to get a picture with him to send to Elder Knoop.

Elder Garrity & Max

    

    Then we headed out to the Colosseum and Roman Forum.  Construction on this began in 69-79 AD and is the largest ancient amphitheater ever built.  INCREDIBLE!  In its prime, it held up to 80,000 people.  It was really cool to walk around this place trying to imagine what it would have been like to attend an event here.

Arch of Constantine:

    This arch was erected in 315 AD in commemoration of the victory of Constantine I.  It is located between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill.

Palatine Hill:

    This is one of seven hills in Rome.  It is the centermost hill and is one of the most ancient parts of the city.  There is a museum here that has many finds from the excavations done here.

    

Roman Forum:

    The Roman Forum is even OLDER than the Colosseum.  For centuries the Forum was the center of day-to-day life in Rome.  It has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world and in all history.  It was founded in the 8th century BC and used through AD 608--then abandoned after that.  The buildings are just in fragments now but still really cool to see.

    We ate at a little Italian restaurant for our last dinner in Rome.  Max discovered how much he loves mussels--we had them every night we were in Rome. 

Max showing his "mussels" while
eating "mussels."

    So we came and we conquered France & Italy!  We were gone a total of 13 days--3 of those days were spent in travel to and from the U.S. and 1 day on a train from France to Italy.  In 10 days, we walked just over 70 miles and climbed 205 floors--on our Eiffel Tower day we walked 10.7 miles and climbed 63 floors😅!  We were throughly exhausted and ready to come home.  How blessed we were this week with ON TIME planes in BOTH directions AND with the COVID restrictions being lifted a day before we headed home--just gave us time to go to church rather than hunting down a qualified testing center.  We had such a great one-on-one time with Max.  I can't believe he's about to start his Senior year.  So glad we were able to take this trip with him.  Fantastic memories made for sure.💕

Italy: Florence & Pisa

    Done with the work part of the trip (for Chris) and off to our part of the trip...ITALY!!!  We hopped on a train in Paris.  It was a 6.5 hour train ride to Florence from Paris.  The train was an AWESOME way to go.  We had Wi-Fi/movies/food carts, etc...It was also really nice to have to just sit and not worry about groups/directions/traffic.  And we past through some of the most gorgeous countryside and the Alps so I would highly recommend a train over a plane any day.  I was on a constant look-out for castle/fortresses on mountain tops--there seemed to be one on every other mountain top.  The only thing I wished I had was binoculars!  But since we had Wi-Fi, I was able to Google a few of the fortresses.  We found a couple that are abandoned and so it's now our joke that we will buy one for our retirement home someday😂 

    We arrived in Florence (aka "Firenze") and checked into our apartment.  Then headed out to see the sites of the city.  This is EXACTLY what I picture when I think of Italy--small/winding/cobblestone roads and brightly painted buildings, & of course..the cutest little old man playing accordion!!!

    For our only full day in Florence, we decided to take a quick day trip out to Pisa to see the tower.  The trains in Italy are AWESOME!  It was a quick 1 hour 10 minute train ride (only 9 Euros each) to Pisa and the trains come/go every 30 minutes or so.  We were NOT disappointed--this place was SO MUCH FUN!!!  It was a short walk from the train stop to the tower.  I thought the walk would be longer but we rounded a corner and BAM!  The tower was right there!!!  INCREDIBLE!!!  I of course read up on the history--the builders noticed the ground shifting after completing the 3rd floor (5 years into the project by this point).  The ground shifted because it is largely made up of sand and sea shells.  So instead of starting over, they continued building out the last 5 floors (8 floors total) but made sure to keep the center of gravity of the building exactly centered.  This is why the building still stands today--perfectly centered gravity.  So lazy or genius???  I can't decide😂. It is quite a site to behold!  We of course had to do the dumb tourist poses.

"Fallen Angel" statue

Duomo at Pisa

Pizza in Pisa!

    

    After our day trip to Pisa, we had to visit the most famous statue in Florence--the original MichaelAngelo DAVID in the Accademia Gallery!!!  We waited 45 minutes in line (because we didn't buy advanced tickets) but it was totally worth it!  AMAZING!

Beautiful ceiling in the Gallery

Dinner at Hard Rock Cafe

    

    The next morning we headed back to the train station to go to our final destination--Rome!  They cover the train station walls with large pieces of paper for people to graffiti on--since they're going to anyways.  So here was Max's scribbles: