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.💕