Il nostros ultimo giorno

We got out the door by 8:00 for our last day of our European vacation. We decided to tackle some Italian food must haves - starting with this Maritozzi. It wasn’t as sweet as an American pastry, but it was soft and the cream was rich and good. 

We’d heard all about the Spanish Steps being a must see, so we headed that direction. The Spanish government bought this land for their embassy and brought a huge Spanish influence to this area. 

Also swanky stores like Prada, Ballenciaga, Chanel… the girls wanted to go in one, but I don’t like the feel of those stores. Even if I wanted to buy something (which I don’t) I don’t like the judgeyness I feel at places like that. 

It really is an adorable part of town though!

The Spanish steps! And touring early is the way to go when the high is 40°C like it was this day. 



From the top!

And also, selfies and shadows, and lots of heads, and backgrounds are hard!

Third times the charm. 

Matt had booked a tour to see the Capuchin monks tombs at 10, so we meandered and I thought it was cool that when I looked at my map we were right smack in the middle of Rome. 

This is some sort of Swedish school and so so beautiful!

We swung by the American embassy, and I wish I understood all the rules for these. We were like, can we go in? We didn’t even try, but we thought about it. 

The Tombs were wild. First we lined up outside the museum and met a very young nun from Detroit, Sister Maria something. She is keeping their mother nun company while the other sisters are out training, and then in August she’ll go to Baton Rouge to teach school. Matt talked to her about serving with catholic charities as a missionary in Spain and she told us one of the sisters has a lot of friends that are members of our church and they helped the nuns move furniture. We often joke about moving help, but how many unspoken testimonies are born by helping others move furniture they couldn’t move themselves. I think a lot. Anyways, she was very friendly and we love meeting saints of other religions. 

So inside the museum we got headphones and it was like a young monk explaining to an older gentleman all about capuchin monks and their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience (all very familiar), about their cloaks and vestments they wear, about famous sainted monks, and finally, about the tombs. 

They’re not 100% sure, but the story I liked best is that the monks came to Italy to escape religious persecution after Constantine made Christianity legal in Italy and while hiding out, one of the very artistic monks started creating designs with the bones of deceased monks. Because they are buried in holy dirt from Jerusalem, but they don’t have enough for everyone, so they bury them, then dig them up to give others a turn at being buried in the holy ground. Anyway, there were 6 rooms and they are very ornate and it is beautiful in a macabre way. But they really emphasized that death is just the doorway to eternal life and one we must all go through and there is beauty in it. There were no pictures allowed, so I grabbed these off the interwebs. 

After that, Adi had found an orange park with an amazing city view, so she lead us there, up the cobblestone streets. 

Dads are so funny. Delaney came around and Matt said “D, will you please step out of our picture?” And of course I was like, no way, we want our baby bug in our picture! So there she is. 😍

The orange park was cool. Except there was a musician playing music, and I was very careful to remind the girls not to take pictures because we weren’t going to leave money, but both times we walked past he made a weird honking noise with his instrument. The second time as we were leaving it was long and obnoxious and I’m still scratching my head about why he didn’t like us and singled us out.

We are a delightful crew. 🤷‍♀️🤣

The lookout was beautiful.

Rome is a truly incredible city. 

I was actually really worried because everyone but everyone warns about pickpockets in Rome. And the only time my dad ever had anything stolen while we lived in Germany was in Rome. But I can officially say now that we managed 3 days with subway rides and lots of walking and no problems at all. 🎉 



We were all starving by this point, so we bussed to another part of the city we’d heard a lot about - Trastevere. Off my selfie game at lunch.

We continued our food tour by trying several of the dishes on the “Must Eat in Rome” list: Neither Frankie or Delaney liked their dishes, so Matt and I traded with them, because sometimes food touring is hard. 

Pasta alla carbonara✅

Fiori di zucca✅

Trapizzino 

Tiramisu

Filetto di baccalà - fish

Cacio e pepe✅

Porchetta✅

Supplì ✅

Bucatini all’amatriciana✅

Gelato✅

Carciofi alla Romana

Maritozzi✅

We walked around some there and had to finish our afternoon off with some gelato. I got an orange chocolate flavor I’m still thinking about, and the waffle cone was good, but Lolla’s was still the best. 

Matt and I were feeling nostalgic for our trip before it was even over and he said how he’d like to freeze this moment with he and I in the reflection and the girls still little and in front of us. And I gotta get a picture or I won’t remember. 

We headed back to the Soul of Rome (our Airbnb) and refreshed and changed because we had a 5:00 appt at this beauty!

She is *so* beautiful. 

This was the perfect culmination of our trip. 

We got there early and walked all around the visitor center and then Matt and I went in to see if we could spend a few minutes in the celestial room. 

We met Sis. Lewis from Utah and she let us know that their temple president has asked that people do an ordinance first and then can look around. I understand that, truly I do, and I also know that every temple is sacred and it doesn’t matter which one we worship in. And also, we feel right now that any chance we can have the girls worshipping in the temple, we want to take, so it’s more important to be with them in the baptistery than on our own. Any my natural man has a natural curiosity and I love seeing new temples. Like love love. We chatted some more and she suggested that she must us in the baptistery with white clothes and because that is an ordinance, that she would show us around after. Made my day!

It’s not lost on me that when we travel, temple workers time and again have gone out of their way to serve us and welcome us and love us. And then when it’s time to say goodbye, everyone’s heart is full and they always thank us for making the temple a priority and we always thank them for giving of their time. In the Lords economy, the served and server are filled and it’s so beautiful. 

Where prophets have stood. 

We met 3 youth who live in a branch in Saudi Arabia - a brother and sister from Venezuela and a young man from Texas, and when I asked how big their branch was they said it was just their two families. 😳 They had both done other trips, but then met up at the temple for a few days. Another young man was from Venice and 100 youth from his stake had made the 5 hour drive down on Monday and had spent several days in the temple, then his family had come for the weekend. I talked to his mom and found out he is their oldest, so they were taking turns with the younger kids. 

Then some sister missionaries showed up with some new converts, that just happened to speak Spanish and so Matt was able to baptize the boy who was a new priest, and kind of talk him through him performing baptisms for the first time. The priest was able to baptize the young woman new convert, and then Matt was able to perform her confirmations, and Sister Lewis said when she heard Matt speak Spanish she was so excited to be able to do everything in her own language. We marveled together at the Lords hand in everything that we do. He is so good. 

Sis. Lewis walked us all around the temple and showed us the olive motif and the beautiful artwork. The temple is shaped like an olive, and so is the baptismal font, and then the tile is blue like the Mediterranean Sea. The stained glass has olive branches, the banisters,, the lights. She also showed us the ceiling design fashioned after a Basilica Michelangelo had painted, and it has 12 points symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel, and then the olive shaped chandelier representing our savior, and the lines are all intertwined, because we all need each other, but we always point to the savior. It was so beautiful and perfect and just the best night. 

And then when we were done we had the most beautiful sunset and took turns taking pictures for other families there. 

Adi offered to get one of Matt and I, and she grabbed one as we headed up. 

So happy. 

It has been the best few weeks. What a gift and a blessing for our family. 

The church transplanted several ancient olive trees, and then some not ancient, but we think this is one of the oldies. They process the olives and use the olive oil in the temple. 

There was lavender growing all around - my favorite and we literally had to drag ourselves away because we could take pictures there all day. 

But everyone was hungry and I also wanted to catch a street vendor with cute and cheap clothes that had been outside our apartment every day. Except this day! Sad to have missed it, I love cheap clothes. 

We found a little pizzeria and spent €13 for a meter long margarita pizza and some steeet food to check off our Rome food list. 

Then right next door was a little market where we bought a whole bag of fresh bread for €1 and fantas and cookies for dessert. 

After dinner everyone showered and packed and double checked and planned timing and made sure we knew where to drop our rental. Matt and I laid down for a nap at midnight and our alarm went off at 2am for our 5:55 flight. The girls didn’t go to bed much earlier than we did, and Adi calculated a 20 hour travel day for us. (We’re halfway through as I write, and I can confirm that we’re all v v tired)