Italy: Venice - Florence - Rome

In the middle of March, my two sisters, Lana & Trudy came to visit!  We were excited to show them around some of our favorite mission tourist sites as well as visit our branch and interact with the members and missionaries.  We were so happy they could come.  Most of the sites we took them to I have already posted about so I won't repeat them but we received special permission to leave the mission and take them to the Rome Airport for their flight home.

We left on a Sunday afternoon and drove straight to Venice, Italy.







The city of Venice began around 400 A.D. when the first people began filling the Lagoon with rocks and soil to build a safe place to escape to when attacked from the main land.  For centuries these people had enjoyed prosperous lives along the mainland, but with the collapse of the Roman Empire barbarians swept down from the north and their communities were thrown into chaos.

About 450 A.D. a large number of them decided to settle permanently in the lagoon. Venice eventually became a financial success where merchants set up storage rooms with large palaces above to house their incoming goods and entertain their families and friends.  Large merchant ships sailed in laden with rich cargo.

Now most goods are delivered by UPS on their very own water cargo boat.


There are over 400 bridges in Venice, but only about 4-5 cover across the Grand Canal.

Today the city is mainly for tourists and the city is sinking at a slow rate of 2 mm a year.  Often at high water, parts of the city are flooded for a period of time.  We were told that a lot of the citizens of Venice are moving out, because of the difficulties of getting around and the lack of space to raise a family.  Soon it will truly be "just for tourists"!





We did have dinner at a restaurant along the Grand Canal, rode the water bus, visited the glass blowing factory for Murano Glass, and walked many of the small narrow streets of Venice.  What a fun day!
























Next day on to Florence, Italy where a three hour stop over took us on a tour of Accademia Gallery, with a history lesson on how the Renaissance began.  The Gallery hosts many famous statues as well as art and artifacts but the most famous must be Michelangeo's Statue of David.






Michelangelo was only 26 years old when he was commissioned by the Cathedral Works Committee to sculpt a large scale statue of David, the Biblical hero, in 1501. They gave him a leftover single and neglected marble block from Carrara mountain quarries in Tuscany, Italy. It took him three years working mostly in secret before he presented it to the committee, who then felt it was too large (17 feet) to display in the cathedral where it would be too high for anyone to see, so they put it in the town square.  The original now rests in the Gallery.

Leaving Florence amid slow moving, heavy traffic, we finally reach the freeway and sailed smoothing towards our next stop.  On the north east side of Rome, rest the beautiful construction site for the LDS Rome Temple

We were pretty excited to turn off the freeway, roll underneath a small bridge and curl around the corner to this beautiful sight.  The Rome temple was announced nearly 10 years ago and construction problems and labor issues have plagued it along the way.








It is almost finished and we were hoping they would allow us to at least walk on the grounds but no go.  Lana even flirted with the security guard, but to no avail.  NO ONE IS ALLOW, was strictly enforced.  We were excited to hear, on our way home, that Church Headquarters announced it would be opening next year, in January 2019.  Definitely a return trip could be in order!




One our way to Rome, Italy...

Back in the car, and a short 20 minute drive on the freeway we found our hotel. The La Roccetta B&B, which would be our base for the next three nights.  It was a little difficult to find but well worth the diligence and "recalculating" of the Garmin.  We had wonderful front desk help with our plans for visiting Rome and catching the right train and metro to see all that Rome had to offer.  We had our own personal chef, which took great delight in planning "something special" for us after our exhausting days in the city.

Starting early the next day, with a 10 minute walk to the train station, we changed to the downtown metro system where getting off at our first stop was the Rome Colosseum.

Construction on this amphitheater began in A.D. 72, and it was a marvel of engineering since its enormous weight rested in a swamp on artificial supports. The completed stadium was dedicated by Titus in A.D. 80. Covered with marble, it could hold 80,000 spectators who watched games that nearly rendered extinct many species of animals from the Roman Empire (www.frommers.com)

The Arch of Constantine, stands near the Colosseum and commemorates Roman Emperor Constatine's victory over the Roman tyrant Maxentius in 313 A.D. Spectators would pass through on their way into the colosseum.

Then began a series of ancient ruins, titled Imperial Forums.  The remains of grand buildings and monuments to past Emperors:  Forum of Julius Caesar, Forum of Augustus, Forum of Vespasian, Temple of Venus and Roma.











A quick dash across town brought us to the Fountain of Trevi, and we did the traditional "tossing of coins" in the fountain. Throw one coin over your right shoulder will ensure you return to Rome one day. 







We had purchased a "skip the line" tour for the Vatican but because it was Easter weekend, all lines were terribly long.  It was wall to wall people throughout the tour, which took away some of the fun and grandeur of the Vatican Museum, but we were able to cross that off our list of sites to see.

Too many wonders to talk about here and to much history and art to remember but amazing sites, sounds and memories.

Finishing out the tour with a stop in at St Peter's Basilica, in the Vatican.

Next day our whirlwind three day tour of Italy ended with an early morning car ride the Leonardo da Vinci - Fiumicino Airport where we dropped Lana and Trudy for their long flight home.  Safe Travels!!