The Trip of a Lifetime - It began in Rome

 Our adventure began on October 28, 2016 with a flight to Detroit.  From there, we took an all nighter flight to Rome and arrived about 8:30 a.m.  We picked up our luggage and headed for the rental car office which was fortunately in the airport.  We met our friends, Shawn and Larry Hogge, at the rental car office as they had arrived about an hour earlier.  We were very grateful to have the "Here Now" app on our phone as the rental offices don't seem to have maps anymore.  We were on our own in the famous city of Rome.
We drove hotel to drop off our bags.  They allowed us to check in which was wonderful and then we bought tickets for a shuttle to take us to the middle of town next to Vatican City.  The above photo was taken outside of Vatican City.  There we were hustled by various tour vendors offering to take us into Vatican City, etc.  for a fee of course.  The lines to buy tickets and enter Vatican City were long.  We opted to start walking to see how many of the sites we could see on our own during our one day in the city.

 This gate was kind of like a back door that allowed us to get into the plaza where the people gather when the Pope comes out to talk or bless them.  We were able to see the outside of St. Peters' Basilica and the balcony where the Pope comes out.  We also saw the long lines of people waiting to get inside.  Vatican City is a very popular place.  Maybe we will catch more of it another time.

 There was so much to see that we walked on...and on...and on.

 We stopped a couple of times to enjoy a refreshing gelato.  We loved them, especially the coconut favor.

 The squares, fountains, sculptures, churches and artwork were truly amazing.

 Here we are in front of the Parthenon.  We walked through the city and saw ancient structures and climbed a lot of stairs at the top of which were more gorgeous churches, statues and plazas.

 The ruins of the ancient city were especially intriguing.  It was awesome to think that we walked where the Apostle Paul had walked.  Below Shawn and I are standing in front of a chapel built over the place where Paul was in prison.  For a fee, they allow you to look in the dungeon.  We just saw the outside.

 It was late afternoon by the time we reached the colosseum.  Once again there were long lines to purchase tickets and go inside.  We still had lots of things we wanted to see, so we just walked around the outside and looked through gates.

 Steve is always intrigued when he sees heavy construction equipment--especially Case brand.  We made it to Tivoli fountain just as the sun was setting.  It was gorgeous.

 Steve and Larry loved this hand carved wooden motorcycle at the entrance to a store full of beautifully carved wood items.  We missed our shuttle appointment back to the hotel, but were finally able to catch a bus that took us back to our hotel.  Steve's pedometer registered about 28,000 steps that day in Rome.  We were tired!

 The next morning, our plan was to attend an LDS sacrament meeting that we figured was about 15 minutes away.  We found the building about 40 minutes prior to church time so we went looking for some breakfast.  We found a McDonald's and thought we could get an egg McMuffin and be quickly on our way.  Wrong assumption.  We had to wait in a long, slow moving latte and capuccino line with one person making specialty coffee drinks and serving pastries.  They weren't taking orders at any other station.  A half an hour later, we were finally able to order our mcmuffins.  No one else was ordering them.  We made it to church late but they were just singing the opening song.  That surprised us.  We found out that they had to start late because the earthquake we felt that morning had resulted in the underground metro being closed down.  I forgot to mention that while we were getting ready for church, we felt a pretty strong earthquake.  It was about 70 miles away.

 Most of the sacrament meeting was conducted in Italian and they had headphones for translation.  My headphone didn't work but I was still enjoying the spirit of the meeting.  Then a speaker stood up and spoke in English with an Italian translator.  He was Elder Matthieu Bennasar, a seventy from Paris, France and his talk was translated by a member of the bishopric.  It was an awesome experience to visit a sacrament meeting in Italy and hear from a general authority.
After sacrament meeting, we were greeted by several missionaries, including these cute sisters and an Elder from Minnesota who was very friendly and helpful.  They encouraged us to drive by the temple and since we had a rental car, that was our plan.

 The temple was surrounded by a high metal wall.  Our friend, Larry, climbed up on top of the car to take pictures for his son-in-law who had served his mission in Italy.  After we drove around the temple, we went to a mall across the highway to get a charger for my computer.  We were able to take the best pictures from the upper level of that mall.  I hope that we will be able to see this temple when it is complete.  It will be surrounded by a chapel, a visitor's center and other needed church facilities.

 Then we had to drive about 1 1/2 hours to Civitavecchia where the ship was docked.  We tried to fill the gas tank but the self-pump wasn't working right.  Several kind people tried to assist us.  We lost money in the process and had to turn in the car without a full tank. That was a bit stressful. The rental car instructions said that the port was a 6 minute walk from the drop off.  That information wasn't accurate at all.  Steve dropped us off at the port and then took the rental car back.  He had a challenge to park the car and catch a cab back to the port.  He arrived with about 10 minutes to spare for the check-in window.  It was stressful for a few minutes but once we were onboard, we had time to relax before the ship departed.  We were still happy that we had been able to see the Rome temple so the rental car hassle was worth it.

 This was another cruise ship that tagged around us for the next few ports of call.  They are beautiful at night.  Our cruise began the evening of Oct. 30th.