What do you do when you are 7 months pregnant? Why take another trip half way around the world. Ha, the plane ride was rough, but the chance to go back to Italy again was priceless. Kyle and I had the opportunity to go back and see the Rome temple completed and attend the open house. A life long dream, especially for Kyle. Thanks to grandma Kaye who agreed to watch our kids so we could actually go on such an amazing trip, we created memories to last more than a lifetime.
Like always, as soon as we arrived we hit the ground running. We attended the Rome temple open house on our first day, and continued to do some more sightseeing in our favorite city. While attending the open house we were able to meet up with Kyle's convert from his mission. She isn't active right now in the church but getting to see Kyle reconnect with Fiametta confirmed that Kyle truly was an outstanding missionary when he served in Italy all those years ago. He truly loved the people, embraced their way of life, culture, and language. Despite the challenges that come from serving a mission in a heavily influenced Catholic country, I know that Kyle was able to share the Lord's love to the Italian people.
I will always remember sitting by their fire place, trying to communicate with momma Carla, watching Kyle walk their dog Bruce, and shopping with Ludavicca. This time around we got to meet Eros' girlfriend, and she was such a delight. Hopefully we can return again soon and bring the kids for them to meet the Carta family.
Off to Napoli for the day and then on to Salerno where we met up with our friends Digby and Marie Long. We met them back on our Asian cruise and have kept in touch with them ever since. They have been such a wonderful couple to get to know and the fact that they flew into Italy from England to see us was such a treat.
We enjoyed sightseeing around the city, and taking in all the sights, smells, and sounds. We would always end the evening at a delicous restaurant to try a famous dish from the area.
We went back into Napoli for the day to see the underground tunnels from WWII and Roman artifacts, but the real highlight was getting to see a Napoli soccer game in Napoli. This has been a dream of Kyle's and I am so glad he was able to go. I on the other hand sat right in front of a fan who seemed to smoke an entire pack during the game. So between coughing, gaging, and trying to breathe the entire game from second hand smoke I survived... barely.
We ended our trip back in Rome where we had to do the "big ticket" stops such as the Colosseum, Roman forum, Spanish steps, and Trevi fountain. Kyle even got to stop at his favorite little tie shop that is still there from his mission ran by the same little old man. I enjoyed attending the prison where the apostle Paul was contained and reading about the history behind that.
Our final stop was the Vatican. We love attending the Vatican museum to see all the art artifacts and getting a tour guide really helps to bring it all to life. I can't help but laugh that the last time Kyle and I were in the Vatican I got super sick and puked all over the beautiful historical mosaic tile floor. Thankfully that experience did not happen again. Besides some pain from walking around all day while being pregnant, it was a wonderful experience this time around.
Now it is time for us to return to our kids and for me to have another one. I am so grateful for our chance to get away one last time together before life gets crazy with FOUR kids! I guess this was our last "baby moon" as we now hunker down and prepare to welcome our last baby to our family.
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