As soon as the temple in Rome, Italy was announced by President Monson in the April 2008 General Conference we started thinking about trying to go to Italy for the dedication or the open house. And, every time I ran into another Italian missionary or the topic came up we always asked each other if we were going. The answer was always a strong yes.
As the events approached and the timing of the open house and dedication were announced though, I became less sure. We expected Lane to be in school in March and we really wanted her to come to Italy with us. So, we have planned our family vacation for the summer. Plus, I didn't want to horn in on the dedication and probably take a dedication ticket away from an Italian member.
Last November Michelle Young let me know that she was going for the open house along with Michelle Weaver. Initially, I didn't give it much thought. I had made my plans. But, then it started to ruminate in me and once or twice I mentioned to Lenore that it would be pretty cool to go. I also checked the sign up list for volunteers at the open house and there were quite a few slots still available.
Then Lenore said I ought to look into it more. One thing that changed at work last year was the adoption of an open leave policy. I had been taking about 33-35 days off each year for the last several years or so. But, my pool of collected PTO was diminishing and it looked like I might only have about 25 days in 2019. Still, it is enough. But, might make things a little tight for all of our plans. Thus, the change in policy really helped out for my trip.
So, not 'really' having to worry about time off, one day I decided to do a little internet searching and tentative planning. This was on 3 December. I found a pretty good deal on an airline ticket and it seemed that the prices might not change much before the time I would need to go. The ticket was $700 and Lenore said I ought to take the opportunity. I planned on just being in Rome for 3 days. The travel time was more than that. But, I was only taking 4 days off work and that felt like it wasn't too excessive.
Funny thing, the day after I booked my flight there was a fare available for about $460. Oh well.
Last November Michelle Young let me know that she was going for the open house along with Michelle Weaver. Initially, I didn't give it much thought. I had made my plans. But, then it started to ruminate in me and once or twice I mentioned to Lenore that it would be pretty cool to go. I also checked the sign up list for volunteers at the open house and there were quite a few slots still available.
Then Lenore said I ought to look into it more. One thing that changed at work last year was the adoption of an open leave policy. I had been taking about 33-35 days off each year for the last several years or so. But, my pool of collected PTO was diminishing and it looked like I might only have about 25 days in 2019. Still, it is enough. But, might make things a little tight for all of our plans. Thus, the change in policy really helped out for my trip.
So, not 'really' having to worry about time off, one day I decided to do a little internet searching and tentative planning. This was on 3 December. I found a pretty good deal on an airline ticket and it seemed that the prices might not change much before the time I would need to go. The ticket was $700 and Lenore said I ought to take the opportunity. I planned on just being in Rome for 3 days. The travel time was more than that. But, I was only taking 4 days off work and that felt like it wasn't too excessive.
Funny thing, the day after I booked my flight there was a fare available for about $460. Oh well.
The carriers for the flights were Jet Blue and Aer Lingus with layovers in NYC and Dublin. It was a short layover in New York. But, a 7 hour layover in Dublin. I figured that wasn't really enough time to do anything in Dublin or make it worth leaving the airport and then returning. I probably could have anyway. I was bored out of my mind. That was too much. So, it was a total of 21.5 hours to Rome.
The return trip was a total of 35 hours traveling with layovers of more than 12 hours in Dublin and about 6 in NYC. I think I learned a good lesson and we will be taking quicker, more direct flights this summer. I always fret a little about the travel. But, it really went about as smoothly as I could have wanted.
Our winter had not been much up until the end of January. We might have had one or two good sized snowstorms to that point. The morning of my flight we woke up to 13 inches of snow to shovel, and not just ours but a couple of our neighbors as well. That was kinda tough. I’m glad I didn’t mess up my back.
I arrived in Rome about 7:30pm. The passport control line was quite large and took about 30 minutes. I knew I was going to be tired and had to get up early and work all day. So, even though it was expensive (75 euros, about $85) I opted to take a taxi to my hotel. I could have taken the time to figure out the train, the metro and the buses and would probably have only spent 20 euros. But, it probably would have taken an hour longer.
When I made my plans, I searched for an Airbnb near the Temple. I settled on a hotel, Domus Urbis which was about a mile away. In the end I was thoroughly pleased with my choice. If I had people to share a room with, a BnB would likely have worked out less expensive. But, this place fit the bill quite well.
I traveled light. Just one carry on bag. I did not want to be lugging suitcases and waiting for baggage.
As I entered the lobby of the hotel there was a woman at the counter with her husband. He had turned and was walking roughly in my direction. I knew instantly that they were LDS and there to see the Temple. I introduced myself and we struck up a fast easy friendship. We talked long enough that it sort of interrupted the check in process for both of us. The two guys manning the front desk (one Russian and one Ukrainian, both spoke Italian well) were a little bewildered.
Ken and Stella Bake are from Oceano, California. It's a second marriage for her (widowed) and third for him (widowered). Stella is from Italy and is only a little older than me. I probably would have run into her during my mission if it weren't for the fact that she was already married and moved to the states by then. Both are very friendly and personable. They were volunteering for a good while at the Temple and had just flown in from Frankfurt.
I learned later from Michelle (she had spoken to Stella) that Stella's first husband was struck with an odd illness where he could not sleep and eventually it wore him down to the point he took his life. It was truly sad.
After checking into our rooms we met in the hotel restaurant and had dinner. The restaurant wasn't trying to be fancy. But, it was nice and warm and the food was quite good. Their continental breakfast was ample. For dinner I ordered Carbonara. This is my signature dish. But, I admittedly don't make it right. I have adapted over the years and I put cream (oh horror) in mine. I was excited to try real Roman Carbonara. It was very good. Different enough that it doesn't really compete with mine. I'm going to have to try making it at home. The pancetta which would be used instead of bacon, is a little hard to find. They use two whole eggs and the yolks of 3-4 more. I did not see curdled egg in the dish. The "sauce" relied mainly on the grease of the pancetta or olive oil or both rather than cream. After having this dish I kept thinking about it and couldn't wait to have it again.
The Michelles and Dayna showed up about halfway through the dinner after a day of sightseeing.
I didn't have any bus tickets yet and had to be at the temple early enough that I figured I would probably just walk there the first morning. Although I was planning on buying bus tickets on the way. I thought it would be best to try to buy a three day pass. In retrospect, that was not needed I probably only spent about 10 Euros on tickets for the whole stay. And I gave a couple of tickets away to people who needed them.
Michelle warned me not to miss the turn at Settebagni for the Temple in the morning. She said, "Don't go under the freeway! If you go under the freeway you are going the wrong way."
Well, I went the wrong way. I was concentrating on finding the tobacco shop where I could buy a bus pass. It was on the West side of Via della Bufalotta. I was sure from the description that it would be before Settebagni. I saw the tabacchi and made a beeline for it, not realizing it was AFTER Settebagni. I walked under the freeway and thought, "well, that can't be the freeway." So, I ended up walking at least two miles instead of one. I had dress shoes on and my feet were already killing me before even getting to the Temple.
Later that day I ran into at least two different parties of Temple volunteers who told me they had seen me walking and said to themselves, "He's going the wrong way."
Note to future self and anyone else walking to the Temple from Domus Urbis: don't go the wrong way! Evidently, MANY people have done the same thing.
When I first arrived at the Temple complex, I'm not sure they knew what to do with me. They had me go down to the north guard house to man that because someone was late. I was only there for about 5 minutes when that person arrived. Then they sent me to the security control point/metal detector for all the visitors. Same thing, I was filling in for someone who hadn't arrived yet and they showed up within 10 minutes.
Next stop they sent me down to the parking lot to help direct traffic. This was actually sort of fun. It wasn't terribly busy yet.
The normal official Temple parking lot was closed during the open house. In order to direct everyone through the security control point/metal detectors they had borrowed the parking lot from the sports complex right next door to the southeast. I stood at the entrance and just sort of welcomed people and made sure they followed the traffic pattern they had set up. It was quite fun to greet people and welcome them to the Temple. Many people were quite concerned about being on time for their "appointment" time. I told them not to worry. The reservation system is mainly there to just get an idea of the crowds to expect.
I would often guess if people were Italian speaking or English or,... Many English speakers would express marked relief when I spoke English to them. My overall impression is that possibly as many as half of the visitors were not Italian and then perhaps half of the Italians were possibly not members of the Church. There were obviously a lot of people who came from all over the world and made substantial arrangements to come to the Rome Temple open house.
Originally, the volunteer schedule was set up with three four hour shifts throughout the day. Before I arrived they changed it to six two hour shifts. I'm glad they did. Four hours in any one spot would have been very tiring.
The next shift I was assigned to be "trail sweep" for tours going through the Temple. The Italian term they used was "chiudilinea" (line closer) to make sure no one lags behind or gets lost in the building.
Let me give you some back story: The best "experience" of my mission was finding the family of Roberto Enrico and Angela Giuliano. In our mission it seemed to be a common theme that the most fruitful contact of someone's mission came early on. (That, and the fact that members almost always lived on the top floor of an apartment building without an elevator.) It was about the 11th day into my stay in Italy (20 June 1977) that we knocked on the door of the Giuliano family. The children in the family were Eva, Claudia, and Tito. Angela, Eva, and Claudia remained strong in the Church and their families as well. Claudia had married a man named Enrico Prandini who joined the Church. Claudia passed away several years ago.
Initially, they weren't a standout contact. It took about a month for much to happen. But, then, at that time, during that lesson, I knew that Sister Giuliano had felt the Spirit deeply. I was transferred only a month later. So, I wasn't in Torino when Angela and her three children joined the Church. I didn't get the payoff of seeing them baptized. But, I had the experience of that one lesson, when the Spirit was so strong, to hold onto when I needed strength.
I did get to see Angela, a daughter Eva, and a granddaughter, Erica in 2002 when we visited Italy. Since then I have maintained contact with the family through Facebook and occasional letters and gifts in the mail.
When I made plans to be at the Rome Temple Open House for a couple of days, I contacted Eva and let her know I was coming. Angela is elderly and wouldn't be making the trip down to Rome. But, it just happened to be that most of the rest of the family were planning on attending the Open House during my two days volunteering at the open house. So, I made a mental note to connect with them once I got to Italy.
Things were hectic enough that first day, I had not yet connected with the Giuliano gang. On my first tour as chiudilinea, while waiting for the video presentation and the welcome from the two sister missionaries to begin, I was enjoying looking around the room, taking in the Spirit, and trying to connect with the patrons. It was my first time entering the Temple as well, even as a visitor.
I overheard the tour guide I was paired with introducing herself to the sister missionaries. All I caught of her first name was ?Amy? So I asked her and she corrected me. "No, my name is Noemi." I asked her where she was from, "Como." With anticipation I asked her what her family name was, "Prandini."
I knew who she was by name. I had never met her. She was a grand daughter of my dear Sister Angela Giuliano!
I explained who I was and we rejoiced as we got to know each other. So, my big payoff was being with one of the progeny of my Sister Giuliano as I toured the Temple for the first time. What a thrill!
I saw the rest of the family the next day and we had a great time visiting and taking group pictures. Missionary work in Italy is hard. I spent literally 60 hours a week every week knocking doors with seemingly little to show. It was hard in the 70's. It's hard now. This experience made it all worthwhile. What a tender mercy from the Lord!
The Temple is marvelous. I would have liked it to be a little larger. But, it's essentially the same size as the Draper and Newport Beach Temples. I was particularly interested to see how they managed melding the oval shape with rectangular rooms and doorways. I noted that they did not often take the easy way out with the workmanship. Mostly, they had to make custom moldings and trim to fit the curved with the straight.
I did a couple of other tours during my shift as trail sweep and then they had me ushering inside the Temple. Brother Umberto Simoncini was the director of all things going on inside the Temple. I noticed one tour guide who had a very good manner about him, Ettore Boschi. He was very reverent and mild, especially in the Celestial room. He gave a brief explanation and then invited the patrons to contemplate in silence for a few moments. At that time he bowed he head reverently and set the example. It was very powerful and I am sure that many of the patrons who went through with him felt a very strong spirit.
When I got a break I wanted to get some food and try to buy some bus tickets. I found that it was going to be easiest just to get individual tickets (widely available) as opposed to a three day pass. By now though my feet were killing me from all the walking and standing. I didn't want to walk far. I especially didn't want to get lost and go out of my way. The guard (Giulio) at the north guard shack tried to give me directions to a place nearby. But, I wasn't seeing the place. I think it was inside an office building. I had been instructed how to get to the mall next door. But, it was confusing. Finally, a family from Switzerland (non Italian speaking, father was named Wolfgang) came along and wanted to go the the mall as well. With their encouragement together we figured out how to get to the mall. It was a little strange because at one point it seemed you were going to walk into traffic. The rest of the way was like walking back allies.
The guard, Giulio and I interacted a couple of times and had a couple of nice chats. He was super nice and personable. I didn’t realize till later that he was one of the grounds staff that was contracted and that he was not a member of the Church.
The volunteer gathering area was in the FHC at the visitor's center. I was often there when I wasn't on shift. Lots of people were coming in to see if they could get anywhere with their Family History. So, I found myself filling in and helping out there quite a bit during my off time. I felt bad that we were mainly only able to get them started without really finding anything new about their families that they didn't already know. Sister Vanna Parisi was a big help here.
There was at least one full time missionary couple I was told to look out for while there. On Friday afternoon while busying myself in the FHC. Sister Balzotti approached me and said her good friend Tom Grassley told her to seek me out and call me Q-tip. Actually, I was supposed to divine who her friend was by her using that special moniker. He’s really the only one who called me that much. I found out later that it was Fritz Tessers who had told me to keep an eye out for them. It was Mark Balzotti in the early days of the Italian Mission who had given a Book of Mormon to Cecelia Panebianco (sister of Emma Panebianco from our mission) which led to her family joining the Church. Cecelia is the mother in law of Elder Dini Ciacci who currently is Area Seventy over Italy.
The main visitors center was also a big hang out. I saw Franco Lepore there briefly. But, hardly had a chance to talk. The Rome Mission sister missionaries were “sistering” the premises and made themselves available to answer questions and such. I/we spoke to several of them. I chatted with one girl (Georgia Baielli) who eventually told me enough for me to realize she was the daughter of April Westergaard who I knew in Maryland. That was fun to meet her and make that connection.
The area that included all of the statues was very popular and often crowded. We learned that just a couple of days before we arrived, a rambunctious youth had broken James’ staff and they had to arrange and figure out how to repair it overnight. The repair went well enough. The crack was really only visible if you knew to look for it. They have probably done more since the open houses to make it completely invisible.
I don't remember what my official last shift of the day was supposed to be. But, I decided I needed to take things in my own hands and get off my feet. I knew that Michelle et al were going to be placing shoe covers. So, I went to that station because you sit on a chair while working. I like this activity because you get to purely serve and be in a servile humble attitude toward the patrons the entire time. You could tell some of the people weren't exactly comfortable with having someone put shoe covers on for them, for various reasons. It can be interpreted as a somewhat intimate act. I think that is one of the reasons the Savior washed the feet of his apostles. One of the couples we worked with was from Uruguay and only spoke "Spanish". I finally had to tell myself that the Spanish I was used to was mostly Central American/Mexico filtered. The people at the Temple who spoke Spanish were European or South American and were a lot harder to understand or try to speak with. These guys were not speaking my "Spanish."
Near the end of the shift the leader needed to leave so he mistakenly put me in charge. We were anxious to get out of there and enjoy some rest time. At about 8:15 we started asking the tour guides as they came through if they were the last or if they knew of other groups still gathering in the chapel. I even went and asked people in the chapel a couple of times. At least twice we thought we had finished with the last tour group and starting putting things away and getting ready to leave only to be presented with another group. And then we had to scramble back to operational mode. Thankfully, it was not big disaster.
Michelle had run into sister Pacini (Temple President) earlier in the day and She told Michelle to come by their apartment at the end of the day. I felt kinda like I was imposing and a fifth wheel. But, I couldn't very well just skip out on them either. I had wanted to get that Carbonara again at the hotel. Mind you this was close to 9pm. I think the Pacinis were a little surprised that we all came by en masse. She graciously offered me some of her dinner. But, I didn't want to put them out and I just had some of a hamburger that Michelle Jordan had gotten earlier in the day and not finished.
President and Sister Pacini told us a handful of spiritual experiences people attending the open house had related to them. I guess I was not meant to pass them on because I can only remember a couple with spare details. Suffice it to say that there was an outpouring of the Spirit at these events. Their apartment is quite nice and is sort of the penthouse of the on site housing, corner top floor with a great view of the Temple. It was very nice.
One of the pieces of advice he passed on to us, that somebody had told him, was "let the Temple speak for itself." It was best to allow the reverence and silence to weigh on the visitors. That was good advice and I had already seen it employed well.
President Pacini carries around a temple card to help illustrate the need for Temple proxy work when people ask him. It bears the name of a man from China who lived 1000 years before Christ. Someone like that would never have a chance to hear or receive the Gospel.
Sister Pacini drove us home and I was glad. It was late and I was tired.
I didn't have cell phone service overseas even though I thought I might. Ting tried to fix it for me. But, that didn't work. I was able to call home often anyway whenever I had a wifi connection.
Paul Scherbel had suggested that I wear more comfortable shoes on day two. I only had two pairs. The casual ones are tennis shoes with black canvas upper. I wore them and was glad. My feet were a lot better the second day. I didn't do nearly as much walking and they didn't look too strange with my suit.
On day two they just had me signed up for three shifts. In the morning I greeted people as they finished the stairs coming up from the metal detectors. Sort of their first point of contact on the Temple grounds. Similar to the parking lot the day before, it was very enjoyable to try to be nice and friendly and help people out. I felt like I should engage in some way with each group and each person if possible. It was easy for the patrons to assume they were to enter the Visitor's Center. But, that's where the tour ended. They were supposed to walk to the Stake Center first.
I ran into Eva Giuliano nearly the first thing that morning, when I was actually looking out for Warren Benincosa, one of our JRHIMM missionaries who was back in Rome with his wife teaching the Self Reliance classes.
I took a couple of pictures with Eva and Erica. But, then just a couple of minutes later they all showed up in front of the visitor’s center and we took some nice pictures with the whole group.
It was really fun to see them and greet them all. I later touched base with Eva again on FB and asked her to give my regards to her mother and told how fun/rewarding it was for me to see them all. She replied, “Bellissimo anche per noi e tutto grazie a un giovane coraggioso missionario che รจ venuto in Italia tanti anni fa!” (Beautiful also for us and all thanks to a brave young missionary who came to Italy many years ago!”
Left to right Samuele Leoni, Noemi Prandini, Enrico Prandini, Me, Renzo Cabras, Eva Giuliano, Erica Bruera.
The Schwen family who used to live in our ward came by while I was at this post. Lena served in the Rome Mission.
I also saw Emma Panebianco Urban, who is married to Mark Urban. They were both in our mission. She and her family are some early Italy pioneers. She is the aunt of Elder Dini Ciacci.
I also encountered a large group of tourists who belong to a group that studies other religions. There were at least two groups of priests that I saw, including a group of three very good looking young priests. I later saw them as they were making their way back to their bus to leave. They were all three from the US (Wisconsin, I think) and studying in Rome.
From there I moved to being usher at the front doors of the Temple. The doors are quite large over 1000 lbs each. They don't have a way of keeping them open. That wasn't really the idea anyway. We were just supposed to be there to greet and hold them open for groups as they entered and exited. Sometimes this meant non-stop holding the doors though.
More back story to help you understand this experience: One of my biggest challenges in life is seeing all of my fellow men as Heavenly Father sees them. I wonder at the love the Savior and Our Father have for everyone. It is obvious to me that I need to make great strides in this area. Even in crucial callings I have struggled at times to feel this Love for others.
The symbolism of welcoming people into a sphere of greater glory through the Temple doors was not lost on me. I tried to look into their faces and make eye contact with as many patrons as possible while maintaining reverence. I felt a smiling, greeting "buon giorno" or a "benvenuti", "buona sera" or other friendly words would help convey the Love of our Savior. It was obvious that many non members were there and feeling a Spirit they had never felt. For two hours I was filled with a greater than normal level of Love for my fellow men. It was almost overwhelming. And I was able to glimpse how God feels about his children. Another great gift.
I ran into Ugo Perego while manning the doors. He was leading a tour, I think.
Just a quarter mile down the street from the Temple on Settibagni is a little "Bar" called the Break. I had seen it on my initial walk there and then some of the Volunteers recommended it to me. On Saturday for lunch I walked down there to check it out. I got a slab of pizza and a drink for 4 Euros and sat outside on the patio for lunch. It was very good pizza and I had a nice chat with an older gentleman who somewhat typically proceeded to tell me all of the reasons he is not religious.
I filled in more at the FHC in between shifts on the second day. They really could have used more people able to help out. It seemed there were a lot of Italians wanting to get info on their Ancestry.
My last shift of my whole adventure was to spell one of our IMM Elders, William Lawler down at the main entrance to the Temple grounds parking lot. He told me it was wild. He was covering it with his wife. I was doing it alone. Mind you this was 6:30-8:30pm on Saturday evening. Via dei Settebagni is a fairly important road. Although it is only two lanes. And this was a busy Saturday evening. There was a lot of confusion because some people just naturally thought they would enter the main gate and park in the normal parking lot. Not for the open house. The Church had rented part of a sporting complex right next door to use as a temporary parking lot. This was larger to accommodate the crowds and then they could funnel everyone through the security checkpoint.
Many, many people would attempt to come into the normal parking lot and then be blocking traffic, sometimes both directions while I explained to them that they had to go about 100 yards further down the road. Many many people made u-turns in the middle of the street. I was actually amazed that we didn’t have more yelling and honking. I finally decided that Italians are used to a lower level of order in their community. It was utter mayhem and very laughable. Several people also stopped in the middle of traffic to ask what this was and what was going on. I encouraged them to come to the open house. When this shift was over, I was not sad. One embarrassing note. It was sometime during this shift that I realized my whole time there I had been using the word for sidewalks (pedonali) to refer to pedestrians (pedoni). Oh well. They figured it out despite the kooky American.
Afterward, I told Bill Lawler that he owes me one big time. That was probably a job for at least one native speaker and two non-natives. When I ran into Eric Anderson later at the reunion, he was quite amused when we talked about it. He had done that job with two others.
I found out later that we had about 6300 visitors that Saturday. The entire open house was a total of 19 days. At the All Italian Mission at April Conference after the open house, they told us the total number of visitors was about 55,000.
We made our way by bus back to the hotel where we had dinner and I had my second taste of their Carbonara. Still yummy. There were a couple of other choices that I don’t ever have to have again. Their crostata was a nothing burger and the chicory was bleh.
We took the opportunity during dinner to talk about the great experiences we were having. We also talked a little while about Mel Mascherino. Sort of a tender memorial. He would have so loved to be here for this event. He died four years too early.
We had been told that the local wards were inundated on Sundays with all of the out of town visitors, we were encouraged to attend one of the wards meeting later in the day because they normally had fewer visitors. On Saturday evening they let us know that, to remedy the problem, they had authorized the use of the chapel in the Temple complex to hold a Sacrament meeting especially for all of the volunteers. We were admonished not to spread the word. They wanted it limited to the volunteers.
This worked out very well for us. It was a fairly nice sized meeting and they simply asked a couple of the volunteers to bear their testimonies. Elder Dini Ciacci also spoke.
Immediately afterward they had a private tour for a group of hearing/speaking impaired people.
We took some pictures in the plaza of the whole group and some of the smaller groups of friends. Then we went back inside to change into street clothes and then we walked to the bus stop to go downtown to see a few sights before I had to get to the airport.
When I stopped in New York on the way over to Italy, I forgot my coat in a restroom at JKF airport. I went back to try to find it. But, it was gone. Oh well, I figured I would take some time to buy a replacement in Rome, a keepsake replacement. I had never gotten the time to do any shopping. And while waiting at the bus stop it was a bit chilly. We were joined at the bus stop by a young recently returned missionary sister who helped us some with directions. Then another older gentleman who was one of the volunteers. He introduced himself as Vittorio Salemmi.
I had seen him several times during the two days I was there. The first time, I asked him something in English expecting that IF he was Italian he might still know English. He just stared at me blankly. I knew from then to speak to him in Italian. He was actually on his way home to San Remo, headed to the Termini station to get on his train. So, he had all of his stuff, including a warm sweater and a shell jacket that he was wearing. Seeing me under dressed he offered me his coat. I figured I could borrow it until we parted ways. It was clear pretty quickly that he was not going to allow me to give it back to him.
He was probably in his 80’s and seemed to be in pretty good health. He reminded me of Poppa. It was a struggle for him to manage both his bags. So, I took one bag and we helped him for about an hour as we negotiated the buses and metro to get to Termini and onto the right platform where we said our goodbyes. I was very glad for the coat.
I found the baggage drop at Termini and got rid of my own bag for the afternoon. This is very convenient and only cost 6 Euros. I’m so glad I didn’t have to carry my bag around while sightseeing.
Michelle led the way and armed with a map from Domus Urbis we headed first to the Spanish steps. Very nice, very crowded. Then to the column of the Immaculate Conception, Trevi Fountain (also quite crowded), Piazza Colonna Marcus Aurelius, the Church of Saint Ignatius (quite by accident), the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and finally the Colosseum all in about 3.5 hours.
We were making our way to the Pantheon when we happened upon St. Ignatius. It has an interesting enough facade. So, I stepped back to the other side of the piazza to take a photo. Michelle was reading a placard outside. There was a concert right then in the church. So, we stole inside to get a better view. This is an amazing building. The sound of the choir and orchestra was amazing. I too late turned on my video and only captured a few seconds of the sound before they had a very long break. Will definitely have to show this to the kids.
As we were making our way down one of the little vicolos, I suddenly stopped and looked up at the people walking in the opposite direction. A man in the crowd also stopped and looked at me as if prompted. Our eyes caught each other and I recognized him right away. I pointed at him and said, “you're doing a great job (for Conservatism).” It was Jason Chaffetz. So, we had to stop and briefly chat and take pictures. He was there with his wife and Steven Lund of the YM General Board and his wife. That was pretty fun to have that happen.
The Pantheon is very impressive and piazza Navona is charming. We stepped off the piazza to find some trinkets for gifts and also FINALLY get some gelato!
The one instruction I had from Jensen was, if at all possible, get to the Colosseum and get a picture. I wasn’t sure we were going to have time before my flight out. When we were walking around we passed a building that had a large photo of the Colosseum on the front doors. I had Michelle take a picture of me in front of it in case we didn’t get there. I’m not sure Jensen would have been fooled. But, it was good for a laugh.
I stopped to buy a bus ticket and ask to make sure we knew how to get to the Colosseum. The Venditore indicated which bus to take. We crossed the street and walked quite a ways to get to a bus stop. Shortly, one of the buses came by. It was too crowded to get on. So, we waited for another. That one was crowded too. But, we just stuffed in. I was standing right in front of the validation machine. So, it became my job to validate tickets for those who couldn’t reach.
Michelle had mentioned that the Vittorio Emanuele II monument the “Altare della Patria” was a very impressive sight. We passed by it on this route and yes it is very neat. Going to have to take the family there.
At one point we caught a glimpse of the Colosseum. But, it soon became clear we were not going to stop there. The Bus continued to the end of the line at Termini Station. So we figured out where to go and popped back down into the metro, went a couple of stops and then popped back up out of the ground right in front of the Colosseum. I got a couple of pictures, we went up on top of the nearby cliff to get a better view, and then we said our goodbyes, and I started making my way back to Termini. On the way I bought a very nice watercolor quadro from a street vendor.
I didn’t really have to wait long for the train to Fiumicino airport. Knowing what I know now, I have no qualms about using the public transport rather than taxis when we return in the summer.
One note about the airports: Rome Fiumicino is very elegant. They do have a large duty free area that they funnel you through like arriving at a cruise port. But, the facilities and everything are very nice. JFK isn’t horrible but closer to the other end of the scale in elegance. I especially noticed a big difference in the PA system announcements. At JFK they seemed to be reading from a script and had a hard time pronouncing several names. The PA stuff was definitely amateur hour. The restrooms were just adequate. In Rome the PA system voices were very appealing and had great accents. The restrooms were straight from a design magazine.
Since I had a 12 hour layover in Dublin through the night, I had reserved a room at the Clayton Hotel near the airport. They have a free shuttle to and from the airport. But, it was late and I didn’t want to wait. So, I took a taxi. The Hotel was very nice.
Just a couple of weeks prior to my trip I had read an article online about David and Heather Evertsen who live in Florence. I looked them up on Facebook and we had quite a number of friends in common. So, I friended him. That last day in Italy he sent me a message asking if we had ever met. I wasn’t really in a position to reply most of the day until I got to Dublin. So, I took some time to respond. We started texting back and forth and finally he just called me on the phone. He was presently in Kabul. I think he is a contractor of some kind. We had a very nice conversation for about 45 minutes. So, now I have at least one more new friend from my trip.
His wife had started taking tours to the Carrara marble quarry. His son is learning sculpture. And the whole family had arranged for about 5-6 busloads of non members to go to the Temple open house.
Flying home I know it goes slower because the plane is going against the jet stream. But, it just seemed super slow, perhaps because there is less anticipation about returning home.
When I got back to JFK I first got the lay of the land. I made sure I knew where my gate was. I wanted to see about the cost and availability of the lounge since I had so long to wait. It wasn’t an option. Then I scouted out restaurants because I was going to have a birthday dinner and no one was going to stop me. I selected an Italian themed restaurant and settled in. They had an Osso Buco special that day so I had to get it. In the end it wasn’t as good as it should have been. The Burrata would have been a better choice. I saw it on someone else’s plate and it looked heavenly. I also later got myself a white chocolate Toblerone bar to make up for the last couple of times I have seen them and not gotten one. It was a very common snack for me while at BYU.
I settled at an electronic device charging bar and entertained myself. At one point the guy across from me and down just a ways had a coughing fit. I knew I was going to come down with a cold and sure enough I did. And it was the cold from hell. Also, later in the airport I saw a guy davening and saying his evening prayers roughly about 6pm. It seemed he was trying to be a little subtle about it. But, he had been on the phone and seemed anxious to end the call as if it was getting late for him to start.
All in all with the long flights and time zone change and busy days, I really had no trouble sleeping at night or adjusting from the one schedule to the other and then back again. I relied judiciously on sleeping pills and I’m pretty sure the timing of my evening arrivals both in Rome and Salt Lake helped. It literally was not a problem as it had been in 2002. I was, however awake for a couple of long periods of time. Like more than 25 hours on the way home.
Many of my experiences and the people I ran into during this short and eventful trip seemed familiar, even the lady at the hotel restaurant. I’m pretty sure it was all meant to be and even foreordained. It was quite inspirational and miraculous hearing the stories of the other volunteers. All of them with no prompting (other than the Spirit) stopped everything and made their way to Rome. Some for three months others (like me) just for a day or two. There were Herculean efforts involved. People just showed up and said, “I’m here.” “What do you need me to do?” But, it was glorious and beautiful. Paul Scherbel especially deserves praise. He was one of the early missionaries in Italy. He ended up running the whole volunteer program, probably 12-14 hours daily. Everyone was cordial, gentile, humble, and grateful to be there and help out. It was a true act of ministering. The sentiment was, “This is the day we have been praying and waiting for, let’s rejoice.”
The return trip was a total of 35 hours traveling with layovers of more than 12 hours in Dublin and about 6 in NYC. I think I learned a good lesson and we will be taking quicker, more direct flights this summer. I always fret a little about the travel. But, it really went about as smoothly as I could have wanted.
Our winter had not been much up until the end of January. We might have had one or two good sized snowstorms to that point. The morning of my flight we woke up to 13 inches of snow to shovel, and not just ours but a couple of our neighbors as well. That was kinda tough. I’m glad I didn’t mess up my back.
I arrived in Rome about 7:30pm. The passport control line was quite large and took about 30 minutes. I knew I was going to be tired and had to get up early and work all day. So, even though it was expensive (75 euros, about $85) I opted to take a taxi to my hotel. I could have taken the time to figure out the train, the metro and the buses and would probably have only spent 20 euros. But, it probably would have taken an hour longer.
When I made my plans, I searched for an Airbnb near the Temple. I settled on a hotel, Domus Urbis which was about a mile away. In the end I was thoroughly pleased with my choice. If I had people to share a room with, a BnB would likely have worked out less expensive. But, this place fit the bill quite well.
I traveled light. Just one carry on bag. I did not want to be lugging suitcases and waiting for baggage.
As I entered the lobby of the hotel there was a woman at the counter with her husband. He had turned and was walking roughly in my direction. I knew instantly that they were LDS and there to see the Temple. I introduced myself and we struck up a fast easy friendship. We talked long enough that it sort of interrupted the check in process for both of us. The two guys manning the front desk (one Russian and one Ukrainian, both spoke Italian well) were a little bewildered.
Ken and Stella Bake are from Oceano, California. It's a second marriage for her (widowed) and third for him (widowered). Stella is from Italy and is only a little older than me. I probably would have run into her during my mission if it weren't for the fact that she was already married and moved to the states by then. Both are very friendly and personable. They were volunteering for a good while at the Temple and had just flown in from Frankfurt.
I learned later from Michelle (she had spoken to Stella) that Stella's first husband was struck with an odd illness where he could not sleep and eventually it wore him down to the point he took his life. It was truly sad.
After checking into our rooms we met in the hotel restaurant and had dinner. The restaurant wasn't trying to be fancy. But, it was nice and warm and the food was quite good. Their continental breakfast was ample. For dinner I ordered Carbonara. This is my signature dish. But, I admittedly don't make it right. I have adapted over the years and I put cream (oh horror) in mine. I was excited to try real Roman Carbonara. It was very good. Different enough that it doesn't really compete with mine. I'm going to have to try making it at home. The pancetta which would be used instead of bacon, is a little hard to find. They use two whole eggs and the yolks of 3-4 more. I did not see curdled egg in the dish. The "sauce" relied mainly on the grease of the pancetta or olive oil or both rather than cream. After having this dish I kept thinking about it and couldn't wait to have it again.
The Michelles and Dayna showed up about halfway through the dinner after a day of sightseeing.
I didn't have any bus tickets yet and had to be at the temple early enough that I figured I would probably just walk there the first morning. Although I was planning on buying bus tickets on the way. I thought it would be best to try to buy a three day pass. In retrospect, that was not needed I probably only spent about 10 Euros on tickets for the whole stay. And I gave a couple of tickets away to people who needed them.
Michelle warned me not to miss the turn at Settebagni for the Temple in the morning. She said, "Don't go under the freeway! If you go under the freeway you are going the wrong way."
Well, I went the wrong way. I was concentrating on finding the tobacco shop where I could buy a bus pass. It was on the West side of Via della Bufalotta. I was sure from the description that it would be before Settebagni. I saw the tabacchi and made a beeline for it, not realizing it was AFTER Settebagni. I walked under the freeway and thought, "well, that can't be the freeway." So, I ended up walking at least two miles instead of one. I had dress shoes on and my feet were already killing me before even getting to the Temple.
Later that day I ran into at least two different parties of Temple volunteers who told me they had seen me walking and said to themselves, "He's going the wrong way."
Note to future self and anyone else walking to the Temple from Domus Urbis: don't go the wrong way! Evidently, MANY people have done the same thing.
When I first arrived at the Temple complex, I'm not sure they knew what to do with me. They had me go down to the north guard house to man that because someone was late. I was only there for about 5 minutes when that person arrived. Then they sent me to the security control point/metal detector for all the visitors. Same thing, I was filling in for someone who hadn't arrived yet and they showed up within 10 minutes.
Next stop they sent me down to the parking lot to help direct traffic. This was actually sort of fun. It wasn't terribly busy yet.
The normal official Temple parking lot was closed during the open house. In order to direct everyone through the security control point/metal detectors they had borrowed the parking lot from the sports complex right next door to the southeast. I stood at the entrance and just sort of welcomed people and made sure they followed the traffic pattern they had set up. It was quite fun to greet people and welcome them to the Temple. Many people were quite concerned about being on time for their "appointment" time. I told them not to worry. The reservation system is mainly there to just get an idea of the crowds to expect.
I would often guess if people were Italian speaking or English or,... Many English speakers would express marked relief when I spoke English to them. My overall impression is that possibly as many as half of the visitors were not Italian and then perhaps half of the Italians were possibly not members of the Church. There were obviously a lot of people who came from all over the world and made substantial arrangements to come to the Rome Temple open house.
Originally, the volunteer schedule was set up with three four hour shifts throughout the day. Before I arrived they changed it to six two hour shifts. I'm glad they did. Four hours in any one spot would have been very tiring.
The next shift I was assigned to be "trail sweep" for tours going through the Temple. The Italian term they used was "chiudilinea" (line closer) to make sure no one lags behind or gets lost in the building.
Let me give you some back story: The best "experience" of my mission was finding the family of Roberto Enrico and Angela Giuliano. In our mission it seemed to be a common theme that the most fruitful contact of someone's mission came early on. (That, and the fact that members almost always lived on the top floor of an apartment building without an elevator.) It was about the 11th day into my stay in Italy (20 June 1977) that we knocked on the door of the Giuliano family. The children in the family were Eva, Claudia, and Tito. Angela, Eva, and Claudia remained strong in the Church and their families as well. Claudia had married a man named Enrico Prandini who joined the Church. Claudia passed away several years ago.
Initially, they weren't a standout contact. It took about a month for much to happen. But, then, at that time, during that lesson, I knew that Sister Giuliano had felt the Spirit deeply. I was transferred only a month later. So, I wasn't in Torino when Angela and her three children joined the Church. I didn't get the payoff of seeing them baptized. But, I had the experience of that one lesson, when the Spirit was so strong, to hold onto when I needed strength.
I did get to see Angela, a daughter Eva, and a granddaughter, Erica in 2002 when we visited Italy. Since then I have maintained contact with the family through Facebook and occasional letters and gifts in the mail.
When I made plans to be at the Rome Temple Open House for a couple of days, I contacted Eva and let her know I was coming. Angela is elderly and wouldn't be making the trip down to Rome. But, it just happened to be that most of the rest of the family were planning on attending the Open House during my two days volunteering at the open house. So, I made a mental note to connect with them once I got to Italy.
Things were hectic enough that first day, I had not yet connected with the Giuliano gang. On my first tour as chiudilinea, while waiting for the video presentation and the welcome from the two sister missionaries to begin, I was enjoying looking around the room, taking in the Spirit, and trying to connect with the patrons. It was my first time entering the Temple as well, even as a visitor.
I overheard the tour guide I was paired with introducing herself to the sister missionaries. All I caught of her first name was ?Amy? So I asked her and she corrected me. "No, my name is Noemi." I asked her where she was from, "Como." With anticipation I asked her what her family name was, "Prandini."
I knew who she was by name. I had never met her. She was a grand daughter of my dear Sister Angela Giuliano!
I explained who I was and we rejoiced as we got to know each other. So, my big payoff was being with one of the progeny of my Sister Giuliano as I toured the Temple for the first time. What a thrill!
I saw the rest of the family the next day and we had a great time visiting and taking group pictures. Missionary work in Italy is hard. I spent literally 60 hours a week every week knocking doors with seemingly little to show. It was hard in the 70's. It's hard now. This experience made it all worthwhile. What a tender mercy from the Lord!
The Temple is marvelous. I would have liked it to be a little larger. But, it's essentially the same size as the Draper and Newport Beach Temples. I was particularly interested to see how they managed melding the oval shape with rectangular rooms and doorways. I noted that they did not often take the easy way out with the workmanship. Mostly, they had to make custom moldings and trim to fit the curved with the straight.
I did a couple of other tours during my shift as trail sweep and then they had me ushering inside the Temple. Brother Umberto Simoncini was the director of all things going on inside the Temple. I noticed one tour guide who had a very good manner about him, Ettore Boschi. He was very reverent and mild, especially in the Celestial room. He gave a brief explanation and then invited the patrons to contemplate in silence for a few moments. At that time he bowed he head reverently and set the example. It was very powerful and I am sure that many of the patrons who went through with him felt a very strong spirit.
When I got a break I wanted to get some food and try to buy some bus tickets. I found that it was going to be easiest just to get individual tickets (widely available) as opposed to a three day pass. By now though my feet were killing me from all the walking and standing. I didn't want to walk far. I especially didn't want to get lost and go out of my way. The guard (Giulio) at the north guard shack tried to give me directions to a place nearby. But, I wasn't seeing the place. I think it was inside an office building. I had been instructed how to get to the mall next door. But, it was confusing. Finally, a family from Switzerland (non Italian speaking, father was named Wolfgang) came along and wanted to go the the mall as well. With their encouragement together we figured out how to get to the mall. It was a little strange because at one point it seemed you were going to walk into traffic. The rest of the way was like walking back allies.
The guard, Giulio and I interacted a couple of times and had a couple of nice chats. He was super nice and personable. I didn’t realize till later that he was one of the grounds staff that was contracted and that he was not a member of the Church.
The volunteer gathering area was in the FHC at the visitor's center. I was often there when I wasn't on shift. Lots of people were coming in to see if they could get anywhere with their Family History. So, I found myself filling in and helping out there quite a bit during my off time. I felt bad that we were mainly only able to get them started without really finding anything new about their families that they didn't already know. Sister Vanna Parisi was a big help here.
There was at least one full time missionary couple I was told to look out for while there. On Friday afternoon while busying myself in the FHC. Sister Balzotti approached me and said her good friend Tom Grassley told her to seek me out and call me Q-tip. Actually, I was supposed to divine who her friend was by her using that special moniker. He’s really the only one who called me that much. I found out later that it was Fritz Tessers who had told me to keep an eye out for them. It was Mark Balzotti in the early days of the Italian Mission who had given a Book of Mormon to Cecelia Panebianco (sister of Emma Panebianco from our mission) which led to her family joining the Church. Cecelia is the mother in law of Elder Dini Ciacci who currently is Area Seventy over Italy.
The main visitors center was also a big hang out. I saw Franco Lepore there briefly. But, hardly had a chance to talk. The Rome Mission sister missionaries were “sistering” the premises and made themselves available to answer questions and such. I/we spoke to several of them. I chatted with one girl (Georgia Baielli) who eventually told me enough for me to realize she was the daughter of April Westergaard who I knew in Maryland. That was fun to meet her and make that connection.
The area that included all of the statues was very popular and often crowded. We learned that just a couple of days before we arrived, a rambunctious youth had broken James’ staff and they had to arrange and figure out how to repair it overnight. The repair went well enough. The crack was really only visible if you knew to look for it. They have probably done more since the open houses to make it completely invisible.
I don't remember what my official last shift of the day was supposed to be. But, I decided I needed to take things in my own hands and get off my feet. I knew that Michelle et al were going to be placing shoe covers. So, I went to that station because you sit on a chair while working. I like this activity because you get to purely serve and be in a servile humble attitude toward the patrons the entire time. You could tell some of the people weren't exactly comfortable with having someone put shoe covers on for them, for various reasons. It can be interpreted as a somewhat intimate act. I think that is one of the reasons the Savior washed the feet of his apostles. One of the couples we worked with was from Uruguay and only spoke "Spanish". I finally had to tell myself that the Spanish I was used to was mostly Central American/Mexico filtered. The people at the Temple who spoke Spanish were European or South American and were a lot harder to understand or try to speak with. These guys were not speaking my "Spanish."
Near the end of the shift the leader needed to leave so he mistakenly put me in charge. We were anxious to get out of there and enjoy some rest time. At about 8:15 we started asking the tour guides as they came through if they were the last or if they knew of other groups still gathering in the chapel. I even went and asked people in the chapel a couple of times. At least twice we thought we had finished with the last tour group and starting putting things away and getting ready to leave only to be presented with another group. And then we had to scramble back to operational mode. Thankfully, it was not big disaster.
Michelle had run into sister Pacini (Temple President) earlier in the day and She told Michelle to come by their apartment at the end of the day. I felt kinda like I was imposing and a fifth wheel. But, I couldn't very well just skip out on them either. I had wanted to get that Carbonara again at the hotel. Mind you this was close to 9pm. I think the Pacinis were a little surprised that we all came by en masse. She graciously offered me some of her dinner. But, I didn't want to put them out and I just had some of a hamburger that Michelle Jordan had gotten earlier in the day and not finished.
President and Sister Pacini told us a handful of spiritual experiences people attending the open house had related to them. I guess I was not meant to pass them on because I can only remember a couple with spare details. Suffice it to say that there was an outpouring of the Spirit at these events. Their apartment is quite nice and is sort of the penthouse of the on site housing, corner top floor with a great view of the Temple. It was very nice.
One of the pieces of advice he passed on to us, that somebody had told him, was "let the Temple speak for itself." It was best to allow the reverence and silence to weigh on the visitors. That was good advice and I had already seen it employed well.
President Pacini carries around a temple card to help illustrate the need for Temple proxy work when people ask him. It bears the name of a man from China who lived 1000 years before Christ. Someone like that would never have a chance to hear or receive the Gospel.
Sister Pacini drove us home and I was glad. It was late and I was tired.
I didn't have cell phone service overseas even though I thought I might. Ting tried to fix it for me. But, that didn't work. I was able to call home often anyway whenever I had a wifi connection.
Paul Scherbel had suggested that I wear more comfortable shoes on day two. I only had two pairs. The casual ones are tennis shoes with black canvas upper. I wore them and was glad. My feet were a lot better the second day. I didn't do nearly as much walking and they didn't look too strange with my suit.
On day two they just had me signed up for three shifts. In the morning I greeted people as they finished the stairs coming up from the metal detectors. Sort of their first point of contact on the Temple grounds. Similar to the parking lot the day before, it was very enjoyable to try to be nice and friendly and help people out. I felt like I should engage in some way with each group and each person if possible. It was easy for the patrons to assume they were to enter the Visitor's Center. But, that's where the tour ended. They were supposed to walk to the Stake Center first.
I ran into Eva Giuliano nearly the first thing that morning, when I was actually looking out for Warren Benincosa, one of our JRHIMM missionaries who was back in Rome with his wife teaching the Self Reliance classes.
I took a couple of pictures with Eva and Erica. But, then just a couple of minutes later they all showed up in front of the visitor’s center and we took some nice pictures with the whole group.
It was really fun to see them and greet them all. I later touched base with Eva again on FB and asked her to give my regards to her mother and told how fun/rewarding it was for me to see them all. She replied, “Bellissimo anche per noi e tutto grazie a un giovane coraggioso missionario che รจ venuto in Italia tanti anni fa!” (Beautiful also for us and all thanks to a brave young missionary who came to Italy many years ago!”
Left to right Samuele Leoni, Noemi Prandini, Enrico Prandini, Me, Renzo Cabras, Eva Giuliano, Erica Bruera.
The Schwen family who used to live in our ward came by while I was at this post. Lena served in the Rome Mission.
I also saw Emma Panebianco Urban, who is married to Mark Urban. They were both in our mission. She and her family are some early Italy pioneers. She is the aunt of Elder Dini Ciacci.
I also encountered a large group of tourists who belong to a group that studies other religions. There were at least two groups of priests that I saw, including a group of three very good looking young priests. I later saw them as they were making their way back to their bus to leave. They were all three from the US (Wisconsin, I think) and studying in Rome.
From there I moved to being usher at the front doors of the Temple. The doors are quite large over 1000 lbs each. They don't have a way of keeping them open. That wasn't really the idea anyway. We were just supposed to be there to greet and hold them open for groups as they entered and exited. Sometimes this meant non-stop holding the doors though.
More back story to help you understand this experience: One of my biggest challenges in life is seeing all of my fellow men as Heavenly Father sees them. I wonder at the love the Savior and Our Father have for everyone. It is obvious to me that I need to make great strides in this area. Even in crucial callings I have struggled at times to feel this Love for others.
The symbolism of welcoming people into a sphere of greater glory through the Temple doors was not lost on me. I tried to look into their faces and make eye contact with as many patrons as possible while maintaining reverence. I felt a smiling, greeting "buon giorno" or a "benvenuti", "buona sera" or other friendly words would help convey the Love of our Savior. It was obvious that many non members were there and feeling a Spirit they had never felt. For two hours I was filled with a greater than normal level of Love for my fellow men. It was almost overwhelming. And I was able to glimpse how God feels about his children. Another great gift.
I ran into Ugo Perego while manning the doors. He was leading a tour, I think.
Just a quarter mile down the street from the Temple on Settibagni is a little "Bar" called the Break. I had seen it on my initial walk there and then some of the Volunteers recommended it to me. On Saturday for lunch I walked down there to check it out. I got a slab of pizza and a drink for 4 Euros and sat outside on the patio for lunch. It was very good pizza and I had a nice chat with an older gentleman who somewhat typically proceeded to tell me all of the reasons he is not religious.
I filled in more at the FHC in between shifts on the second day. They really could have used more people able to help out. It seemed there were a lot of Italians wanting to get info on their Ancestry.
My last shift of my whole adventure was to spell one of our IMM Elders, William Lawler down at the main entrance to the Temple grounds parking lot. He told me it was wild. He was covering it with his wife. I was doing it alone. Mind you this was 6:30-8:30pm on Saturday evening. Via dei Settebagni is a fairly important road. Although it is only two lanes. And this was a busy Saturday evening. There was a lot of confusion because some people just naturally thought they would enter the main gate and park in the normal parking lot. Not for the open house. The Church had rented part of a sporting complex right next door to use as a temporary parking lot. This was larger to accommodate the crowds and then they could funnel everyone through the security checkpoint.
Many, many people would attempt to come into the normal parking lot and then be blocking traffic, sometimes both directions while I explained to them that they had to go about 100 yards further down the road. Many many people made u-turns in the middle of the street. I was actually amazed that we didn’t have more yelling and honking. I finally decided that Italians are used to a lower level of order in their community. It was utter mayhem and very laughable. Several people also stopped in the middle of traffic to ask what this was and what was going on. I encouraged them to come to the open house. When this shift was over, I was not sad. One embarrassing note. It was sometime during this shift that I realized my whole time there I had been using the word for sidewalks (pedonali) to refer to pedestrians (pedoni). Oh well. They figured it out despite the kooky American.
Afterward, I told Bill Lawler that he owes me one big time. That was probably a job for at least one native speaker and two non-natives. When I ran into Eric Anderson later at the reunion, he was quite amused when we talked about it. He had done that job with two others.
I found out later that we had about 6300 visitors that Saturday. The entire open house was a total of 19 days. At the All Italian Mission at April Conference after the open house, they told us the total number of visitors was about 55,000.
We made our way by bus back to the hotel where we had dinner and I had my second taste of their Carbonara. Still yummy. There were a couple of other choices that I don’t ever have to have again. Their crostata was a nothing burger and the chicory was bleh.
We took the opportunity during dinner to talk about the great experiences we were having. We also talked a little while about Mel Mascherino. Sort of a tender memorial. He would have so loved to be here for this event. He died four years too early.
We had been told that the local wards were inundated on Sundays with all of the out of town visitors, we were encouraged to attend one of the wards meeting later in the day because they normally had fewer visitors. On Saturday evening they let us know that, to remedy the problem, they had authorized the use of the chapel in the Temple complex to hold a Sacrament meeting especially for all of the volunteers. We were admonished not to spread the word. They wanted it limited to the volunteers.
This worked out very well for us. It was a fairly nice sized meeting and they simply asked a couple of the volunteers to bear their testimonies. Elder Dini Ciacci also spoke.
Immediately afterward they had a private tour for a group of hearing/speaking impaired people.
We took some pictures in the plaza of the whole group and some of the smaller groups of friends. Then we went back inside to change into street clothes and then we walked to the bus stop to go downtown to see a few sights before I had to get to the airport.
When I stopped in New York on the way over to Italy, I forgot my coat in a restroom at JKF airport. I went back to try to find it. But, it was gone. Oh well, I figured I would take some time to buy a replacement in Rome, a keepsake replacement. I had never gotten the time to do any shopping. And while waiting at the bus stop it was a bit chilly. We were joined at the bus stop by a young recently returned missionary sister who helped us some with directions. Then another older gentleman who was one of the volunteers. He introduced himself as Vittorio Salemmi.
I had seen him several times during the two days I was there. The first time, I asked him something in English expecting that IF he was Italian he might still know English. He just stared at me blankly. I knew from then to speak to him in Italian. He was actually on his way home to San Remo, headed to the Termini station to get on his train. So, he had all of his stuff, including a warm sweater and a shell jacket that he was wearing. Seeing me under dressed he offered me his coat. I figured I could borrow it until we parted ways. It was clear pretty quickly that he was not going to allow me to give it back to him.
He was probably in his 80’s and seemed to be in pretty good health. He reminded me of Poppa. It was a struggle for him to manage both his bags. So, I took one bag and we helped him for about an hour as we negotiated the buses and metro to get to Termini and onto the right platform where we said our goodbyes. I was very glad for the coat.
I found the baggage drop at Termini and got rid of my own bag for the afternoon. This is very convenient and only cost 6 Euros. I’m so glad I didn’t have to carry my bag around while sightseeing.
Michelle led the way and armed with a map from Domus Urbis we headed first to the Spanish steps. Very nice, very crowded. Then to the column of the Immaculate Conception, Trevi Fountain (also quite crowded), Piazza Colonna Marcus Aurelius, the Church of Saint Ignatius (quite by accident), the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and finally the Colosseum all in about 3.5 hours.
We were making our way to the Pantheon when we happened upon St. Ignatius. It has an interesting enough facade. So, I stepped back to the other side of the piazza to take a photo. Michelle was reading a placard outside. There was a concert right then in the church. So, we stole inside to get a better view. This is an amazing building. The sound of the choir and orchestra was amazing. I too late turned on my video and only captured a few seconds of the sound before they had a very long break. Will definitely have to show this to the kids.
As we were making our way down one of the little vicolos, I suddenly stopped and looked up at the people walking in the opposite direction. A man in the crowd also stopped and looked at me as if prompted. Our eyes caught each other and I recognized him right away. I pointed at him and said, “you're doing a great job (for Conservatism).” It was Jason Chaffetz. So, we had to stop and briefly chat and take pictures. He was there with his wife and Steven Lund of the YM General Board and his wife. That was pretty fun to have that happen.
The Pantheon is very impressive and piazza Navona is charming. We stepped off the piazza to find some trinkets for gifts and also FINALLY get some gelato!
The one instruction I had from Jensen was, if at all possible, get to the Colosseum and get a picture. I wasn’t sure we were going to have time before my flight out. When we were walking around we passed a building that had a large photo of the Colosseum on the front doors. I had Michelle take a picture of me in front of it in case we didn’t get there. I’m not sure Jensen would have been fooled. But, it was good for a laugh.
I stopped to buy a bus ticket and ask to make sure we knew how to get to the Colosseum. The Venditore indicated which bus to take. We crossed the street and walked quite a ways to get to a bus stop. Shortly, one of the buses came by. It was too crowded to get on. So, we waited for another. That one was crowded too. But, we just stuffed in. I was standing right in front of the validation machine. So, it became my job to validate tickets for those who couldn’t reach.
Michelle had mentioned that the Vittorio Emanuele II monument the “Altare della Patria” was a very impressive sight. We passed by it on this route and yes it is very neat. Going to have to take the family there.
At one point we caught a glimpse of the Colosseum. But, it soon became clear we were not going to stop there. The Bus continued to the end of the line at Termini Station. So we figured out where to go and popped back down into the metro, went a couple of stops and then popped back up out of the ground right in front of the Colosseum. I got a couple of pictures, we went up on top of the nearby cliff to get a better view, and then we said our goodbyes, and I started making my way back to Termini. On the way I bought a very nice watercolor quadro from a street vendor.
I didn’t really have to wait long for the train to Fiumicino airport. Knowing what I know now, I have no qualms about using the public transport rather than taxis when we return in the summer.
One note about the airports: Rome Fiumicino is very elegant. They do have a large duty free area that they funnel you through like arriving at a cruise port. But, the facilities and everything are very nice. JFK isn’t horrible but closer to the other end of the scale in elegance. I especially noticed a big difference in the PA system announcements. At JFK they seemed to be reading from a script and had a hard time pronouncing several names. The PA stuff was definitely amateur hour. The restrooms were just adequate. In Rome the PA system voices were very appealing and had great accents. The restrooms were straight from a design magazine.
Since I had a 12 hour layover in Dublin through the night, I had reserved a room at the Clayton Hotel near the airport. They have a free shuttle to and from the airport. But, it was late and I didn’t want to wait. So, I took a taxi. The Hotel was very nice.
Just a couple of weeks prior to my trip I had read an article online about David and Heather Evertsen who live in Florence. I looked them up on Facebook and we had quite a number of friends in common. So, I friended him. That last day in Italy he sent me a message asking if we had ever met. I wasn’t really in a position to reply most of the day until I got to Dublin. So, I took some time to respond. We started texting back and forth and finally he just called me on the phone. He was presently in Kabul. I think he is a contractor of some kind. We had a very nice conversation for about 45 minutes. So, now I have at least one more new friend from my trip.
His wife had started taking tours to the Carrara marble quarry. His son is learning sculpture. And the whole family had arranged for about 5-6 busloads of non members to go to the Temple open house.
Flying home I know it goes slower because the plane is going against the jet stream. But, it just seemed super slow, perhaps because there is less anticipation about returning home.
When I got back to JFK I first got the lay of the land. I made sure I knew where my gate was. I wanted to see about the cost and availability of the lounge since I had so long to wait. It wasn’t an option. Then I scouted out restaurants because I was going to have a birthday dinner and no one was going to stop me. I selected an Italian themed restaurant and settled in. They had an Osso Buco special that day so I had to get it. In the end it wasn’t as good as it should have been. The Burrata would have been a better choice. I saw it on someone else’s plate and it looked heavenly. I also later got myself a white chocolate Toblerone bar to make up for the last couple of times I have seen them and not gotten one. It was a very common snack for me while at BYU.
I settled at an electronic device charging bar and entertained myself. At one point the guy across from me and down just a ways had a coughing fit. I knew I was going to come down with a cold and sure enough I did. And it was the cold from hell. Also, later in the airport I saw a guy davening and saying his evening prayers roughly about 6pm. It seemed he was trying to be a little subtle about it. But, he had been on the phone and seemed anxious to end the call as if it was getting late for him to start.
All in all with the long flights and time zone change and busy days, I really had no trouble sleeping at night or adjusting from the one schedule to the other and then back again. I relied judiciously on sleeping pills and I’m pretty sure the timing of my evening arrivals both in Rome and Salt Lake helped. It literally was not a problem as it had been in 2002. I was, however awake for a couple of long periods of time. Like more than 25 hours on the way home.
Many of my experiences and the people I ran into during this short and eventful trip seemed familiar, even the lady at the hotel restaurant. I’m pretty sure it was all meant to be and even foreordained. It was quite inspirational and miraculous hearing the stories of the other volunteers. All of them with no prompting (other than the Spirit) stopped everything and made their way to Rome. Some for three months others (like me) just for a day or two. There were Herculean efforts involved. People just showed up and said, “I’m here.” “What do you need me to do?” But, it was glorious and beautiful. Paul Scherbel especially deserves praise. He was one of the early missionaries in Italy. He ended up running the whole volunteer program, probably 12-14 hours daily. Everyone was cordial, gentile, humble, and grateful to be there and help out. It was a true act of ministering. The sentiment was, “This is the day we have been praying and waiting for, let’s rejoice.”
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