Rome was the pinnacle to our Italian trips and it was a perfect finish--we went to sacrament meeting there and there were about 50 members of the congregation that kindly made room for us in their little building. There were eight missionaries in the ward and three of them spoke, which sent me into a sentimental frenzy of nostalgia for my mission and missing being part of that force, however awful and great it was in reality. I had to restrain myself from throwing myself at the missionaries after the meeting and saying, "I WAS JUST YOU AND NOW I AM A NORMAL PEON!" Because I am a normal person and no longer belong to the guild of European missionaries. It'll have to suffice to belong to the cult of European travelers (#professionaltourists)
We listened to the pope speak after our LDS church meeting and it was lovely, though I didn't actually understand what he was saying. We visited St. Peter's basilica afterwards and it was incredible. I felt so so small. Which is kind of the point. And maybe this is weird, but that's one of the reasons I love visiting grandiose churches. They remind me of how small I am and how big God is and they remind me to look up.
The road adventures continued on Monday with visits to the colosseum, the forum, and the gelato shop. We spent a lot of time at each thing and it was so cool to be surrounded by things that were so so old. Ancient, some might say (except for the gelato, of course). Tuesday morning we visited the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican museum and again I took a trip down memory lane to 9th grade when I first remember seeing pictures of this chapel and Mr. Ecks explaining pictures couldn't do the chapel justice because it was much more than individual images--it was the whole that filled your soul with awe. And so it was.
We stopped roaming around Rome after that and took a flight to Dubrovnik in Croatia. Most people were ready to leave Italy behind, but I was a little sad. Since I get nostalgic about pretty everything and all that. But Croatia has given us an extremely friendly welcome and any regrets I had about leaving Italy were swallowed up in the seemingly infinite blue Adriatic Sea.
I haven't spent a lot of time around water in my lifetime (just pools in Indiana in the summer), but I'm thinking I need to spend more time with it in the future. There is something soothing about moving waters and there are so many metaphors regarding the sea that I wish I understood because I feel like such metaphors contain life's many secrets. The red rooftops and the Aqua water compliment each other perfectly and there is so much life in the city.
We spent the morning walking on top of the old walls that surround the city, oo-ing and ah-ing every few seconds, some of us straight out swooning because we've never seen anything more lovely in our whole lives and realized maybe we hadn't even lived until then. Our love affair with Dubrovnik continued in the afternoon with time on the beach--swimming in the sea and soaking up sun on the rocky beach shore, followed by a fancy dinner of fresh bass. We hiked up lots of stairs and random streets tonight and had several more perfect moments sitting on a ledge and watching the sun set into the ocean (first we had to pass a dozen very passionate couples who wanted a similar view, but they weren't really looking anymore).
It was the perfect end to our time here. Thought we leave early in the morning, we have all vowed to return here someday.
Potentially on a honeymoon :)
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