Rome in August

It’s been a very interesting, very busy weekend. Saturday was Festa di Lavoro, or Festival from Work. All the Italians take off work, except for some essential service people and some businesses in downtown Rome. Quindi . . . the missionaries are asked to clean their apartments from top to bottom and not to do any missionary work. We cleaned our office on Friday and our apartment Saturday morning. Even cleaning from top to bottom doesn’t take too long when you have an apartment as small as ours.
Friday evening we went to Downtown Rome to look for some pictures for another mission couple. We enjoyed the entertainment at Novena Square.
Saturday after cleaning our apartment we headed back downtown to St. Paul outside the wall.


The apostle Paul was killed by being beheaded by the Romans. Because he was a Roman citizen they couldn’t kill him inside the city, so they took him outside the city wall to execute him. Paul is most often depicted with a sword in his hand.


Peter is also depicted in Paul’s church and he is holding the keys to the kingdom. He was crucified upside down in Rome.

Something that we find really interesting is that in St. Paul’s Cathedral, in one place is this carving: Exaltation is the Celestial Kingdom.

In another place it says: Baptism for the dead and there is a baptismal font there large enough for baptism by immersion.

We have been finishing up some companionship study on another project, but then we are looking forward to moving to the Acts of the Apostles and the life of Paul.

Next we moved into downtown Rome to the Nationale Museum to see a fantastic jewelry display by Bulgari: in Rome from May to September. The most impressive jewels were several selections from Elizabeth Taylor’s private collection: featuring enormous emeralds and sapphires in magnificent diamond surrounds. We can take pictures in almost any of the churches, but ironically we were not allowed to take pictures of the jewelry.

By the museum was a typical water fountain outside. Will took a drink. The water runs non-stop 24/7.



By sunset time we were sitting on some high church steps over by Venetzia Square. Here are some of the pictures Will took.

There was a book fair going on by St. Angelo’s Castle. Families were enjoying food booths and shopping booths with lots of books for sale; along with family games and fun. We wandered around there until it was dark and then Will took some night shots of the Tiber River, the bridges, and the castle.