A Packed Week of Fun with Patti and Peter

Patti was excited to climb a long set of stairs and hear Italian music being played on an accordion. She felt she had truly arrived in Italy.

We had warned them to beware of pick-pockets.

Part of the Rome experience is riding the crowded buses.

In downtown Rome we saw:
Piazza Venezia and the Moses

The Pantheon and Piazza Navona: Patti purchased an oil painting for their family room.

Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. Peter and Patti must be planning on returning to Rome someday, because they threw a coin over their shoulder into the fountain.

Paul Outside the Wall

And the Coliseum: Of course there is a funny story to tell about the umbrella. (Too long to share here, sorry.)

The Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel, plus of course, St Peters, which is kind of the symbol of Rome and is a must see.

We climbed up between the inside and outside dome for an incredible view of the city and the Vatican gardens.

Ascending and descending the stairs are an experience in itself.

The inside St. Peter’s is enormous and very elaborate.

The day Patti and Peter enjoyed Borghese Museum, Giuseppe took Elder Sommerfeldt and I over to a street in Rome with beautiful, detailed architecture. Later, Patti and Peter insisted that we take them there as well.




This was Luciano Pavarotti's house

Outside of Rome:
One of our favorite places close to Rome are Tivoli and Villa D’Este with it’s 300+ fountains.

We waited around just to hear the water organ. So impressive!

We enjoyed Florence and Pisa together.


The evening we arrived in LaSpezia, we drove to the little fishing village of Lerci. The lovely, warm sun and beautiful blue water and coastline were a dream.

The next day we took a boat to Cinque Terre. It was fun to see the rugged coastline from the water side.



In amazing Cinque Terre, we wandered and shopped and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.


In each place we shopped,

Ate lots of pizza and pasta, plus fresh fruits and veggies,

Visited the mall,

And, of course, ate gelato at least twice a day

Rome has a Rose Garden

The Rome 2 Relief Society Presidency planned a visit to a large, public rose garden. That certainly perked up my ears – then on the scheduled day, it was rained out.
The following week, we watched the weather and on the first sunny day, we took a small giro to the rose garden with Elder and Sister Burt.
Here is the rose garden with typical Roman ruins in the background.

Some of the roses were growing on a trellis covering the wandering path.

The roses came in all varieties and colors.



And were groomed in various shapes.

Will took many close-up pictures of the roses.


Now, this is perfection!

What a pleasant day for all of us.

Memorizing the moment:

Con Affetto

For several months, we have been working on an appropriate gift for President and Sister Acerson: one that would remind them of Italy and be a keepsake that they would treasure. We started collecting money from the missionaries shortly after our arrival in February 2009. We have tried to keep it a secret and as far as we could tell, we were able to surprise them with our choices at our last Rome Zone Conference.


The lovely, handmade music box was made in Sorrento, a charming town in the bay of Naples. There are five different inlaid woods, each of a different color. The workmanship is exquisite. When you open the box lid, a lively tune begins, and you can see the tiny workings of the precision musical movement. This art of inlay dates from the 15th century.

The scriptures were bound in Florence leather, carefully tooled and stamped with President and Sister Acerson’s name across the front, Italy Rome Mission up the left side with the angel Moroni at the top, and the fleur-de-lei of Firenze on the leather tab closing. Sister Acerson made the comment that she had recently seen scriptures like this, and questioned some of the Elders on how she could get some made up. So, we felt the scripture choice was a good one.

Of course, the gift was rounded out with long-stemmed red and yellow roses and daisy’s in a cut glass vase, and a card.

President obviously felt this was a day of celebration.

There was no possible time when we could have all the missionaries now serving in the Italy Rome Mission be there with us to present these gifts. We did ask the Acerson’s to take the gifts around to the other Zone Conferences so the other missionaries could see them.

On the accompanying card, we wrote:

President and Sister Acerson,

From all your missionaries – both past and present –
who have enjoyed your tender, loving care over the
past three years. Thank you for your high energy
and tremendous service to us, to Italy, and to the Lord.
May you return home, good and faithful servants,
knowing that we wish you well in the years to come.
We love you both tremendously.
The Missionaries of the Italy Rome Mission

PS – We can hardly wait for
our first mission reunion.
No pressure!

In their remarks afterwards, both Sister Acerson and then the President expressed how their best gift was getting to know and love all their missionaries. We all belong to them, and we love that thought.
Acerson’s do not return home to Utah until July 1. We are pleased to have them a little while longer. Then we will welcome President and Sister Kelly as our new mission president and wife for the Italy Rome Mission.