Celebrating "Carnevale" Italian-style

Fun Carnevale Activities for Primary

Carnevale

Saturday, we attended the Ward Primary Carnevale party at a park near our church. The children enjoyed the merry-go-round, slide,  bumper car rides, and train.

S Furlanich, (?),Rona, Fernanda, Alma, & Joyce

After the park, we went to the church for the Ward Carnevale celebration and the adults dressed up as well. It is a big deal in Italy, like our Halloween. They had lots of food, dancing, and games!

The Magnanti Family (1st Counselor Bishopric)

Sister Patterson & Elder Waters are on the back right

Transfer time

We said good-bye to Sister Patterson and Elder Waters this week who were both being transferred to Sardinia and Sicily respectively. 

Anz. Kasper, Bro Bosco, Jomar, Sis Bosco, & Anz. Robinson

Baptism

This is the second week in a row that the Rome 2^nd Ward has had a baptism. It was Jomar, the nephew of a member named Jonathan, who we had met through the YSA Home Evenings. We were very excited for Jomar because he has been taking the lessons for a couple of months, and he was at Carol’s baptism last week. He will be a great addition to the Young Adult program.

Enjoying the Journey

Visitors

Emily, Peter, & Greg Palatine Hill

Peter and Emily Andrew, Greg's nephew from Detroit, came to visit us Jan 25-26! On Monday morning, after taking the train and the metro (subway), we enjoyed seeing the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill. Toward noon it started to rain. We were hoping it was just a short cloudburst, but it ended up being the start of several days of rain! After a pizza and Italy’s famous hot chocolate (hot pudding really) we walked to the Pantheon.  

Rome Temple Construction

Then we drove them to see the construction site of the Rome Temple, where they are working on a lot of the interior sheetrock. The Rome temple is the only temple that has an oval exterior.  In the evening Peter and Emily treated us to dinner at a fun Italian restaurant—we enjoyed having them visit us!

Elder & Sister DeFeo

Wednesday evening we attended an Institute Fireside with Elder DeFeo, our area seventy. We had a great turnout with about 50 Young Single adults attending. Elder DeFeo and his wife gave some excellent ideas about the focus of temple marriage, and Elder DeFeo gave some great doctrinal points—we were glad to be there. Elder DeFeo also announced a new Pathways program being offered by BYU Idaho to the Rome Italy Institute members so that they can earn a degree online.

Baptism of Carolina Laender

 

Saturday evening, Feb 1, we attended the baptism of Carolina Laender. She is from Brazil and is here in Rome going to school in Architecture. She came to our YSA Fireside week before, and we were happy to attend her baptism—she is a great addition to the YSA program!

Recovering in Italy

Attending  Zone Conference

Zone Conference

We attended the Zone conference on Tuesday, January 14. We enjoyed being together with all the missionaries in our Zone and being taught by the Mission President, AP's, and Zone Leaders. 

The Kimballs, Millets, & Andrews

Senior Couples

At zone conference it was fun to be with the other Senior Couples--we saw the Millets who just arrived in Italy a couple of weeks ago and the Kimballs who we work with in YSA. Sister Waddoups also sat with us when she wasn't up in front teaching with the President.

Sisters Sartena(new) & Furlanich

Our District

We have 4 new missionaries in our district at Roma 3. We are still getting to know them--they are awesome! Sister Sartena is from Bolzano, Italy, so she has the language already!

Elders Kunz(new) & Robison

Sisters Patterson & Haynie (new)

Elders Rutledge(new) & Barone (DL)

Christmas in Southern Italy

Sorrento

Bay of Naples

Hotel Grand Aminta

We were able to enjoy a relaxing Christmas day in Sorrento, Italy. Sorrento is a small town on the west coast of Italy, about two and a half hours south of Rome!  It was fun seeing the popular tourist town decked out in Christmas attire and yet not overrun by tourists.  The town is famous for the many inlaid wood artisans that work and live there.  With temperatures around 50 degrees it was a fun two-day stay in which we met many wonderful people.

Downtown Sorrento Christmas Eve

Chapel in Taranto

Taranto

We dropped off mail in Taranto to the Elders and Sisters there and were able to see our first stand-alone LDS chapel in Italy. 

Duomo in Lecce

 

Lecce

From Taranto we went to Lecce, known for its baroque architectural style.  Many of the buildings and churches were built around the time of Columbus!   It was amazing to walk around the small alleyways, which weren’t made with cars in mind!  After seeing the Tyrrhenian Sea the day before in Sorrento, we were able to see the Adriatic Sea on Italy’s east coast!

Amphitheatre in Lecce

San Cataldo Beach near Lecce

Even though the weather was cold and cloudy, we were able to drive to the beach at San Cataldo and see a rainbow while we were there!

Cattedrale di Brindisi

Brindisi

Saturday we made a brief stop in Brindisi, a fishing town on the Adriatic coast.

Ferry crossing to Albania - Greece

Bari

Lungomare along Bari coast

We arrived at our hotel just south of Bari in the early afternoon.  Greg’s grandparents had served as missionaries in the town of Bari 42 years ago.  This was the reason we came south, to see some of the areas where they had served.  It proved to be a very attractive town with one of Italy’s longest coastline promenades.  It was easy to smell the freshly caught fish as we walked by the fish markets.      

Bari Seaport on Adriatic

Downtown Bari at Sunset

Piazza di San Nicolo

In the evening we strolled through the streets of Bari's citta vecchia (old town) and enjoyed seeing the churches, nativity, and port all lit up with Christmas lights.

Nativity outside church

Church interior

Bari Port at night

Antonio Petroni

Sunday we were able to visit the two wards that are now in Bari.  They were meeting together in one of the churches there because of the Christmas holiday and the Stake center was being repaired. What a treat!  We met a brother Antonio Petroni and a sister Modugno DeSantis, who both remembered Reed and Lillian Andrew from their missionary days when there were around 20 members of the church in Bari. Reed and Lillian would be happy to see two thriving wards in Bari today!

Modugno DeSantis Family

Beautiful stand-alone Chapel in Bari