End of the mission: traveling around Italy

We picked up Rachel at the mission home at 9 p.m. on Oct. 25!

The next day, we drove to San Martino Canavese, a small town east of Turin where Lyrad's great-grandma is from. After searching 3 small towns in the area, we found a sweet older woman who could unlock the San Giovanni Battista town church for us. I thought of Hunchback of Notre Dame as we walked up the little staircase to the upper level of the church, where the woman opened a cupboard and let us see baptism records and death records from the 1800's. We found records of several relatives and had an amazing afternoon! Rachel was an amazing translator and we couldn't have done it without her.

"Mother Teresa, The Musical"

old baptism records

our friend who helped us find family records

We stopped at a branch party with Rachel's Turin branch on our way to dinner at Rachel's favorite pizza place. This is the church building; it is half of a building shared with the post office.

On Saturday explored Turin and bought food for Sunday at a market (next to the apartment Rachel lived in) and ate at Rachel's favorite gelato place.

An actual pumpkin!

At the Risorgimento Museum, all about Italian history

On Sunday we attended the Forli Branch, in Rachel's first area. She hadn't been there in over a year, but when we walked in (just as sacrament meeting was beginning), the bishopric member welcomed Rachel from the pulpit and later called her up to speak. Rachel was so excited to hold baby Jonas! (she was released as a missionary over the phone the day before, so she could now officially hold babies again)

This is her church building, in a 3-story house on a quiet street

We drove to Rome that evening and tried to catch a glimpse of the Rome Temple through the construction barriers. So excited for Italy to have a temple after 10 years of trying to get it built.

Exploring Rome: Colosseum and Arch of Constantine

Roman Forum

It rained off and on, and while we were headed for Palatine Hill, the storm became so bad that policemen wouldn't allow anyone to go on the hill.

The storm caused lots of tree branches to fall -- this poor driver will have quite a dent on the top of his car =(

Victor Emmanuel memorial

Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps

Sunset over Rome

This alcove needed a statue...

Gelato!!

Pantheon

Vatican City

Vatican

Florence

Before the YW values, there were the Seven Virtues painted in Italy in 1470:

Fortitude (Botticelli's first recorded work)

Charity

Faith

Hope

Temperance

Prudence

Justice

Rembrandt portraits (thinking of Eliza, our Dutch girl!)

(Near) Sacrifice of Isaac - this was in a room that displayed portraits of famous beheadings throughout history. 

We stayed with the awesome Hunter family. Sister Hunter was one of Rachel's favorite YW leaders, 5 years ago in Florida. Now they're stationed in Italy! (near Venice)

On the train to Venice

A rainy day in Venice

A used bookstore in an alley

Piazza San Marco was flooded, so we walked on these platforms.

Except for Rachel - she was the only person in bare feet in Venice. (Everyone else had plastic rain coverings.)

Trying to recreate her pigeon photo from 2006:

Lyrad and I held out as long as we could, but eventually we too had to walk barefoot if we ever wanted to get back to the train station. People stared at us crazy American tourists...

Stores and restaurants were flooded, too, but business just went on as usual.

Rachel's beautiful Bressanone/Brixen! She served here in the Sudtiröl region for the past 6 months. It's a German-speaking (and German-culture) area near the Austrian border.

Beautiful hiking in the spectacular area! We felt like we were in Garmisch, Germany, again.

We walked around Bressanone centro, the streets Rachel walked

Amazing wood carving of Jesus washing his disciples' feet

Love this painting of an elephant, on a ceiling of a church patio

Butcher shop (thought of you, Madi!)

The Eisack River (thinking of you, Isaac!)

Yes, a vending machine that makes a pizza

Their Bressanone church building is in this office building

Stopped in Paris on our layover before our 11-hour flight. Rachel watched about 6 movies on the trip -- she has a lot of catching up to do

Welcomed at the SLC Airport by Aunt Cyndi, Gma Shirley, Isaac, Sandra, and Madi

Thanks, Isaac

On our 4-hour drive home, Rachel wanted Mexican food after 18 months without it

Welcome home, Rachel!

Rachel has been home for a week and a half and now has a job at the grocery store. She is all moved into our new house (that she had never seen before, since we moved from Florida while she was on her mission) and loves our chickens. She lets them out way more than Lyrad and I do. She's played her flute, made us pumpkin curry, played piano, sung with Josh, made us the best spaghetti sauce ever, gone to YSA FHE and Institute, visited Josh at Chick-fil-A, and we're excited to have her here until she goes back to BYU in January!