26 days, 1197 pictures and 4 countries later...

Today we visited the Rome bethel. It's much smaller than the bethels in New York, with only 300 people. Their departments are cleaning, translating, cooking, laundry and buying. They recently closed down the printery department, which forced many brothers and sisters to relocate. We were able to eat lunch with the bethel family! We had pasta with pesto, grilled tuna and pineapple. 

After bethel we went to visit the catacombs. That was an experience like no other. They were 12 meters below the ground. When we were done, we walked the road the apostle Paul walked. 

We can't believe our trip is just about over. It's very bittersweet. We can't wait to see everybody back home, but on that note, who would ever want to leave Europe??? Definitely not us! We've had such an amazing trip. Thanks to everybody who helped get this trip together, and for reading our blog! Now we gotta get working to save for our next trip! 

Lots of love, 

Rachel and becca 

Road Paul walked 

Bethel

When in rome...

Today we arrived in Rome. Rome is such an amazing city. We both love it!

We are staying at a bed and breakfast that is run by a very nice pionner couple. It's in the center of the city and is in a very safe area. 

Today we got to see a ton of things. We got to go inside the coliseum, go in the forums (which has incredible views), walk across some of the old roman roads, see the ancient ruins of Rome (we got to see some things that were built in the 3rd century!!), see lots of historical buildings and fountains, and see the city at night. One of the neatest things we saw today was where Paul was in prison while he was in Rome. It was so cool to think that we were right where the apostle Paul was! 

For dinner we had some incredible pasta then went and had the best gelato. Rome is so incredible and historical. We can't wait for another day in Rome tomorrow!!

The coliseum

Some of the ancient ruins

View from the forum 

Where Paul was in prison 

Day in Venice

Today we spent the day in Venice. It is GORGEOUS! I would look at pictures and think that there is no way that it can be that pretty, but it really is. 

Venice is a city built on the water connected by bridges. Venice is famous for its glass and lace. They sell really unique and beautiful glass things such as jewelry, wine stoppers, coasters, etc. it's amazing the things they are able to do with the glass. There are lots of shops in Venice that sell things unique to the city, but there are also shops with designer brands. There is also lots of tempting bakeries. 

One of the things that we knew we had to try while we were at Venice was the gondole rides. The gondole takes you around the water and let's you see the city. It was so peaceful and beautiful. The ride even took us by where Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie filmed the movie The Tourist. 

We really loved seeing Venice. It is such a beautiful and unique city and has delicious food! 

Ciao for now!

Venice 

On the gondole!

Florence

Today we went all around Florence. It's very historic. They have a law that no buildings can be renovated, and all buildings have to have a similar design, and they must all be the same color. They go to great lengths to preserve the history of the city. They had a ton of markets (which I love!). Florence is known for good quality leather.

 We walked to the first orphanage built in the city. There was a special place on the window pane for women to drop their children off. They would leave the baby on the window, ring a bell and runaway so the nuns wouldn't see the moms when they picked up the children. The parents would leave personal tokens with the babies. The children would keep these tokens for the rest of their lives, so if their parents ever tried to find them, they could recognize them by the token. Today, the orphanage is a museum. 

It's very hot here, close to 100 degrees, which is kind of making it feel like home. It rained for about an hour in the afternoon, which cooled things down. While we were walking we saw witnesses doing met witnessing. They just started met witnessing in July. It's been hard to get it going because they're required to have at least one brother, someone who speaks English, and one person who speaks Italian, and a lot of brothers and sisters are on vacation. It was so cool to see the stand in the city! 

View of Florence 

The window where people would leave their kids at the orphanage 

Met witnessing 

Ciao from Italy!

We arrived in Italy at 9 this morning. Italy is so neat! We are staying with this really nice couple and this one sister is showing us around during the day. Everyone is so nice!

We took the train into Florence and went to the English meeting there. The hall there is really cool because it is a big building with 4 different rooms to have the meetings. So 4 different meetings can be going on at once! The English congregation has 37 publishers, 9 pioneers, 4 elders, and 4 ministerial servants. They get a lot of visitors so they normally have a lot of people there. Today there was 16 people visiting from America! Most were from California but 2 of them were from Canada. Almost all of them were staying here for an average of 3-6 months. 

After the meeting we started to tour some of Florence. Florence is such a big city and its so neat because you can look to the left and it's beautiful mountains, but then you look to the right and it's this huge city. Florence is filled with art and history. I can't wait to see some more of it tomorrow! Afterwards we went to a brother and sisters house for some dinner. The food here is out of this world! 

View of Florence 

The American sisters visiting the Florence English congregation

Mystan mountain

Today was our last day in Switzerland. Kim and Daniel said we could do whatever we wanted, so we chose to go hiking. We had to get up at 6:00 to leave at 6:30, because otherwise it would've been too hot. The mountain we went to was 1900m high! It was a super steep climb. At times the path got narrow, and it looked liked you could fall off the other side. But the views at the top were worth every step we had to take. You could see Switzerland, Germany and France from the top of the mountain. On a clearer day we also would've been able to see Hungary and Italy. After the hike we went back to the house for lunch, then went swimming at the lake. We're getting ready to finish packing for Italy. Our train leaves tomorrow at 1:40. I'm going to miss everybody in Switzerland so much! I'm not sure if I'll have wifi in Italy, but if I do, I'll be sure to continue updating the blog! 

Lots of love, 

Rachel and becca 

Mystan (believe me, it's a lot bigger in person) 

Top of the mountain 

The final countdown

I can't believe that we are reaching the end of our trip! It has gone by so fast. Mandy left yesterday, so now it's only Becca and I. We had such a great time with her and we already miss her. We leave for Italy on Saturday then leave to come back home the next Saturday. 

After dropping Mandy off at the airport yesterday we drove out to Kim's in laws house which is right on the border of Germany and Switzerland. They have a beautiful house that is 300 years old and a ton of land. While we were there we went over to Germany and did some shopping. Germany is a lot like Switzerland, but the stuff there is cheaper     . Then today we went to this town in Switzerland that is over 500 year old! The town is so neat, all of the buildings are built with timber and have really neat features. On the outside of some of them there is a painting that tells a story. One of the buildings even has a biblical story painted on the outside of it! Then Kim took us up to the castle where they got married. It was gorgeous! It's on the top of a mountain and if you look to the right you see Germany but if you look to the left you see Switzerland. The castle was built in the 11th century and has cobblestone floors. 

All of that was so neat to see, but I have to say the highlight of my day was going to the German meeting. Mind you, I don't speak any German, but everyone there was incredibly nice and helpful! Becca and I even gave a comment! We commented in English then the brother conducting would translate. Currently they are meeting in the basement of a warehouse. This has been their temporary meeting place for 10 years now. The congregation has 60 publishers, 7 elders, and 5 ministerial servants. There was actually 2 congregations meeting there because this week a lot of people have off work so they weren't sure how many people would show up. They just got the land to build a new hall. It was hot and there is no ac, but no one was complaining. This experience taught me so much. I was really able to see how we are all united in Jehovah's organization no matter what part of the world we are from or what language we speak. 

I can't wait to see everyone again! Only 9 more days!!

The buildings with the paintings on the outside 

The view from the top of the castle 

The Kingdom Hall