Rome Italy Temple
So here I am at the El Paso Texas Airport, having just finished going to the Ciudad Juarez Mexico Temple yesterday, and I’m already writing about my next temple visit!
Hats off to the people at this airport, because they sell Propel waters out of vending machines and fresh Cinnabons!
One of the advantages of living on the East Coast is that you have multiple airports to pick from to fly out of. Round-trip fares to Rome from Washington DC are about $1000. The round-trip airfare nonstop from JFK is only $430. And Amtrak can get me up to New York and back for only $35 each way. So for my 67th birthday I’m off to Rome! 🙏 🇻🇦
Needless to say, I think birthdays should be celebrated in a big way, and this one is one I will never forget!
Rome Italy Temple Facts
The Rome Italy Temple was announced in October of 2008. It was dedicated in 2019 by Pres. Russell M. Nelson. At the dedication were ALL members of the First Presidency and ALL members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the first time EVER that all 15 were together in one place outside the state of Utah!
The temple is the 13th temple in Europe and the first one in Italy. It appears that John Zackrison, a former member of the Kensington Ward, was/is the director of the International Coordinating Committee of the Church. John used to be my client when I was a stockbroker in Washington! John is quoted on one of the websites about temples as being involved in the completion of this magnificent building.
I flew here last night from JFK on a Boeing 787 aircraft. It’s the largest aircraft I believe I’ve ever flown on unless it’s smaller than a 747. It was an eight hour nonstop flight from New York to Rome. I luckily got an aisle seat so I could stretch out a little bit but for much of the flight I stood up in the aisle and just stretched my legs. There are at least 40 rows of seats in the plane and the seats are in three sections across with three seats in each section. That’s at least 360 seats. At $430 a seat, which is what I paid, and I think most people paid a lot more, that would generate $150,000 of revenue in one flight for the airline. ✈️ 💰
The plane flew 4500 miles nonstop to Rome. It cruised at about 600 miles an hour. It flew at an elevation of around 39,000 feet, which is 10,000 feet higher than the top of Mount Everest. And it was smooth the whole way, with only two engines. It seems to be almost as long as a football field from the inside.
I took a cab from the airport for the 36 minute ride over to the Rome Temple grounds. I checked in for my free housing at the patron housing complex which is quite large. It’s a room with four bunkbeds, and I feel like a student in the dorms but that’s just fine! The on-site housing complex, shown below, used to house a bunch of missionaries. Now it’s patron housing, which worked out just fine!
Some sister missionaries took me on a tour of the visitors’ center and it is spectacular. I went inside the adjacent stake center and played the Kawai black piano for about 20 minutes. Perfect thing to do on my birthday! 🎹 🎂
One of the amazing things inside the visitors’ center is the stained glass mural depicting 100 incidents from Jesus Christ’s life. 
Mom called me to wish me happy birthday, and I made her guess where I was. I gave her two clue words: Cardinals and conclave. She nailed it right off the bat. Rome, Italy! This is a special year given that I’m turning 67, I was born on May 7, and I was also born on a Wednesday! This might be my most favorite Wednesday of my life other than the day I was born! 🙏 She encouraged me twice to get some good pizza and I followed her advice. It was about two blocks away inside of a large shopping mall. I scraped every last bit of the dark chocolate off the inside of the gelato cup. It was so good! Strawberries, cherries, pineapple, and vanilla gelato!
On the way back, I snapped this shot of the temple at night from across the street.
The use of stained glass, both inside and outside the temple, is unbelievable! It’s the finest use of stained glass that I’ve seen in any temple.
The temple grounds have a spectacular lavender flower-lined cascading waterfall to the east, which is very similar, though not as big, as what we did at the Oakland Temple. Christ is the living water and the source of all living water and here it flows from his temple nonstop.
As always, the grounds of the temple are spectacular, including four olive trees, transplanted here from inside of Italy that are apparently 400 to 500 years old!
After my visit, I met an old elementary school buddy, named Tyler Sheffield, who happened to be in the visitors’ center that day!
I then took the bus down through Rome, and visited the Colosseum! Then I hopped on the train, and went to Saint Peters Square!
I loved seeing the villas with their multi levels and their plants all around the balconies.
I’ve been to Our Ladies Church in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the original Christus statue stands. The chapel is lined with the apostles, who are also shown in the background here. I can’t believe I stood where such a famous photo was taken of the entire First Presidency and the Quorum of the 12 on their ONLY visit as a group outside the state of Utah!
At 7 o’clock I boarded Norse Airlines and flew back to New York City where I am now in the train station at 2:42 AM, waiting for my 5:45 AM departure back to Washington. All of this has been accomplished in 72 hours! Is this an amazing life or what?
Oh, I also did my weekly radio show from the Rome airport, which was a joy!