Italia!

This adventure has gone way too fast!  We're already in Florence, Italy.  We started a few days ago in Venice, where we visited a glass making factory on the nearby island of Murano.  We stayed on the island of Lido, where there was a nice little sandy beach.  We then went to Bologna, visiting Ducati as well as the Barilla Pasta Factory in Parma.  We got to meet with the President of the Barilla Academy, who showed us around and then sent us on a tour of a pasta making plant.  The kids had a great time.  We learned a lot about pasta, and how the Italians complement their pasta with sauce, while we Americans complement our sauce with pasta, i.e. we like a lot more sauce back home!  We watched pasta come through the machines, got to sample a little, and watched them dry it and box it up.

In the morning we make one last bus ride to Rome.  There we will say goodbye to Peter, our bus driver, and we will spend our last few days in that beautiful city.  We have loved Florence.  Some of us took a cooking class where we learned how to make pasta and pizza and gelato.  Others shopped the market, went out to the coast, stopping at Pisa along the way.

This morning we spent an hour getting to church in Florence.  It is a nice new building, where a ward was recently formed from the two branches here.  The church is growing strong.  The missionaries seemed happy, and the saints were delightful.  And the church bathroom was so clean.  It is amazing to see how much effort it takes just to get to church for these people in Europe.  So many don't have cars, so I'm sure doing much visiting of other members is not easy, as well.  They sure don't seem to mind.

Mark and I certainly hope all these wonderful students are soaking all of this in.  They've done much these past almost-five weeks.  They've been good sports and we are are glad to say their "ours."  Here are some pictures.  I've had very unreliable internet connections at our hotels, but hopefully this post will come through!  We are cherishing each moment we have with these young people in this beautiful part of the world!

At church in Florence.  Pictured with us is a BYU Dance Study Abroad group also in Italy.

Gelato!

 Brooke and Heidi, here, then Melanie and Allyson, four of our cooking school culinary cuties!

Holly, our assistant director, is on my right.  Joseph, our young man who is getting married soon after we return home, is on my left.  We tried to teach him everything he is going to need to know about marriage.  We all had a lot to say.  Poor guy was getting inundated, even from our single young women!  Here we are showing off our newly created Tiramasu.  The rest of the class got a kick out of us not adding coffee to it or drinking the wine they served with the pasta dishes.  

 Holly, Joseph, and Spencer in the back, rolling out their pasta dough.

Following are pictures of all the students, somewhat dark, at a dinner provided by our hotel in Lienz, Austria.

 And the beautiful bridge of sighs.  We loved Venice.  It even rained, and we still loved it.