Day 7 of 10

Italy - Blessed by the Pope

In August of 2002, Jared and I flew to Italy for our official honeymoon. The plan was to land in Italy on Tuesday, have a marital blessing by Pope John Paul II on Wednesday, tour Rome on. Thursday and Friday and then join a tour group for 10 days.
On our flight to Italy the pilot came on and asked there was a doctor on board. He asked three times and no one ever answered so I went back to the flight attendants and said I was a nurse and could I help.  It turned out there was a flight attendant having a heart attack. So I had to treat her on the plane while in contact with the Mayo Clinic. The decision was made to divert our plane and have the flight attendant taken to the hospital.  When are plane was diverted in  Detroit, the pilot came out to personally thank me for my help,  gavee Jared and I a copy of the flight plan, a free bottle of wine, and moved us up to first class.
We landed in Rome on Tuesday and Wednesday morning  was one of the best days of my life. We went we went by tour bus to Castle Gondolfo, the Pope's summer home. We witnessed the Pope's blessing and then we had our opportunity to kneel in front of Pope John Paul II and we were each asked for one thing for the Pope to  pray. I asked for one healthy child and Jared prayed for good health. We are very fortunate that both of our prayers were answered. Two years later Steven joined our family and Jared had 14 years of good health. When I knelt in front of Pope John Pail II, I kissed his ringd and he kissed my cheek. When Pope John Paul II kissed my cheek I began to weep.   As he prayed for us and blessed us I honestly have no idea what he said. I was just so overcome with emotion. Later that night I said to Jared what did the Pope say and he said "I have no idea I couldn't hear because someone was crying so much."  We went back the next day and bought the video of our audience with Pope John Paul II.  It is one of my most treasured videos.
For the next few days we toured Rome and the Vatican City and had a wonderful time. And then we joined a tour group to see Florence  Lake Majourie, and Venice. In Florence, we climbed to the top of The Duomo. I'm completely claustrophobic and hate tight spaces but I climbed all those steps to the top of the Duomo in Florence and it was a breathtaking view.  Lake Maggiore was beautiful it reminded me of Switzerland.  We spent tge day touring tge beautiful city. We absolutely loved  Venice. We went on the gondola ride and the gondoliers sang to us and kept calling us honeymooners. When we returned to Rome, we stopped at Tivoli fountain and threw coins in the fountain in hopes we would return.  In Vatican City we climbed to the top of the Vatican to see the Pope's Gardens. Wow, what a view.  Our last night in Rome we went to a little restaurant in Tivoli that was part of the cave.  We made our own pasta and danced while our was being cooked. That night we went with some others in the tour group to a  nightclub. It was very interesting because there  clubs are all outside. We had a wonderful night of laughing and dancing. And yes,  Jared even danced.
This vacation was one of our most special times and special gifts to each other. Not only did we have our marriage blessed by the Pope, we had a once in a lifetime vacation.