About 2am, I woke up with a coughing fit. It took a good while to stop, by which point I was thinking it unlikely that I would go the temple dedication in the morning. Fortunately, I was able to get back to sleep and awoke Sunday morning feeling decent, if weak. The Balzottis and I headed out at 7:15am to the Roma 2 chapel at Piazza Carnaro, where the dedication broadcast would be received. There are a number of chapels around Italy and the extended temple district where the broadcast can be seen. Basically, for the day the chapel becomes an extension of the temple, and you have to present a temple recommend to enter. We left so early because we thought that there might be a huge crowd, which ended up not being the case. Apparently the temple itself can hold 750 people for the event, which was basically reserved for Italians, as it should be. There would be sessions at 9am, noon, and 3pm.
When we got there, the place was completely empty. For a while we thought maybe we were in the wrong place, but finally people started showing up. Anyway, we got front row seats. The high councilor assigned to the building didn't get there until 8:15am, which was way too late because we all had to be in our seats at 8:30am for the 9am start. Anziano Balzotti started checking temple recommends in the meantime, and one of the young elders from Malta knew how to turn on the broadcast. Our chapel was pretty full, but there was no need to use any of the overflow rooms.
The dedication ceremony was wonderful, about 90 minutes long, including a brief pause while President Nelson and a number of other leaders, including the temple presidency. went out to put some cement on the cornerstone. There was choir outside to sing for him, and he had a fun time talking with everyone. Several young kids had been selected to take their turn at the cornerstone; they will definitely have a story to tell for the rest of their lives. President Nelson said that their efforts on the cornerstone were symbolic, and that it would have to re-done correctly.
Elder De Feo conducted the meeting, and the temple President and his wife, the Pacinis, spoke first, in very good Italian. Unfortunately, we realized that we were getting the English feed, so that the simultaneous translation into English was drowning out the Italian -- not good for the Italians in the group! Then the rest of the talks by President Ballard and Nelson were done in English, with alternating translation into Italian, so everyone could understand. President Nelson spent a bunch of time reviewing the history of the church in Italy, with many names recognized by a bunch of us. He read the entire, long dedicatory prayer in English, and then it was read again in Italian. After that there was the Hosanna shout, led by Bishop Caussè in very nice Italian. He obviously speaks French and English, but it surprised me when he spoke in Italian. Then we all sang "The Spirit of God", with a small choir (14 people) singing the "Hosanna Anthem" as a preface and descant. I sang that with the choir at the San Diego temple dedication in 1993, and I am asking around to see if I can get all the words in Italian. The whole ceremony was very moving. This has been a long time coming in Italy, and it was truly a day of rejoicing.
I got to see one of our GANS, Francesco Migliorisi, up from Sicily for the dedication, which was nice because he hadn't been around for a few months. On the way home we made some calls and messages to alert the broadcast team that they had the wrong feed going out, and they said it would be corrected. The rest of the day for me would be spent entirely in the apartment. I almost immediately took a 1.5 hour nap because I kept nodding off in my chair. Then I did some final loads of laundry so that my clothes can be dry enough to pack on Monday. I also wrote the Institute history for the 2019, bringing it up to date for the Motts to take over, using this blog as my guideline.
Several people, including the Magnantis, Simoncinis and Ugo, have kindly called or messaged to see how I am doing. I am still weak and tired, but each day seems to be slightly better. At this point, I think that I will be able to travel, if nothing gets worse. I was exhausted and in bed by 9pm.