Finally today we were able to get in to climb the dome at St. Peter's Basilica - and it wasn't raining either. We walked over and got in the line which was not as bad as yesterday, but still worse than we saw last week. Luckily the line moved pretty quickly. When we were about 50 feet from the metal detectors we realized we were carrying my Swiss army knife - the ONLY thing they explicitly tell you is not permitted in St. Peter's. We thought that yet again, we would not be able to see the dome. We decided we would just go through the security check-point and take our chances. Its not easy to say if its a "good" or a "bad" thing, but the woman watching the metal detector got a phone call and was smoking a cigarette as we put our bags through. Needless to say, she was distracted and didn't notice what was in our bags. It was lucky for us, but made us a little worried about what else gets past security guards...
We climbed up the 500 or so steps to the top of the dome, with a stop halfway to walk around the inside of the dome. Up at the top there were some great views of the city, as we fought through the crowds to get some pictures. Once we had seen it all, we started our climb down and went in search of some lunch. We made our way across the river towards the area around Piazza Navona. As we were walking across the bridge, we both noticed that the adjacent bridge looked a little funny. It took us a moment to realize that due to all the rain, the water level of the river had risen (after we got home and compared pictures from a few days ago, it seems the water level is now about 10-15 feet higher!) It's a little crazy because the running path that we were just on three days ago is completely submerged - and more heavy rain is anticipated through the end of the week. If that wasn't enough, that is when we noticed the R.O.U.S. For those who haven't seen or read "The Princess Bride", R.O.U.S is the acronym for Rats Of Unusual Size. There was an enormous rat at the foot of the stairs, getting in and out of the water. We had seen some large animal swimming in the river a few days ago, and we thought it was an otter. Nope. It was a rat. This thing was ridiculous. We had to take out the telephoto lens to get a good picture of it - you might want to skip those photos from today's album if you'd rather maintain a different image of Rome in your head.
We walked for enough time get the rat-image out of our head so we could each lunch, and then proceeded to walk throughout Rome just enjoying one of our last few days here. We stopped at home to start organzing our things to make sure everything will fit in our bags, and then went back across the river for some dinner at a recommended pizzeria. We made it home after dinner just as the clouds opened up and it started to pour. Since it's supposed to rain through the night, we're curious how high the river will be tomorrow.
Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:
Mike - Oreo e Caramel and Mela Cannella e Pera Carmel
Aviva - Fiori di Lavanda con Pesce (Lavendar flavored gelato with pieces of peaches) e Zenzero
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