Another Roman Adventure!

The following was written on my iPod. Please excuse the huge number of spelling and grammar mistakes!!!

We just finished off another jampacked day in rome. Saw the Trevi fountain (huge!), forum, coloseum, pantheon, everything! But even with all that, yesterday was our big exciting day. 

We had a late start to the day, packed a lunch and headed out to the catacombs. So cool! Over 500 000 people were buried there at one point and 4 underground levels cover 20km. We only got to see the first level but pie guide made it pretty sweet. He was an older Philipino brother who was unintentionally hilarious. We were divided into groups by languages and the best part came when our guide, in an urgent tone, called out to our group, " we must hurry. The Germans are
Coming!"

Very very nice man . he bought Tom and me a cappuccino (from the coolest machine ever ) later on.

After re catacombs we took our fist bus back to town and were
PlAnning to just head back when we saw a huge crown growing around st Giovanni church. Turns out the pope was going to be making an appearance. We decided to stick around and were about 100 metres away from the front with an unobstructed view. Then they opened a gate and we managed to get about 15 meters away from the front! Now, I have to warn you, this is shaping up to be one of those"and then... And then" types of posts, so bear with me. So there we Are, 15 metres away from were the pope will be any minute now and Tom turns to me and says,
"looks like rain"
RAin is an understatement.
What happened next can only be described as an absolute torrential downpour, worse than I have ever seen in Vancouver! Me in my goodie and Tom in shorts and a tshirt( what else) were absolutely drenched within seconds. Wihin the minutes that the rain started we realized that they were  going to hold mass in the church instead and were about to head home soaked and dissapointed, until someone near us opened up the gate and people everywhere started rushing the church . Tom and I said what the heck and joined in, pushing nuns and priests out of our way as we scrambled for A spot in the curch (just kidding, it was the nuns who pushed us, they really wanted to see the pope).

Excuse me as I take a sip of my Italian wine, this is exausting!

Ok, so we are now soaked, and pressed up against the side of this enormous church wondering where to go because some peoe are leaving and others are still scrambling to get in. Then, someone again opens a gate and we all rush into the front covered area of the curch ( where the swiss guards were during all this I do not know! ). Now we are soaked and standing in the massive foyer of this church wall to wall wih people. Then they let us in and we end up listening to thr pope deliver mass in the most beautiful churches I have evr seen, from about 50 meters away. Words cannot describe how cool our day was. 

As we made our way home at 9 that night, freezing, starving, and feet acching (when do they not), we knew we had pretty much the best day in Rome ever!

Phew, well, off to sorrento tomorrow! And it is now time for some bruchetta.