Today was off to a slow start. Carson and I slept in and hung around the campsite until the afternoon before finally heading into town. We met Mike and Konsti (who had left earlier to do some sightseeing) by the obelisk in St. Peter's Square and then joined the line to enter St. Peter's Basilica, which was considerably shorter than yesterday. When we got past security, we realized that it was acceptable for guys to wear shorts. We had worn pants the last 3 days in the heat because we thought they were required (the first two days we just didn't make it to the basilica). Our disappointment was instantly forgotten when we entered the building. St. Peter's Basilica is the most incredible church I've ever seen. Westminster Abbey, York Minster, Notre Dame and all the others pale in comparison. The ceilings towered what must have been a hundred feet above us and every inch of the interior is decorated with statues, paintings and mosaics. We stood in awe of the sheer size of the place (it is the largest church in the world) and explored around, taking in the beauty of it all. In one area, people were crowded around a glass case snapping pictures of what turned out to be the embalmed corpse of one of the popes. Definitely wouldn't want my dead body on display for everyone! We decided we wanted to go to the top of the dome, so we spent the 7€ and then we were on the elevator on the way up. The elevator can only take you to the base of the dome and then there 300+ steps to the very top. As you ascend, the hallway starts tilting with the curve of the dome so it felt like we were walking sideways most of the time. We eventually reached the summit and gazed out onto the Eternal City. In the distance we could make out the Colosseum, Capitol Hill and various other locations we'd already visited. It was an incredible view and we ended up hanging out at the top until they closed and were the very last to leave. We had dinner at a restaurant in the area outside the Vatican and then headed back to camp. We hung out by the barbeque area, playing games and chatting with people, until we moved over to the club like usual and danced our hearts out. When we grew tired of that, we sat in the parking lot outside reception and chatted with some French guys before Carson, Mike and I realized we were really hungry. We headed up to the laundry room that has a snack machine where Mike tried unsuccessfully to break the glass front. Just when we thought we would have to go hungry, we found a bag of chips someone had left on the table which we ripped open and devoured. Somewhat satisfied, we were going to leave when Mike found another bag of chips on the ground outside. We were chowing down, celebrating our genius, when we looked down into the remaining crumbs... and realized it was crawling with ants. And we had just eaten an entire bag of them (extra protein, right?!). After that, we figured it was probably time to call it a night before we do anything else stupid so we returned to our tents and drifted off into sleep. I had such an awesome time hanging out with Mike and Konsti, it's a shame that we're leaving tomorrow. But they invited us to stay with them for Oktoberfest (and even offered to lend us their spare leiderhosen), so Carson and I will have to return and party with our German friends again!