Rain, Rain, Go Away...

This morning we were woken up by one of the most intense thunderstorms I've ever seen. Its rarely rained for us here in Rome. We've had maybe three days of rain since we've arrived in August. It started around 4am our time, and continued until around 11am. Our entire complex was flooded, and it was absolutely downpouring. There was pretty intense thunder and lightning too, which is what woke us up. Our window decided to open itself (the windows here are probably around thousand years old, so I guess I can't blame them), so I was also getting slightly rained on along with all of my drying laundry. It looked like an old horror movie. When they say that when it rains in Rome, it really rains, they weren't kidding. There were also flocks of black birds flying. They've been around on other days too, but in addition to the rain, thunder and everything else, it looked like the world was about to end.

Our complex is definitely not meant for flooding. The entire courtyard had at least an inch of water, and the entire ground floor pathway was flooded because of the poor drainage and water spilling from above. Apparently our complex used to be a church and convent, so I'd assume it wasn't designed to handle a lot of rain. It was scary though, seeing water just pouring everywhere. We had water leaking in the building too, from the ceilings and windows. Our entire main area and kitchen were soaked because the window was left slightly ajar. I've rarely seen it rain that hard for that long.
Our cartography walk was cancelled, though I'm legitimately surprised that Allan Ceen cancelled anything. The rain did let up around 10:30 in the morning, and the day was decent after that. The Tiber was overflowing for the entire day, and was brown from all of the drainage. We learned about the river walls that were installed in 1870, and I can see why they need them now.
All in all, its refreshing to see different weather, but this storm was actually pretty scary. It was a really intense thunderstorm with a lot of rain and hail. I don't really feel as safe in buildings here as I do at home. We have no screens here, and we aren't sealed from the outside as well either. I guess I'll appreciate American construction when I'm back.