Fishing in the big city.

Well, Sean has not been able to stop talking about this since it happened, so I promised him a blog on it. The other day, as we were crossing the bridge over the Tevere River, as we do everyday to get anywhere in the city, something caught our attention. First off, the river doesn't seem like it would be the cleanest or most natural of rivers, especially since it runs right through the center of this over-populated, congested, huge city, with more motos, buses and little 2-seater cars imaginable running around it. We were even convinced we saw a rat, or possum, or some sort of rodent swimming through it once when crossing late at night...whatever it was, it was huge and had a tail and was not a fish. There is also this area in the river where about 50 plastic bottles live, along with other random debris, including a few soccer balls, none of which have moved since we moved in. So with that said, I wasn't convinced this river was comparable to any of the rivers we are used to seeing out in the wilderness surrounded by wildlife and trees and majestic mountains. Anyway, we have seen a few people fishing here and there, but never thought much of it...until this fateful day. We were strolling across and in the distance saw a man with his huge fishing pole completely bent at a 90 degree angle. He was having a massive power struggle with whatever was caught on the other end of his pole. We stopped to watch the spectacle, eager to know the outcome. We both thought, maybe it was the huge possum or rat, or maybe it was a boot or huge piece of garbage. He fought for a good 20 minutes, and we remained intrigued the whole time. He asked a friend for help, he was running all over the place holding on to his pole, desperate to reel in whatever it may have been. And then, finally, he ran down to the water's edge with a net and swooped up a HUGE 20lb, 3-4 foot fish! I am not a fish fan, but this thing was pretty unreal. Sean was jumping up and down with excitement, practically applauding the man. It was pretty amazing. I had no idea a fish like that even existed, let alone in this river running right by our apartment in the middle of a city I could only compare to that of NYC in the US. Sean's mission in life now is to find out what kind of bate he was using, and is currently in the market for fishing gear. I just pray he doesn't ever walk through the door with a fish almost bigger than me and expect me to cook it. We don't quite look at the river the same way, and now every time we pass it, we have to stop for a while to see if we might be witness to another exciting catch.