A Catholic News Service article on big crowds in Rome:

According to the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household, more than 2.8 million people attended the weekly general audiences, the Sunday blessings, special papal audiences or liturgical celebrations at which Pope Benedict presided.

Also, the number of visitors going through the doors of the Vatican Museums in 2005 broke all records, even surpassing the huge crowds that came during the jubilee year when the museums extended opening hours into the afternoon. Last year, more than 3.8 million people squeezed through the turnstiles. That number was up from more than 3.4 million people in 2004.

Some speculate the unprecedented global media coverage the Vatican received during last April’s papal transition had a hand in putting Rome and the Vatican back on the map as a sought-after tourist destination for both secular globetrotters and Christian pilgrims.

While curiosity about the new pope and the desire to pay homage to the late pontiff with a pilgrimage to his tomb have accounted for some of the boom in visitors, one tour guide said there are other factors involved.

For example, the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the euro, which became Italy’s official currency in 2002, has stabilized, said Paul Encinias, co-founder of the Rome-based Eternal City Tours.

"That means there’s more economic accessibility" for tourists coming from the United States, he said.

While the number of visitors "has definitely increased since last April, it was already on the rise from two years ago," he said.

"I would say having a new pope accounts for about 5 percent" of the increase in the number of visitors who use the company, said Encinias.

There’s more – an interesting article, as I said.

Paul Encinas and Eternal City Tours sponsor Theology on Tap in Rome – Here’s their website, and if you click on the TOT logo you can see some photos of, er, recent events.

All of the Roman residents I spoke to on this topic noted that crowds were, indeed growing in Rome. We were there in late February, "off-season," and one person, I don’t remember who, noted that the lines to get into St. Peter’s at that time were at a size you might not have seen, in past years, until later spring…