Italy Tour - Day 8

Monday, May 21

7:45 am, Rome - Well, it was bound to happen...it's raining today. After getting up and eating breakfast (which is similar to the Florence "american breakfast"), we load up the bus and our umbrellas to head to today's tour of Rome. Once we get to our drop-off point, like in Pisa, we are surrounded by street vendors, this time brilliantly selling umbrellas and ponchos (they had to have made a fortune off of all the tourists today!). Several of us in the group go ahead and buy a few, as the rain has picked up a little.

Our first destination of the day is the Roman Colosseum. Here we met our Rome tour guide, Jac, who might be the most knowledgeable tour guide in all of Italy, but would occasionally get a bit long-winded on the smallest detail. Similar to the Accademia Gallery in Florence, we are allowed to pass up the extremely long line to get into the base of the Colosseum. WOW! This structure is enormous, and according to Jac, only took 10 years to construct. We wander to one of the top levels, while Jac continues to fill our heads with interesting history. It's amazing to think that something like this could be built so long ago, with so much attention being placed on the tiniest of detail. Lots of "thumbs down" (which apparently wasn't the signal for death like we learned in the "The Gladiator") came from our players - I wouldn't want to have fought in the arena if these guys were emporers!

As we are leaving the Colosseum, the rain lets up and the sun starts to shine again! This is fantastic because apparently the bus can't navigate the city center streets of Rome, so we will be walking to our next destination.

The second destination for our morning tour is the Forum. These ancient ruins are more of what should be expected of thousand years old buildings. Many of the buildings are now covered by land, but there are several structures that are still standing after all these years. It's impressive that Jac can know so much about even the smallest rock here.

Our players took a particular interest in some of the ancient columns. We're lucky there were no injuries.

As we are leaving the Forum, we run into Trinity Women's Basketball player Kelsey Daniel, who is on vacation with her family. You never know where you will see fellow Trinity people - the TU bubble spans the globe!

1:30 pm, Rome - After leaving the Forum, we walk around for a bit longer, looking for a good place to take 30+ people for lunch. Luckily, we come across a Pizzeria called Dora. The guys look exhausted. Some actually start falling asleep while waiting for their meals. Once the food started coming out though, they were wide awake...go figure!

We finish up another delicious Italian feast. Sadly, this is where we have to part ways with Sam. He needs to catch the metro to the airport so he can get back to work (if that's what you call it) the next day in Spain. It's amazing how cheap it is to fly around Europe - apparently it cost him less than 20 euro each flight!

3:00 pm, Rome - We continue our walking tour of Rome, this time on the way back to the bus. First we make a quick stop by the Trevi Fountain, which is the largest fountain in Rome (the city with 1000 fountains) and quite possibly one of the most famous fountains in the world. This piazza was PACKED. It took us a while just to regroup and find everyone to leave here.

The next stop on our trek back to the bus is the Scalinata della Tinita dei Monti, or as we all know it, the Spanish Steps. This is the widest staircase in Europe and the tourists/locals use them to the fullest. Each side of the staircase is at least cleared so that our guys can walk to the top and back down.

8:30 pm, Rome - Because we added a third game for this trip, we are having our "farewell dinner" tonight, rather than tomorrow night. We head back to the area we were last night and go to a restaurant called Capo de Fero. Like most of the restaurants we go to, we take over nearly the entire seating area and are definitely not the quietest dining guests.

Italy Tour - Day 7

Sunday, May 20

10:00 am, Siena – We packed up for the second time and left Florence after breakfast, this time stopping for a day-trip in Siena. This is one of the more unique cities we’ve ever been to. Located, what feels like, on top of a small mountain, the streets of Siena tend to stretch more vertical than horizontal. Trying to maneuver through the streets is similar to winding through a maze, with little help at times from the maps we were provided (just ask Coach Cunningham, who may or may not have lead his group the wrong direction a couple of times). The narrow, stone streets give Siena a unique authentic feel.

1:00 pm, Bettolle – Between Siena and Rome, we stop for lunch at a small restaurant named Enoteca Opera in a cool small hillside town, Bettolle.

5:00 pm, Rome – We arrive in Rome! After checking into our hotel, Eurostars Aeterna, Massimo drops us off at Piazza Trilussa for us to tour around the south end of Rome. It is much more crowded than the previous cities we toured, but not as hard to navigate around as Siena was. Every street we go down has interesting shops and small cafe/restaurants. The players are starving by now, so we find a cool little (standing room only) pizzaria-to-go called Da Li Cochi a Trastevere. It is interesting in Italy, pizzas by the slice (which is what our players got tonight) are usually thick, like what we are used to in America, but if you are at a restaurant and order a pizza, they are whole personal pizzas and thin crusted. The guys got plenty to eat and wandered around the streets of Rome, while the parents/coaches found a nice sit-down restaurant to pass the time.

Italy Tour - Day 6

Saturday, May 19

Morning, Florence – Saturday is a much needed “free day”. With so much traveling and touring, today we are given the day to just explore Florence on our own. Apparently this means “everyone go shopping”, because that is exactly what everyone did. While it should have been a day of resting our legs, in reality it probably is one of the more exhausting days, wandering up and down the streets, in and out of so many shops. A few of the husbands on the trip are appropriately weighted down with leather purses and shopping bags!

1:00 pm, Florence – We reconvene at the Piazza Santa Maria Novella and follow Rebecca and Marta to our lunch destination, Cipolla Rossa Osteria. Still haven’t had a bad meal here in Italy.

Evening, Florence – After lunch, we are again free to roam Florence. Later in the evening, some of the group just sat in the hotel bar and watched the UEFA Championship game where Chelsea beat Bayern Munich in one of the most intense soccer games anyone has witnessed.

Italy Tour - Day 5

Friday, May 18

10:15 am, Florence – The breakfast at AC Firenze is definitely considered an “American breakfast”, with eggs and bacon, but also has Italy bakery selections. After we get up and have plenty to eat, we meet downstairs where Rebecca and Marta are waiting to take us towards the Florence city center and our walking tour of the city’s attractions. We arrive at the Piazza Santa Maria Novella (which is obviously in front of the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella) and meet our tour guide for the day, Sara.

From here we make our way through the narrow streets of Florence to the Palazzo Strozzi. This palace is extremely interesting because the locals were actually able to walk around the downstairs portion, while the owners stayed on the upper floors overlooking the miniature courtyard.

After walking through the Palazzo Strozzi, we make our way through an enormous archway which leads to the Piazza del Repubblica. This is one of the larger plazas in the city and is lined with a lot of restaurants and shops. One point of interest in this plaza is an old city map of Florence that shows the layout of all the local historical buildings.

We head south from the Piazza del Repubblica and walk on Florence’s most famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio. This isn’t your typical bridge as, not only does it have an amazing view of the river and city surrounding it, but it is lined with shops that sell jewelry and other items only made of gold. Quite a bit out of our souvenir budget, none of the guys stop to buy anything, just to look.

Once we are able to drag some of the parents away from the gold shops, we make our way to Florence’s most famous plaza, Piazza della Signoria. This plaza holds one of the most amazing (and underrated) galleries in Italy, Galleria degli Uffizi, along with Palazzo Vecchio, and the Museo Gucci. Our guys stop for a while to get plenty of pictures with all of the statues outside of Uffizi, before we continue on.

Our next stop is definitely a sight that everyone needs to have on their bucket list – the Piazza del Duomo, which holds the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. This unfinished cathedral is enormous! It is hard to put into words how spectacular this structure is, as every inch of the building is so detailed.

Our last stop of the tour is the Galleria dell Accademia, also known as the home of Michelangelo’s David. Luckily Rebecca had the tickets ahead of time and we were able to go in right away, because the line outside went all the way down the block! Once inside, we were not allowed to take pictures and anyone who disobeyed was quickly yelled at – “NO PHOTO, NO VIDEO!” While the Accademia holds lots of rare and amazing paintings/statues, the Statue of David trumps them all. The sheer size of the statue is impressive and pictures don’t do it justice, but the detail of the statue is what puts this piece of art in a league of its own. Sara tells us that Michelangelo actually slept at the feet of David for the three years that it took him to sculpt it – now that’s dedication to your craft!

2:00 pm, Florence – After our tour with Sara, we pop into a nearby restaurant, Trattoria Zio Gigi, for lunch. This place is exactly what you think of when you think of a small Italian restaurant, there is even a boisterous waiter named Tony who pretty much sang 75% of the time we’re there. It is another delicious meal, but the highlight of the experience is when Tony sang to Coach Cunningham’s wife, Mary Jo, for her birthday. It’s not every day you get serenaded in a restaurant in Italy for your birthday!

7:30 pm, Empoli – It’s been another long day on our feet and, again, it shows during our second game of the tour. We drive about 15 minutes outside of Florence to play USE Empoli, which feels like a suburb of Florence. The gym is very nice for a smaller European club (Rebecca tells us this team is in one of the top leagues of Italy, but not the premier division). The game is a little bit better than the first, but not by much. We struggle with making shots and keeping up with the European pace, especially since we have 4 players on the injured reserve for the game (both of our point guards didn’t play). The competition is very good – Empoli can really shoot the ball. We end up losing the game 82-87 to probably the best team we will face on this trip. From a basketball standpoint, it was a great experience for a lot of our guys, as we had to ask a few new faces to handle the basketball against their full court pressure.

Italy Tour - Day 4

Thursday, May 17

10:30 am, Viareggio – After getting up and eating breakfast at the hotel, we load up the bus and check out of our Lucca hotel. Our first stop is about 30 minutes west of Lucca in a smaller beach town called Viareggio. It is a beautiful day for the beach, so three of our guys actually change into their swimsuits and make their way into the Ligurian Sea! The water is a little too cold for the rest of the guys that brought swimsuits, so most of us wander up and down the beachfront town, checking out the shops and gelato stands.

1:00 pm, Pisa – We got back on the road from Viareggio and continued on our way to Florence. This time, we make a minor detour and visit Pisa. Immediately when we get off our bus, we are introduced to the Italian street-vendors. Equipped with cardboard box tops filled with items like sunglasses, umbrellas, “real rolex” watches, and any plenty of other trinkets for sale, about 10 of them surround us as we get off the bus one by one. A few of our guys are convinced they are getting a “good price” and buy sunglasses, only to attract the attention of more vendors. We eventually get on another bus system that takes us directly to the entrance of the Pisa city center, which holds the famed Leaning Tower of Pisa. For about an hour, we get all the pictures near the structure we can get and wander the streets to find a very late lunch. It almost feels like an amusement park because there are so many people and tour groups packing the streets of Pisa. Many of us stop at the Pisa Café and eat some pizza for about 20 minutes. After coming back out of the restaurant and seeing the Leaning Tower again, it almost feels like a fake backdrop – it’s such an amazing sight.

4:30 pm, Florence – We finally regrouped and left Pisa for the hour long drive to Florence. Once we get into the city, we check into our hotel – AC Firenze. It is a very different hotel from the one in Lucca – a bit bigger and more modern feeling. The best part about our arrival to the hotel is that we are greeted by 2011 Trinity Basketball alum Sam Dworkin (who had been waiting for a while because we were over an hour late getting to the hotel). Sam is currently working in Spain and decided to fly over to Italy to join in the fun. We all get settled into our rooms and meet downstairs for a “rundown” of what was in the immediate area from Rebecca and Marta. Most of the group leaves the hotel to familiarize themselves with the streets of Florence.

8:30 pm, Florence – We have our first dinner in Florence at a place called Rosticceria La Spada. This is where our group is first introduced to the appetizer of duck liver on toasted bread. Let’s just say, some liked it, and some couldn’t stop talking about how brave they were to try it.