The first full day for the Panthers in Italy is in the books.
First, let me get the bag news out of the way – there is none. But all credit to Fabio for bugging Alitalia all day long about where it is at. Hopefully it comes on the flight from Chicago in the morning. I did get a snappy white t-shirt from Alitalia for my troubles.
The flight itself was relatively uneventful. The dinner meal involved a choice between beef and fish, which brought up a few “Airplane!” comments among those of us that are a tad bit older. I will note that those of us that had the fish had no troubles, unlike those on that fateful, Ted Striker-led flight. But, there were plenty of other “Airplane!”-related jokes on the rest of the flight and throughout the first day of the trip.
Now, on to the touring, and a full day it was, especially when you consider a lot of the group was operating on just a couple of hours of sleep. Fabio actually met us in baggage claim, and then once we passed out through customs, Craig Jonas and Cal White of Basketball Travelers also joined us. We were on the bus for only about 30 minutes – with the first blog post and tweets coming about 15 minutes into that journey – until reaching the city center. From there, another guide hopped on board to give the group a guided tour of Rome as we tooled about the city on the bus.
Eventually, we all got off the bus at the Colosseum and, after 15 minutes of wandering outside for pictures, our group headed in and received a guided tour of the awe-inspiring ancient monument. While I don’t think any of us are signing up for gladiator duty any time soon, you can certainly see how a crowd of 73,000 Romans cheering and jeering might spur you into action. It truly was a “sports” stadium centuries before its time.
Our tour continued on foot to the Roman Forum and the City Square. It is hard not to be struck but the sheer amount of ruins that are “maintained” in the middle of the city. While you don’t have any truly modern buildings next to the Colosseum or anything like that, these ruins are situated within a few blocks of what I am sure are nice condos/apartments with decent views of those ruins from a fifth or sixth floor. It’s hard to say you even have a feel for it after just one day, but the city truly blends the very, very old with the semi-new or new.
Lunch saw the group split up in three or four directions, all pointed out by Fabio. He made sure to tell the group that Italy is the country of “slow food.” So, if you sit down in a restaurant and you’re hoping to be in and out in 30 or 45 minutes, forget it. Instead, look for “snack bars” or sandwich stands and grab your lunch from there. So, we all did just that, with most of the group sampling some kind of pasta or sandwich for our first official meal in Italy.
The team did then get a chance to check into the hotel and catch a quick cat-nap, though much of the group followed Craig and Cal to the local grocery store about five blocks away to buy water, fruit, bread, snacks, etc, for those in-between meal times. You can’t forget these guys will be playing four basketball games, and it is unlikely on those days that three meals will cut it.
The late afternoon and evening brought about a trip to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, both accessible via an underground walk from our hotel. Despite the fact it was optional and will be a likely stop on Wednesday, about half the team made the walking trek to a pair of popular tourist attractions. Those visits led to dinner, with no shortage of choices from the snack bars to the sit-down restaurants. As advertised, though, if you want to eat for real you need to be prepared to shell out a few euros.
Vatican City awaits Tuesday in what promises to be one of the biggest highlights of the trip. I’ll have a full report with photos and more tomorrow.
