Day 1 in Rome with AFW

 Aidan and I are spending the next week in Italy with American Football Worldwide! It's an amazing opportunity to travel with a fun group of people and incredible guides through a country that I've always wanted to go to but have been a bit intimidated by - the language and the distance between cities seems a bit challenging!

We started our journey on Saturday morning. Instead of flying from DCA to JFK, I thought we would drive and park up there. That will let us go to Trinity when we get back - since we will already be halfway there! The traffic from DC to NYC was a bit heavier than expected and it poured the entire way up there. We ended up being about an hour later to the parking lot than we had hoped and had missed the last shuttle to the airport - the website did NOT say that there were limited shuttles!!  Just by luck, the shuttle driver was still there and was so kind. He agreed to take us over to the airport and dropped us off exactly in the right place - with plenty of time to spare! Aidan and I were pretty stressed - although in reality, we were still about an hour early. The tour had just built in a lot of extra time - for people like us! :(

We got checked in to our flight, made our way through security with no issues and got something to eat in preparation for the overnight flight. The flight left around 4:30 and the travel time to Rome is only about 6 1/2 hours - we tried to get as much sleep as possible. I think I slept about 3-4 hours total but I don't think Aidan slept more than an hour or so. We landed in Rome at 6:30 am local time and I think we were the first flight in to the airport that morning. We made it through customs and immigration quickly and got our bags. The other flights in our tour were arriving in a few hours so we hung out with the families on our flight and got some coffee and croissants at the cafe in the airport. It was fun to meet everyone and the boys started to strike up friendships and find connections. We even found out that another boy on the tour is going to Trinity!

After everyone arrived at the airport, we headed out on an awesome double decker bus to the center of Rome. We started at the Spanish Steps and then got to wander around and grab some lunch at a restaurant. We ate with another family and some boys who came without parents. It was amazing - sitting in the sun in Rome, eating pizza on a beautiful side street. It was also Palm Sunday (they use olive branches in Rome instead of Palms!) and so many people were out, walking back from church. It was amazing people watching!

From there, we met back up at the Spanish steps and met our guide, Flavia, for a walking tour of the city. We walked all over - hit a lot of the highlights - Trevi Fountain etc - and ended up at the Vatican where we waited in line for about an hour to go into the Basilica of St. Peter. It was worth every minute in line and I wish we could have stayed inside longer! It was the most incredible church I have ever seen - even better than Notre Dame! While we were inside, a storm came through with rain, lighting and hail!! Thankfully we weren't outside in line during that time! We had to wait a bit for the bus to come and we got a bit we walking to the bus but I was thankful that we had carried our raincoats and umbrellas around all day! 

Once we got on the bus everyone collapsed and the boys all slept for about 20 minutes as we drove to the restaurant for dinner. We got a quick preview of tomorrow and saw just a sliver of the Colosseum as we drove by. The restaurant was amazing - it was underground and the ceiling was brick arches. It felt like being in the catacombs - in a good way! The food was delicious - the first course was two types of pasta - a carbonara and a red sauce, the second was chicken with roasted bell peppers and olives and green beans, dessert was puff pastry and vanilla pastry cream. We left happy and full but exhausted and ready for bed! Our hotel is outside of the center of Rome - close to fields so the boys can walk to practice in the morning. Once we got our keys and bags and got up to the room we collapsed. Almost 2 days with no sleep is a lot!

Photos from Day 1 - https://beckycullinan.smugmug.com/American-Football-Worldwide-Italy-2023/Rome-Day-1/