Day 4 - Rome

Today was out last full day in Rome, so naturally I wanted to make the most out of it. While many opted to sleep in, my day started at 6:15 a.m. with a light jog to the park. This was my first visit the the park so I was interested to observe activity of the locals as I worked out. At the park, I witnessed for the first time people intentionally engaging in physical activity. Numerous people were out jogging. Ages of the joggers ranged from college age to senior citizens. Most ran alone, but there were a few who ran with their dogs or friends. As an aspiring P.E. teacher, I was thrilled to see that the Romans do in fact exercise.

When I made it back I ate the usual breakfast offered by Hotel Medici, which mostly consists of ham and cheese sandwiches as the main course. As I have eavesdropped in the conversations during breakfast I have noticed that the vast majority of the guests at our hotel speak English. I have met people from Michigan, Maryland, New York, Georgia, Ireland, and I have overheard some thick British accents. I feel like I am staying at a small English speaking haven within Rome.

After breakfast the first presentation was given on how social media, specifically Twitter, affects sport. This was a very interesting presentation on the way Twitter may revolutionize certain aspects of sport. In March 2009 44% of the major professional teams had Twitter, but by May of 2009 77% of the teams had Twitter. On a fun note, Shaquille O'Neil used to be one of the greatest basketball players in the world – now he is one of the world's greatest Twitterer (or Tweeter?) and has over a million followers. Twitter is an exciting up and coming form of social media that can be used for marketing and maybe even as a catalyst to reconstruct gender identities as it pertains to sport.

Unfortunately, a site visit was cancelled so we had to go to the beach (I know – it was horrible!). The beach was outside the city of Roma so we go to leave the city. On the bus ride, I noticed my first signs of sport as I saw my first basketball courts, weight room and soccer field since I had been in Italy.

When we finally arrived at the beach, the group had a great day on the Mediterranean Sea. Some examples of sport at the beach was volleyball, paddle ball and soccer. The highlight of my time there was when a quite older gentleman approached me and started playing football (soccer) with me. He could juggle a soccer ball all day with his feet. He could do every trick in the book and then some. At one point he laid down in mid-juggle to take a pretend nap – never letting the ball hit the ground! Needless to say, my skills were not up to par with his, however, he did say to me that 'You are a very big professional.' Even though he was probably just being nice, it made me feel good nonetheless. He also introduced the group to a variation of paddle ball, played with old wooden rackets and a tennis ball. We never learned the 'official rules', but it was still a lot of fun.

After the beach, the day ended with our second session of Italian lessons. The group was fairly tired, but worked hard to focus throughout the time. No one in the group will claim to be fluent in Italian, but baby steps are being made!

All in all, the day can be counted as a success – I'm not sure anyone is 100% ready to leave Rome; however, we are excited to see what adventures our next stop in Florence brings.

Ciao!

David Lovrien
Undergraduate student in Kinesiology