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

Day 3 - Rome

We are finally all recovered from jet lag!! Today started with a late breakfast which in my case consisted of some bread with hazelnut chocolate spread called nutella on it with some yogurt, orange juice and some fruit cocktail. I tried the carbonated water (aqua con gas) today but was not a fan what so ever.

After breakfast some students met to go to St. Peters Basilica in anticipation to hear a church blessing from the Pope. However, luck was not in their favor and instead they viewed a service from the large screens in the plaza. It was not totally packed, but many still enjoyed the experience.

Others, like myself, chose to get a work out in and go on a stroll through villa Borghese. It was not like any typical park in the US with playground equipment and basketball courts. Instead it was full of sculptures fountains and little stores selling beverages and snacks. The park also included a few amusement rides and video games. The park was full of families bicycling and walking though the park, many of which brought their dogs. Some dogs were not on their leashes and the park also had a large area for dogs, had a zoo on the outside of the park and had the main attraction, Galleria Borghese.

The afternoon was filled with soccer excitement. We visited a promo for the upcoming Euro Cup Final. We witnessed mini soccer matches played by the youth. I watched a match of boys from Italy play small sided 5 on 5 soccer. They were no older than 10 but their skills were well beyond their age of the soccer players in the US. Not only did they play like the professionals: faking injuries, flopping for calls, wasting time and having dramatic finishes with kisses to the crowd and hugging their coach. There were easily 100 fans watching the game, chanting cheers and the emotions of the crowd added to the dramatic finish in Penalty kicks where the winning team praised the crowd in triumph and the losing boys cried and pouted in disbelief in their parent's arms, throwing their shirts and kicking the sponsorship ads behind the goal.

Speaking of sponsors, we moved onto the European Beach Soccer championships where there were numerous sponsors at the event, on billboards, flags around the stadium and ad panels surrounding the game. The beach soccer was a site to see. We witnessed youth; women and men play the game. The men's final was a dramatic one where the Spanish defeated the Swiss in the championship game. The game was played barefoot with no shin guards 5 on 5 with a keeper. The game was fairly fast pace with possession being played mostly in the air off of juggling skills and the keepers throwing the ball the length of the field. Through it all both the men and women were very gifted with the ball and we saw a wide range of goals scored off of headers, corners, free kicks and volleys. We even witnessed a few bicycle kicks.

Between the matches some of the students visited the Roman Forum, where Caesar was buried. The grave still has flowers on it and it was once the center of ancient Rome.

Tomorrow we look forward to another hot day involving a journey to the beach and our second Italian lesson.

-Bryan Bender
Master's of Education in Applied Kinesiology
Sport Management

Day 2 - Rome

Today was an excellent day for our group. We went to the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica, as well as the Colosseum. At the end of the day we have an Italian language lesson.

On the way to the Vatican we went outside the original gates of Rome. They are centuries old, however, I forgot how they are. At the Vatican there were amazing sculptures, paintings, and tapestries. It was interesting to find out that the sculptures were originally painted. We passed one sculpture that had eyes painted on it, but most of the sculptures we saw were simply stone colored.

On the visit to St. Peter’s we were able to see the end of a church service. We originally did not know the service was going on, we heard organ music playing and began to wonder. As the service ended the guards blocked the crowd so they could walk past us to their quarters.

At the Colosseum we were able to see where the trap doors for the animals to come out, as in the movie Gladiator. A stage was being set up at one end of the Colosseum. As it turns out Andrea Bocceli is going to play at the Colosseum on Monday night as a prelude to the football game on Wednesday. I was really intrigued by the Constantine’s Gate. It was massive (See photo above.)


Also, the Champions Cup (UEFA) is going to be played in Rome on Wednesday. We walked through the Champions Village near the Colosseum.

The end of the day was a chance for us to learn some Italian. Our instructor Maria was very good and we had a lot of laughs as we butchered our way through the language attempting to use Spanish and Spanglish. I think many of us will begin to use Spatalian.

For the night we decided to split up for dinner and enjoy a great evening in Rome.

Ciao,
Kitrick, Applied Kinesiology Master of Education (Sport Management)

Day 1 - Minneapolis - Newark - Rome

Ciao tutti!

Thank you for visiting the blog of the University of Minnesota's Global Sport Management class. For the next two weeks, 15 Gopher students and one awesome professor will be traveling through Italy and Switzerland. Making stops in Rome, Florence, Treviso, Milan (Italy), Lausanne and Geneva (Switzerland), we will be experiencing European culture with a specific emphasis on sport and globalization. 

Today, we arrived in Rome after a long day of travel from Minneapolis to Rome (via Newark, NJ).  Our hotel is located quite close to the Ville Borghese and after we dropped off our luggage, the group split up, with two goals in mind -- checking out the sites and staying awake! The pictures below show that at least we were successful in the former, as a gaggle of us walked to the Four Fountains, the Spanish Steps, the Piazza del Popola, the Fiume Tevere (Tiber River) and the Trevi Fountain.  - Austin Calhoun, Ph.D. student in Sport Sociology

For a complete look at all the pictures from our travels, check out our Flickr page. You can also follow as on Twitter (@GopherItalia)!