The Bullets last day in Italy was a memorable one. We started our final early wake up in the chaotic morning traffic of Rome en route for the holy Vatican City. The normal 20 minute bus ride took closer to an hour, but regardless we met up with our fantastic tour guide Manuela for the second day of sight seeing in Rome. After waiting in line and getting through security we entered into the city state that is home to the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church and Pope. Our tour started with going through the crowded Vatican Museum and viewing incredible displays of statues, tapestries, maps, coffins, and two thousand year old sculptures which all lead up to the breath-taking Sistine Chapel. Seeing the work of the world renowned artist Michelangelo was a once in a life time experience and was something that we will all remember for the rest of our lives. The paintings of Judgement Day and the original Creation were absolutely stunning and beautiful.
After passing through the famous chapel we headed to the largest church in the world, St. Peters Basilica. No words can do justice to the sheer size and beauty of this church. It was one of the most remarkable and breath taking structures we had all seen and seeing mummified bodies of former Popes made the sacredness of the greatest architecture of the Renaissance period even that more genuine. After parting ways with Manuela we had some free time to grab what seemed like the 1000th prosciutto and mozzarella panini of the trip followed by delicious gelato for the 7th day in a row. Spending time in such a historic and sacred place is an experience we will never forget.
As our time in Italy starts to dwindle down, it's starting to kick in that we have to leave this truly amazing country tomorrow morning. We have all learned so much on and off the court throughout this trip and we took full advantage of this opportunity to emerge ourselves into a foreign culture. On the court, we finished 2-2 against some great competition (and not so great refereeing) and got a real feel for what the European game is like. We executed a new offense and more importantly grew as a team. Next year the Bullets are going to be a serious problem for the rest of the Centennial Conference and we're all excited to come back and get after it again October 15th. Off the court we were able to fully dive into a new culture and get a taste of what going abroad would be like. Leo, our fantastic and funny tour guide, along with our other tour guides were all helpful in learning and trying new things. Italy has been an unforgettable trip for our whole team and there's no other group of guys we would have wanted to travel the world with. Hopefully we can all catch up on some sleep on the plane ride back. Ciao and go Bullets!
-Joey Carroll, Class of 2020
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