The last weekend of February saw Luc & I in Rome on a rugby tour – Luc as one of the HilDogs Colts (the 2022/2023 U18 cluster team of Rugby Club Hilversum and Almere Bulldogs); I was one of the 5 adult companions, together with Nadia, Nicole (team manager), and Patrick & Richard (team coaches). The idea was to provide the youngsters with a tour as part of their last year, and this would incorporate the Six Nations match Italy v Ireland, as well as a game with a local club.
Preparations had been under way for a while: together with a personal contribution there were also a number of generous sponsors for the tour, but the Colts themselves had to do a fundraising drive too to raise a required €1.000,- to ensure sufficient funding.
The weekend started early on Saturday, with a 6.55am departure from Amsterdam to Rome. Upon arrival a train ride into Termini Station was followed by a short walk to the hotel to drop our baggage and freshen up. From there a short metro ride to Ottoviano, from where we walked as a group along the Via Angelico to the Stadio Olimpico.
The Six Nations match itself was a great kick-off to our weekend, to say the least. A number of the youngsters applied varying degrees of warpaint, clearly all in the Italian camp(!). Our seats were in the north-western corner, ideal during the 1st half with the volume of Irish tries scored in from of us. And the atmosphere …: vibrant, loud, with resounding choruses of I-ta-lia, I-ta-lia, I-ta-lia, and great rugby.
We rounded off the day with a communal dinner not too far from the hotel.
Sunday had an early-ish start, so as to be able to get to our match location at Unione Rugby Capitolina, including a mad rush to organise enough taxi’s to transport us all. After some issues with the original planned fixture (something to do with player strikes … 🙄) we managed to arrange a match with another visiting team who were also in the same boat. This was followed by a very hospitable club lunch, and gift exchanges between both teams. A train/metro trip back to the hotel, freshen up, and the rest of Sunday was a free day with no further planned communal activities – we found an Irish pub where we could watch the last Six Nations match of the weekend (France v Scotland), and rounded off there with dinner.
The only planned activity for Monday was a visit to the Colosseum, a timed slot in the morning. Once we were done there everyone could choose for themselves what they wanted to do, but with the firm instruction to be back at the hotel by 5pm for our communal departure in the late afternoon. Our group visited the Roman Forum, and meandered via the Trevi Fountain back to the hotel.
Thankfully everyone was back at the hotel on time, and we were able to shine a little spotlight on Nicole in thanks of her efforts and organisation for the weekend. It was then back to Termini Station and on the train to the airport, and subsequently our return flight to Amsterdam, touching down at 11.25pm.
In summary the weekend was truly memorable; our step counters were off the dial, we were tired yet fulfilled; the youngsters didn’t cause us any heartaches (we had laid down some ground-rules … 😉); and the organisation & logistics where tip-top.
📷 A photo gallery with more photo’s is available here.