Rugby in Rome

I hate to waste a perfectly good Saturday by sitting around not doing anything. So when my buddy Aaron called me on Friday night asking if I wanted to go with him and a few other guys to Rome to watch the England rugby team play Italy, I didn't even have to think about it.

We caught a 7am train out of Pordenone. I guess most people would figure that on an early morning train there shouldn't be too many people ordering beer from the restaurant car. Apparently this is what the Italian train company thought, but they must not have planned for us to be on the train. We started drinking Heinekens and Moretti's at about 10:30am and after an hour had gone by and four rounds had been bought, we'd completely drank the train out of beer!

Oh well, we were almost there...

We got into Rome around 11:30 or so, and checked into the first cheap hotel we came across. After lunch and a few beers at an Irish pub we hop in a cab and head over to the Stadio Flavio, just a few minutes walk from the Colosseum. There were lots of fans in the area - mostly English fans. The stadium was pretty small, but full. When the game started, we realized that we were pretty much surrounded by old Englishmen drinking like fish, singing rugby songs, and calling everyone "Wankers". Pretty funny actually!















This was my first rugby game. We had great seats only three rows back. It was very cool. It really makes NFL football seem like a sissy sport.

After the game? You guessed it, right back to another Irish pub, this one was called Trinity College - I guess its pretty popular with rugby fans. We ended up hanging out with those old Englishmen from the game. They didn't stop singing all night. Unfortunatley, I don't remember many of these songs. It seems I'd had a few too many Guinesses...

We ended the night a little early,... probably because we started so early! I think it was around 10:30pm when we decided to try and cap off the night with some pizza. So we stumbled to a little pizzeria down the street. Pizza is sooooo good after a full day of drinking!

By midnight we were all but asleep. I've only been to Rome one other time, but I was somehow able to guide our group back down Via Nazionale and back to our hotel.

The next day our train left around 10:30am. So we were back home Sunday by 4pm. It was a whirlwind of a trip. No time for sightseeing, just rugby and Guiness.