The Muhlenberg women's basketball team spent the end of May touring Italy. Rising seniors Emily Unger and Ava Connolly wrote about the final half of the trip.

Day 5: Florence 
We traveled to Florence and explored the beautiful history, art and architecture of the city. We viewed the Arno River, which is a famous river in Florence. We also saw the Ponte Vecchio, which means "The Old Bridge." This is a famous bridge where you can find many gold merchants.

After our tour, we were given time on our own to shop and explore restaurants. A popular spot was the leather market where a lot of our team shopped. We ended the day with a team dinner at Centrale. 

Day 6: Cinque Terre
After Florence, we took a train the next day to Cinque Terre, which translates to "Five Lands." Cinque Terre consists of the five beautiful villages of Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.

We began in Monterosso, where we were given the opportunity to hike to the next village or stay by the beach. We spent the day exploring, shopping and eating the local food. Seafood is very popular! We ended the day with a team dinner at the hotel. 

Day 7: Rome
After visiting the Cinque Terre, we made our journey to Rome. On the way, we stopped at a place called Orvieto, which is a beautiful hilltop town. There, we took a cable car up to the town and saw St. Patrick's Well. Several of us walked all the way down the long spiral stairs case down into the well.

Afterwards, we walked into town and visited the Orvieto Cathedral. Quickly after that, we had free time to explore the town. My family and I found food and ordered pizza. On our walk back down to the cable car, I shopped around and bought a ring. We hopped back on the bus and made our way to Rome. In Rome, my family and I found dinner at a small restaurant by the hotel. I ate the most delicious lasagna ever. 

Day 8: Rome
After our journey to Rome the day before, it was time to see the Colosseum. We were on the bus at 8am. Our tour guides walked us through the Colosseum and explained to us some history about its construction and the events that occurred in the arena.

The tour led into our visit to the Trevi Fountain. There, we made a wish by throwing a coin into the fountain with our right hand over our left shoulder to ensure that our wishes will come true. The end of the guided tour put us in the middle of Rome, where we had free time to find lunch and walk around. I found a delicious restaurant and ordered gnocchi. After the meal, I found a taxi back to the hotel to rest up for our game at 7pm. The game was against Roma Basket. Roma Basket won 62-36 but we put up a good fight in the second half!

Day 9: Vatican
Our last day of our trip started with a tour of the Vatican museum. The tour consisted of several audio recordings of each art collection. After the museum, we walked over to the Sistine Chapel. Some waited in the line into the chapel. It was beautiful inside with so much beautiful Roman art and architecture. That night, we had our farewell dinner together and ate delicious carbonara and veal to fuel us for our long journey home the next day.