Cheering on the Red Sox in Rome

The Red Sox won the World Series!

That’s big news in our house and we watched all of the Series games. But what is a sports fan to do when a long-planned trip abroad happens to conflict with your favorite team’s playoff run? Alexandra Pecci just wrote an article for the Boston Globe that describes the experience she and her husband had in bonding with other Red Sox fans this past week during their time in Rome.

Red Sox fans were everywhere. They were at the Trevi Fountain tossing pennies over their shoulders, waiting in line for gelato, climbing the Spanish Steps. When we checked online Monday morning to discover that the Sox were headed to the World Series, it was as much for the fans we knew we would run into that day as it was for ourselves. Brian had become a Red Sox Nation ambassador, an envoy spreading the good word in a foreign land. He was duty bound to know the score.

There were even fans at the Vatican. Outside, a group of people hooted and pumped their arms in the air shouting, “Yeah, Red Sox,” as they passed. In Saint Peter’s Basilica, in front of Michelangelo’s “Pieta,” two older fans hooted a quiet cheer. And for the duration of the Vatican tour, our guide called us simply “Red Sox.”

At first we were surprised at the number of people in Rome who cared about the team. But if Rome is the Eternal City, then maybe the Sox are the Eternal Team. They inspire love and loyalty – and loathing – that runs so deep, fans carry it with them wherever they go.

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