Imagine yourself walking along cobblestone streets, past ancient ruins and picturesque churches, surrounded by quaint bistros with floor-to-ceiling walls of wine. This October, the Project Expedition team was fortunate enough to experience just a few of the tours we sell on Project Expedition and bond as a team by coming together in the iconic city of Rome. Although it was mesmerizing enough just to be in the bustling city, we had a mission (and prebooked tours and transfers, of course) to see some of the biggest highlights of Rome: the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and the Vatican, at the center of the Holy City itself. 

My name is Lex and I have been a member of the Supply Specialist Team at Project Expedition for about six months now, and before that, I spent a year working on our Client Experience Team and speaking to many of our Travel Advisor clients via phone and live chats. Before I tell you more about the highlights of these fabulous tours, I want to explain why the Project Expedition Team journeyed across the sea to meet up in the heart of Italy.

One of our goals for each of our two annual team trips is to continue to develop firsthand experiences in the locations that we offer. We learn how to navigate the local airports, transportation, best-selling tours, and get a taste of the culture that we can pass on to you and your clients. We personally booked round-trip transfers from the Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport (FCO) using our own transfer providers to ensure they are performing at a high-quality level for your clients. There is no better way to disembark an international red-eye flight than to have your driver waiting for you with a sign with your name on it.

Another major goal for our team trips is to connect and bond to improve our internal communication and collaboration skills, particularly after our team went fully remote during the pandemic in 2020. It was extremely exciting to reunite with our coworkers we’ve known and traveled with before, as well as having the opportunity to meet some of our newer teammates. One of our colleagues, Michael, had this sweet response when asked about the team trip: “My biggest takeaway was how supportive and positive everyone is and how well we work as a team for spending 99% of our time apart - it is amazing how much of a team this company is!” While the majority of the team was in Rome, some dedicated colleagues stayed behind to ensure we could still provide the superior customer service we are known for, 7 days a week, 365 days a year!

Our first tour of the city was hosted by Walks - Europe. We took the “Welcome to Rome: City Stroll with Ruins & Gelato Tasting” walking tour to help us orient ourselves in the immense city. Some of the highlights of this tour included seeing the Trevi Fountain during golden hour and learning about the history of La Scalinata di Trinita dei Monti, nicknamed and more widely known as the Spanish Steps. After a visit to the remarkable Pantheon, one of the most important and complete surviving temples of the Ancient Romans, as well as the location where the famous painter Raphael is buried, we relaxed with a Gelato tasting. The shop boasted over a hundred different flavors of Italian ice cream, which ranged from a variety of chocolatey goodness to yummy fruit flavors.

Early the next morning, we went on the “Private Vatican Tour: VIP Experience” tour, hosted by Through Eternity Tours. With this VIP tour, we were able to skip all the queues and get started with our tour quite quickly. However, due to the Vatican’s popularity, it is important to arrive right on time for this tour (if not earlier), as the skip-the-line tickets have a specific time stamp for entrance that you do not want to miss. We started the tour in The Belvedere Courtyard before getting to explore the Sistine Chapel Raphael Rooms with our private art-historian guide, who explained the history of the Renaissance and the details of many larger-than-life pieces of art. We were guided through the iconic Sistine Chapel, where our guide masterfully managed to keep our group together and entertained us along the way to the chapel ceiling. In this area, we were given 10 minutes of quiet time to admire Michelangelo's fresco and see the world–renowned The Creation of Adam with our own eyes. As this busy room can be very overwhelming and guides are required to wait quietly to the side, our thoughtful guide explained everything we’d be seeing ahead of time so that we could understand and admire it in the moment. Our last stop was St. Peter's Basilica, the Renaissance church within the Vatican City, where the Pope holds mass.

After this astonishing experience, we went to a local restaurant called Il Barroccio to chow down on some authentic Italian pizza. Have you ever eaten a pizza with a boiled egg on top? We did! To end the extraordinary day, we hosted a Local Partner Meet & Greet Event for some of our local suppliers in Rome and the surrounding Italian cities at the beautiful AcquaRoof Terrazza Molina rooftop bar. This was a chance for us to meet some of our most popular tour companies, such as Florencetown, Avventure Bellissime, and DriverInRome, to name a few. It was a pleasure to finally meet the representatives from each company in person and establish a personal connection with them. We concentrated this time on building rapport, thanking the suppliers for their continued collaboration, and brainstorming ways we could collaborate with our suppliers to further support our travel advisor partners and their clients in the future.

The last tour of the trip was hosted by The Roman Guy, where we explored the Colosseum on the two-for-one “Colosseum Arena Floor With Roman Forum” tour. First, we explored the remarkable archaeological site known as the Roman Forum, once the lively heart of ancient Rome's city center. Our lovely guide passionately explained the history of this area and told us stories that made the ruins come alive again. I was particularly excited about the nature in this area, as most of Rome so far had been cobblestone and ancient buildings, it was exciting to walk on dirt and grass once again. After admiring the panoramic views from Palatine Hill, we took off to the Colosseum, where we first toured the Arena Floor. As you might know, Arena Floor access is not included with just any Colosseum tour, so we were thrilled to see this special perspective and walk on the path the gladiators once took to battle. Lastly, our guide took us around the first and second floors of the Colosseum to get a full sense of this symbol of Rome. When asked about her experience with these tours, our team member Cheyenne said, “It was so thrilling for me to see places like the Vatican and Colosseum. Not only have these sites been on my bucket list for quite some time, but we also help clients book tours to these very popular locations nearly every day. Seeing everything in person was such a fun and educational experience!”

After a break to catch some lunch and rest our legs, we headed to a rooftop restaurant to partake in a team-building activity named "Camel Tank" (think Shark Tank but for Project Expedition!). Our objective was to come together to devise ideas to make our platform more user-friendly and intuitive for you, our travel advisors! We split into four teams to think up new features we can incorporate into the account portal and on tours themselves, such as a notification center for important updates on bookings and updating the “compare” tab on tours to simplify the search process. After an intense brainstorming session, our judges voted on the team’s ideas and announced a winning team, whose ideas will be coming to our website soon!

After ending the trip on a high note overlooking the Roman skyline, we all parted ways back to our hometowns feeling inspired and excited for the future of Project Expedition. We are all back and can't wait to share our newfound knowledge and fun stories with you, our Travel Advisor clients!

“Rome is not like any other city. It’s a big museum, a living room that shall be crossed on one’s toes.” - Quote by Alberto Sordi, Italian actor.