Roma and UPW

I left London on Tuesday and arrived in Fimucino, Roma at 11:30p.m. Paolo and Anna, Mattia's parents, picked me up from the airport and took me to their house. Shortly after arrival, i fell asleep. I woke up in the morning and took a train to central Roma. Mattia was at school and Paolo and Anna were at work. The Metro station was a lot nicer than the tube stations in London. For example; the ones here play music through-out the station.... also, the cleanliness of the metro stations here out do the cleanliness of the stations in central london.

On this first day, i toured the colosseum, such a beautiful site.... shortly after, i ate a traditional italian lunch - Pizza with salad. I then moved onto the

Foro Romano, L'altare Della Patria, Piazza del Campidoglio. On the way back to the metro station, i ran across Michelle and Todd from the Anthony Robbins Foundation. It was so great to see them, they were also here for UPW on the weekend! When i got back to Mattia's house, he had arrived from school and we watched the Inter Milan vs. Naples.

The next morning, i woke up and took a train to Piazza de Popolo, this was a great place to shop, it was a street full of exquisite clothing stores. Shortly thereafter i took the train to Paolo's work where we both took the car and picked up Mattia early from school. We then drove to Fiera de Roma, the convention center where UPW was being held. We arrived 20 mins early, and had to wait outside with all the other crew members until 4pm. It was great to meet Loren and all the frequent crew members! The crew meeting lasted till 9pm. We drove back home and ate some tasty Italian pasta.

The next morning we had to wake up at 7:00am. Crew meeting commenced at 8am and registration for upw opened at 9. 5000 participants were registered for the event from 44 different countries. There were 4 language translators; Italian, French, German and Spanish! The registration process was unlike any other, It was very difficult to communicate with participants as most spoke italian. After 4 hours of registration, doors opened and Tony Robbins came on stage. This was my third UPW crewing this year.

Towards the end of the night, the crew prepared for the Firewalk, the crew members walked of fire prior to the participants. Due to the small number of crew members, we only had 4 positions on each fire lane. Under normal circumstances, each lane typically has 7 positions!

I was the First anchor, which is the person who stops the participant after he/she walks and yells " STOP, WIPE YOUR FEET AND CELEBRATE" This was the first time i did this alone and towards the end of the walk, my left arm was in pain. There were so many strong and fierce men who just run into my arms without stopping!

The next day was a little more relaxing as Tony wasn't present, Joseph was facilitating.

Tony was back on Sunday and the participants were going crazy - 1000's of participants were gathering around the stage on a regular basis asking for autographs!

Towards the end of the night, we had a huge waterfight, Tony had his waterguns and the entire room were throwing water around! Soon thereafter, all crew members were asked to come up to the stage while Tony thanked us for all our hardwork! We created a tunnel leading him backstage where he left for the night!

The following day was Health Day, which was led by Joseph, it started at 10 and we all finished at 5pm. It was upsetting to leave all the crew members but we assured each other to keep in touch via facebook and would meet up in Roma next year for UPW!

Today i woke up and met up with my friend from UPW. We went to Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps. I took the train back home and Mattia and I went on a 6 mile bike ride in Rome. We got home to some yummy italian fish with salad.

Thats all i have for you so far! I hope you enjoyed it