The UNC women's basketball team spent a phenomenal 12 days in May traveling through Italy and Greece. The Tar Heels gained experience from three exhibition games, all of which they won, but learned far more from their experiences off the court.

The traveling party of 44, which included players, coaches, staff, family and friends, departed Chapel Hill May 11 and arrived in Milan, Italy, on May 12 after an overnight flight from Atlanta. After a tour of Milan, the team spent the first two nights in Como, Italy. Then it was off to Florence for two nights and Rome for two nights. On May 18th, the group traveled to Greece for the remainder of the trip, staying in Athens for five nights before departing for home on May 23.

Carolina played exhibition games on May 13 in Italy and May 19 and 20 in Greece. "Trips like this are a great time for the team to bond and I always think it's good for team cohesiveness," UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "As far as the games, you don't have the pressure to win that you have during the season. You're able to experiment on the court a little more. It's just a different environment to let you work on things."

The Tar Heels had just eight active players for the trip. Rising senior Kenya McBee traveled but was unable to play because of recent shoulder surgery. The other two players on the 11-person roster for 2003-04 season were seniors Candace Sutton and Carrie Davis. Davis made the trip, but Sutton was in training camp with the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks when the group departed.

Hatchell, the coach at UNC for the past 18 seasons, took her team on a tour of New Zealand and Australia in May of 2000. After having visited Sydney on that trip, several months before the start of the last Summer Games, this journey provided another opportunity for an early look at the city that will host the upcoming Olympics. The UNC group toured several facilities that will be used for the Games and played two contests against the squad that will represent Greece in the Olympics.

On the trip back to the U.S., the players took time to recall their personal highlights of a trip that will no doubt be in their memories for years to come. As junior Tiffany Tucker wrote, "It's one thing to look at things on TV or read about them in books, but to see all of it for yourself is a once in a lifteime experience."