Troy University Athletics
Troy in Italy Travel Diary - Coach Niland Reflects on Trip
5/31/2006 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Recap from Coach Niland
After about 20 hours of air and ground travel, we have returned home to Troy and various other U.S. destinations from our Italy trip. Here is a wrap-up, including some of the highlights, top ten lists from Emily, Jenny and I, and also a compilation of quirks, cultural differences, and random thoughts...
Places we went: Lake Como and the island of Bellagio, Milan, Lecco, Lugano (Switzerland), Tradate (all near where we stayed in Como); Tuscany region including Montecatini, Florence, Pisa, Parco di Pinocchio (all near where we stayed in Montecatini); Orvieto and Rome.
Things we did/saw/visited: San Siro Stadium to watch the AC Milan v. Roma soccer game; major cathedrals in Milan, Florence, Rome, Vatican City and Orvieto; art including DaVinci's "The Last Supper" and Michaelangelo's "Statue of David" and "Sistine Chapel" among many other famous artisits; food including going to cooking shcool where we learned to make lasagna, gnocci, sauces, rizotti, and tiramisu, and dining on everything from pizza to gelati to antipasti to veal to pasta; a boat tour on beautiful Lake Come, home of multi-million dollar lakefront villas (including George Clooney's); shopping/high fashion with most of us buying the knock-offs of Prada, Versace, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc., but a few people buying the real thing, and the ever-popular "cornetto" which is the small version of the "corno" or horn, that looks like a chili-pepper and is an Italian good luck charm (something that many of us bought); Piazzas, or open squares for public meeting places, many with beautiful fountains, churches, and architecture; historic sites including the Roman ruins (2000 years old!) and the Collesium which was an amazing engineering feat, the leaning tower of Pisa which was very cool, especially from up top and well worth the 15 Euros to go there, and leans much more than I realized (we all took our photos from a distance pretending to "hold up" the tower as most dorky tourists do); and of course playing in the games which were a lot of fun, a big challenge, and a major cultural clash in styles of play, mentality, and stengths and weaknesses.
Birthdays, birthdays, birthdays: 4 players had birthdays, as did I, and our tour guide's was they day before mine, plus another tour guide celebrated a birthday, and it was Pinocchio's birthday (I believe his 118th) and he is from about 15 minutes away from where we stayed, so of course we attended the birthday party. I believe there is a bootleg video of Cathy singing "Happy Birthday to Pinocchio" floating around out there - well worth seeing if you can get your hands on it!
People we met: Opponents, lots of shopowners, other tourists, our tour guides who were great, and specifically Vittorio, our bus driver, who nearly ran over about 80 motorcycles and Alessandra, our main guide for the entire trip, who was absolutely amazing and knowledgable. We all loved her so much and she made our trip great with her knowledge of history, art, fashion, languages, and many other things. She bent over backwards to make our trip about as perfect as it could possibly be.
Well, so not to ramble on forever, here are our top ten lists with brief explanations, from three different perspectives:
Emily Cobb's top 10, in her words:
#10: Discotecha, Montecatini (like an American dance club). We met an American guy from Georgia whi is playing basketball in Italy. He took us to a discotecha where he is basically a celebrity.
#9: Tour of Milan. Another Alessandra (not our regularguide) took us around Milan and gave us background on each place we saw.
#8: Day in Switzerland. We met a lot of nice people and the shopping was fun at all of the little stores by the water.
#7: Colosseum (Rome). There was so much history and we thought it was neat to see the ruins.
#6: Shopping in Florence. There were many vendors and cute shops where I go most of my shopping done.
#5: Sistine Chapel (Vatican City). This is so amazing and breathtaking, we were all impressed.
#4: Boat tour of Lake Como. We road around Lake Como on a motorboat and saw George Clooney's house.
#3: Cooking class (Como). We learned how to make a few pasta dishes at a cooking class at a university.
#2: Tour guide Alessandra. She was so nice and helpful. She made sure we had everything go smoothly. She really meant a lot to each of us.
#1: Trevi Fountain (Rome). This was a highlight on my last trip to Rome - it is said that if you throw money in the fountain and make a wish, you will come back to Italy. Four years ago I came to Rome, and now I cam back!!!
Jenny Smith's top 10, in her words:
#10: Italian poeple. From our tour guide Alessandra to our driver Vittorio, the people of Italy as a majority were so friendly and played a major part in making the trip so memorable.
#9: Como. The first town we stayed in, it was a beautiful place on Lake Como with breathtaking panoramic views of Italian villas and landscape.
#8: Soccer. Although very frustrating with small fields and interesting referees, we all learned a lot by playing teams with a completely different style and tactics from us.
#7: St. Peter's Square. As a person of the Catholic faith being in such a holy place where the Pope lives was an amazing experience.
#6: The Roman Ruins and the Colosseum. Walking amongst building over 2000 years old and then returning to the famous Colossuem really showed the immense history that the city of Rome has.
#5: The Leaning Tower of Pisa. This was something that I was not particularly interested in, but once I saw it, it quickly became one of the favorite things I saw in Italy.
#4: The Vatican Museum. Although it was lengthy to get through, the amount of amazing sculptures, painings, and Christain artifacts contained inside was incredible. The tour ended with a viewing of the Sistine Chapel in which many of us stared upwards in awestruck silence.
#3: DaVinci's The Last Supper. The wall sized painting was breathtaking and definitely lived up to all the hype that surrounds it.
#2: The Duomo in Milan. This amazing cathedral is not only one of the biggest in the world but also, to our jawdropping surprise, home to one of the 5 nails used to crucify Jesus Christ.
#1: Montecatini. It was th second main town that we stayed in and with a great hotel, nightlife, and atmosphere it truly held the Italian lifestyle.
Diana's top 10 list:
#10: Cultural exchange with opponents. Playing the games was a fun challenge and it was particularly nice to show great sportsmanship by exchanging pennants/gifts and taking a group photo, before proceeding to play to very contrasing styles of soccer.
#9: Dining with players and hearing their adventures. Although we did a lot as a team, nearly every day allowed for groups to break off to do their preferred activities. Dinner time was a nice place to enjoy a meal together and hear of everyone's stories.
#8: Sistine Chapel/Vatican Museum. I am unable to describe how impressive this place was beyond saying everyone who likes art or is a Christain should go here before they die. It would be higher on the list had it not been on the last day when we were so tired with really messed up feet.
#7: Roman Ruins. Between the beauty of the remaining architecture, the over 2000 year old history behind it, and the complexity of the engineering and construction it involved, this place was amazing.
#6: Cooking school/Italian food. I love to cook, so learning how to do this from real chefs in a culinary institute with my team was really fun to me. Overall the food was great on the entire trip and I am completely hooked on Italian coffees and olive oil.
#5: The Colosseum. In its present state, is is still enormous and hard to believe, but to hear about how it looked after inital completion, including decorations and engineering breakthroughs, it was that much more impressive.
#4: AC Milan v. Roma game at San Siro Stadium. I knew what to expect because I have seen a major foreign prefessional game before, but I still enjoyed seeing one of the top 10 teams in the world. It was neat for me to see players literally get chills when the home fans began to chant, sing, and celebrate goals by setting off flares, waving flags and jumping around so much that the whole stadium shook.
#3: Climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I wasn't going to waste the money on this, but I'm so glad I did. The view from the top was endless and I was actually a little dizzy and freaked out by being up so high.
#2: Lake Como/Bellagio. The boat ride was so relaxing after the long travel the day before and it was fun seeing some local shool children befriend and "talk to" the players. The day in Bellagio was very relaxing with nice shopping, pretty views, and a long lunch at a lakefront restaurant.
#1: DaVinci's The Last Supper. This also fits into the "must see before you die" category. The painting itself and all the stories behind it made the whole experience out of this world. We were very lucky to see it after recent completion of 21 years of restoration! Warning: it takes about 4 months to get a reservation, so plan ahead if you want to go.
So, those are the highlights, according to the three of us. We can't end the Italy diary without sharing some of the quirks of the trip.
Below you will find our "Not Top 10 Lists" containing our random thoughts and warnings to anyone inspired to travel abroad.
From Emily:
Bathrooms - not easy to find, and sometime were just holes in the ground - gross!
Street vendors - will follow you around and shove their merchandise in your face.
Breakfast - Most did not like breakfast which often included hard bread, bad cereal, and hot milk.
Hotels - no air conditioning so we had to sllep with the windows open. Housekeeping in Rome like to go through our bags and rig our door so we could be robbed, so we had to carry all valuables with us.
Driving - Lots of honking and we nearly hit people on scooters who would aggressively cut in front of us.
Fake soccer injuries - We would play aggressively but they would fall down and their coach would come out and spray them with something and they would be fine in 2 seconds.
From Jenny:
Now that we are back in the states we are going to have to live without 3 course meals, warm milk, sparkling water, and smart cars. We'll have to adjust to normal sized ankles (since we all developed cankles - ankles the size of our calf - on the trip) and walking down the street without "Ciao Bella" being screamed at us. Luckily we will go back to aggressive American style soccer and toilets that are not just holes in the ground. We all packed up our fake Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Gucci purses and various other souvenirs/gifts to bring back to family and friends. Although this amazing 12 day soccer tour has finally come to an end, hopefully Trevi Fountain is right and we will be fortunate enough to come back and experience Italy again.
Ciao!
From Diana:
1) Italian allergies! They are bad this time of year. We had to put frozen water bottles on Brittany Stoltz's face (as ice was scarce) to unswell her eyes, and I could hardly ever stand to wear my contacts.
2) Gamesmanship. 10 minute warmups or 90 minute warmups (when they were filming a movie on the field and the other team didn't show up on time). Plus, the theatrics when opponents were fouled (or sometimes even when they weren't fouled) were absurd. The typical reaction was at least three gymnastic rolls, clutching of some body part while screaming, a trainer running out with "magic spray" to put on the supposed wound while all the other players drank water. By some miracle, as soon as the ball came their way on the following play they were perfectly fine and able to go at full speed again. My players were highly agitated by this behavior.
3) Gypsies and robbers. We had to be pretty alert and the one consistent lecture my players got from me involved how to not get pickpocketed or fined 10,000 Euro for buying goods from a Gypsey on the street.
4) Bloody feet. Soccer players are notorious for having messed up feet, but we had blisters and open wounds from so much walking, often in nice shoes, like I have never seen before. Players could hardly walk after the last game.
5) Dehydration. Water was expensive and public water wasn't around. They also kept trying to get us to drink the "sparkling" water, which tasted sort of like chewing on tree bark.
6) Hotel beds. If you know a good chiropractor, please call...
7) "Roman time." Pretty much from Florence south, meeting times don't mean much. For our 5 pm game in Rome, we were told that we "should have known" that actually meant we'd start at 6 pm!
One last thought from me:Many thanks to many people. This trip was awesome and it took a lot of help and hard work to get us there. Far too many people had a hand in making this happen for me to list here. But for everyone involved in the process, thank you for your help and support. It was well worth it! And special thanks to Alessandra, our tour guide, who was absolutely amazing. Grazie!
Stay tuned for a final summary from Chris Tinius, my assistant, as we thought a man's perspective would be nice, too. And also, check back in a week or two to see our photo gallery. I took 564 pictures in the end, so hopefully we should have some good ones to share with you! Ciao!
