We are currently on our third flight in the last twelve hours, and I'm glad to say it's our last. Our plane just passed over the White Cliffs of Dover, the English Channel, and I can now see the French coast. If all goes well, we should land in Milan in about an hour and a half. As a future note, foreign airlines charge you for drinks...bullshit.
Th
e flight from Detroit to London was pretty long; about six and a half hours, and I didn't get much sleep. Not to mention that we landed in London around 4:00am Ohio-time. The Gatwick airport had a decent sized mall that we chilled in while waiting, but I didn't exactly get the feel of being in a different country (despite the British accents, weird clothing style, and expensive McDonald's). I'm guessing Italy will be a different story.
Odds are my next update will be tomorrow after a good night's rest. As for now, I'm going to try to get some Z's, and maybe catch a picture of the approaching Alps.
"Fasten seatbelt whilst seated."
-directions on the back of the tray on our flight from London.
August 7, 2004
Well, our first full day of the trip was really packed and very exciting. The morning started off with a trip to Milan for some sight seeing. First, we saw a rendering of Leonardo da Vinci's sculpture of a giant horse: the thing must have been 25-30 feet tall and it stood outside an old, grass horse racing track. Our tour continued across the street at San Siro Stadium, the home of AC Milan & Inter Milan. The stadium was huge, seating 85,000 and we were able to go up in the stand and even go into their "old style" locker rooms.
Next, we continued with a tour of downtown Milan. We saw the original city walls which later became Castle Forzza. We then traveled down to the Italian capital of finance. Next, we saw the coolest sight of the day: La Galleria. Built to celebrate Italy's independence, it's a four-story, open-air, four-street shopping district that is covered with an arched, glass roof. No cars can drive through, and the streets are made of ornate rock/marble flooring. After exploring the Galleria, we saw the Duomo square and its magnificent cathedral. The cathedral is made entirely of marble, which was brought in from lakes over 50 miles away, and it is the third largest in the world! It was really an amazing place and felt very spiritual; I'd love to attend a mass there, if not just for the experience.
Around 5:00pm, we arrived for our game versus FC Lugano, a Serie D team in Switzerland (where I should be king!). This pro team played amazing one/two touch possession. Unfortunately, we lost the game 4-1 despite scoring the first goal. However, I felt that my play was very good, and I think I'm good enough to play for a team like Lugano. Their complex was gorgeous, and it was nestled in a valley of the Swiss Alps (sweet mountains).
Our hotel is located in Como, about half an hour north of Milan. The city is situated on the southern shore of Lake Como, and it has many nice shops and restaurants. I even tried the world famous gelato ice cream...it was pretty damn good. The hotel is very nice (despite the poor TV channel selection) and they make great food.
So far the trip has been great! My only complaints are the expenses (8 euros for a Coke at lunch) and missing Sara so much. Otherwise, it's been a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
"It's the tunnel of death! That's the hole of Hell!"
-Adam Gatton describing a path through Como's castle and a hollowed out tree stump next to it.
August 9, 2004
Our day started earlier with check out at 7:45am. Our three hour trip to Florence was interrupted by a stop at a tourist-trap leather/designer outlet, a complete wast of an hour of my life. Luickily, I was able to sleep most of the rest of the trip. Florence, once we arrived, was a complete suprise and not what I was expecting. The city came off as much older than Milan, with many ancient buildings still standing (according to our guide). We apparently saw the oldest standing building in Florence: originally a jail, the building was built in the 10th centruy and now is a four star hotel.
As is becominig the theme, Florence's cathedral was amazing. It's exterior was built with pink, white, and blue marble in many beautiful patterns. Though not as large as Milan's it was still huge. The cathedral's dome was painted with a beautiful fresco by one of the students of Michelangelo. Accompanying the cathedral was a very tall bell tower and a baptistry where the "Doors to Paradise" are hung. So many amazing works of art, I only wish I had more time to take them in.
The city was home to many famous people including: Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Dante, and Michelangelo. The statues of Hercules, Pericles beheading Medusa, the Rape of the Sabine Women, and the masterpiece David also call Florence home.
After a great dinner at our hotel, all of the seniors were allowed to go out to celebrate Adam Gatton's 21st birthday. We had a great time having some beers and cigars along with some laughs. We even had time to hang out with the parents and the Schiller kids while we were out. Unfortunately, Coach wanted us in by midnight so we had to cut the fun short.
It was nice to have the day off from playing, allowing us to rest our legs and heads. One thing of interest that I haven't mentioned so far has been how liberal TV is in Italy. At night, some channels are soft core porn, while most channels show commercials with some nudity. Well, now it's time to get some rest for tomorrow's game.
"I am not a lightweight!"
-Adam Gatton defending himself while we were out celebrating his 21st
August 10, 2004
After a failed atempt to do laundry last night, we started today with a morning laundry session at a local laundrymat in Montecatini. Upon completing that task and eating breakfast, the bus departed for Pisa.
One of the more interesting facts about Pisa is that its famous tower is not the only thing that is leaning. Though not to the same degree, the tower's accompanying cathedral and baptistry are leaning about 10cm a piece. IT's still amazing to look at how much the tower is actually leaning and think that it hasn't toppled over. The most annoying part of the short tour was that you had to pay to into all three buildings (15 euros for the tower alone), so we didn't go in them at all.
Pisa is however, over run with street vendors pushing fake Oakleys and Rolexes. I think all of them were from north Africa, and they were persistant as hell. If you even glanced at what they were selling, the guys would follow you al the way down the street. Marc owned them all though: he talked an Oakley guy down from 40 euros to 10 for two pair, and a Rolex guy down from 60 euros to 10, which he didnt even buy. They were even more persistant outside the city's 1200 year-old walls. My only other complaint about the city was the amount of free time we were given. The three hours we had in Pisa I much rather would have had in Milan or Florence.
Once again, we lost our game today; this time 4-1 to Vesilia '98. The most dissapointing part of the loss was the fact that we were a better team than they were. Even more frustraiting was the fact that we played fairly well, we just couldn't put the ball in the net and gave up some suspect goals. My play was a little down from the last few games, probably due to being out in the hot sun for three hours in Pisa and my feet being tired from walking and playing. The game itself was actually very rough; Gatton was even pushed by the referee!
After another excellent dinner (I'll miss the Montecatini hotel dining staff) we finished another load of laundry. Dad and I went out for a beer to bring the night to a close. Tomorrow we've got a four hour drive to Rome, but I'm excited to see this ancient and amazing city.
"Would you like to buy a Rolex?" -African street vendor
"Would you like to buy my bracelet?" -D.J.
"No." -African street vendor
"Well, I don't want to buy your stuff either." -DJ
August 11, 2004
Today we departed from the Tuscany area rather early for Rome. The four hour bus ride was worth the wait, though. Rome is an enormous city, and it took a while for us to get to the central ancient city. Our bus dropped us off outside the Collosseum where we had two hours of free time before our tour started. This gave me a great opportunity to take some pictures of the ruins of the ancient city, including the Forums of Julius Caesar and other emperors and the ruins of Nero's palace.
Aside from the Collosseum, the most astounding building was the Vitloriano. One of the most massive structures in all of Rome, it was built in the middle ages and has some important historical significance. It was from this monument that Mussolini gave his speeches during WWII, and it is also houses Italy's tomb of the unkown soldiers.
However, the Collosseum tour stole the show. You can't truly appreciate it until you're standing inside it. To think that a structure like that only took ten years to build without modern technology is simply amazing, especially 2000 years ago. Interesting facts about the collosseum include: it sat up to 55,000 spectators, it only took seven minutes to fill/empty the stadium, and it took 325 canvas matts to compose the roof that covered the specators. It is sad to think that this magnificent building has been destroyed by Italians who have used it as a quarry for rocks and metal over the centuries.
After a short guided tour by bus, including the old home of the popes, the old Roman Emperor's palace, and the Circus Maximus (which is nothing more tha nopen field now), we checked into our hotel in Rome. Follwing dinner, the players left for a training session. We trained at the sport center Longarina which is owned by Fracesco Totti, the captain of AC Roma. Despite the increadible humidity, it was a productive session (though a wet one!).
I'm expecting tomorrow to be the highlight of the rip. We will be visiting the Vatican City and seeing its holy structures. IT is a place I've always wanted to visit, and I'll finally have my chance in the morning.
"There's nothing else to do, so we may as well watch porn."
-Nate Preston describing our nightly ritual in the hotels
Click here to keep reading about our trip on page 2 .