2014 Volleyball Tour Day 12 Return to the USA Day

2014 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Day 12 Return to the USA Day

  

It was a short night for us, many girls stayed up in their rooms chatting until midnight… and packing to make the morning a little easier and less stressed. 

This morning we could hear the chirping of the song birds, the whoo whooing of owls off in the distance, but most of all we could hear the cawing of the seagulls… no not cawing… but rather the howling cat like sounds as the would taunt each other from the roof tops just outside our hotel window…. I am still amazed at how loud these birds can screech… and as the day light gets brighter …. The louder the birds get..
The cafe owner next to our hotel opened early for us today... allowing us to have our final chocolate croissant and cappuccino ... before our departure to the airport.

ONE FINAL SELFIE..... (smile....)

As we made our way from the hotel to the bus everyone was fairly quiet and the clack – clack of our roller suitcases on the cobbled streets of Venice were quite evident.  The cool fresh air felt good and helped to wake us up. 

Just as were catching the bus to the airport... the light rain began to fall.... We interpreted it not as rain but rather mother natures tears biding us a farewell from our amazing experience here in Italy....

The bus ride was only about 30 minutes long and we quickly arrive at the airport.  We quickly found our check in counter and jumped in line with all the other folks who were returning home from Venice today.  Our group said goodbye to each other and off through the security lines we went….  Once past security we found lots of duty free stores to spend our last Euros …. It seemed to take forever waiting for them to call our boarding announcement.    As we took off we could look out at the Island of Venice and get an even better view of this amazing city….

As for John…..

He had a 9am train ride back to Rome to get ready to meet the NEXT GROUP of travelers for their JUNIOR age volleyball tour of Italy arriving in only 8 hours time…..

This was a GREAT group… good players, fun parents…. And a wonderful experience….  Many of us will keep in contact when we get home….

2014 Day 11 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Venice Free Day for Shopping

2014 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Day 11 Venice Free Day for Shopping

Today we had our boat tour of the Lagoon of Venice.  That meant we had to be on the other end of the Island by 9:30am…. The other side of the Island is about a 30-40 minute walk depending upon …. The TOURIST traffic… That means we need to be awake and out the door by about 8:30 am… Most of us picked up our breakfast pastry from the little café next door… others were too late and had to catch up with the group… Walking the streets of Venice is no easy task and doing it still blurry eyed in the morning is even more difficult.  We trudged on and in no time we reached our meeting point for our boat tour.   It was 9:30am and already about 85 degrees… it was HOT… and not only HOT… but HUMID too…  Once we got started going in the boat it felt better with the breeze blowing in the windows…  The boat tour visited Murano, Burano and Torcello Islands.  Each island was unique and different and each was interesting. 
Following the boat tour…. we stopped at St Marcos Square … which meant that we had to again… WALK across the Island back to our accommodations.  The walk was not really that bad… we were walking slower because it was SO HOT… and stopped for Gelato several times….
We had a group meeting at 6pm to discuss our departure from Italy…. Tomorrow morning… 
Most of us are on the same flight back to the USA and do not need to get up too early…  We are to be out the door and walking to the airport bus station at 8:00am.

The rest of today is filled with individual choices…

Gondola rides, shopping, dinner at the Hard Rock Café, dinner at some quiet out of the way location or just people watching….

The morning will come early tomorrow… so most of us are planning an early night so that we are ready to go home tomorrow…

Tomorrow…. Our Flight home

2014 Day 10 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Venice

2014 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Day 10 Venice

Today we had to up and out the door at 8am to meet our motor coach in Tronchetto (about  a 20 minute walk from our hotel.  For a fun adventure we took the people mover to Tronchetto... The people mover is a ride like you would find at the airport to transport you from one terminal to another...  Tronchetto is where all of the large Cruise Ships drop off their passengers and transfer them to motor coaches… In no time at all we were off to the little old town of Cittadella about a 50 minute bus ride from Venice.
The gym and other facilities were the BEST of the tour…. a LARGE one court facility where they play professional basketball and volleyball and have a large gallery for spectators.
We started playing at about 10:30pm … We played the local host team of U14 age players.  We WON the first set 25-14; and LOST the second set 25-23 and played a third set winning it 25-22 also… (we were playing all 3 sets no matter what).  We had a little time before lunch ... we mixed the teams and played with and against each other... 
Following this match we walked to a little restaurant near the gym to have lunch.. it was all set up for us….

We had water, 4 cheese pasta, followed by grilled hamburger and french fries; followed by an ice cream bar…Everyone was stuffed and we decided to take a walk around the old walled city of Cittadella.  For some of us who are not comfortable with heights it was a bit of a challenge as we walked along the top of the wall about 60 feet in the air…. We made our way around the wall and back down to ground level without any issues.  As we arrived back to the gym we found the older local team warming up…they looked very good…

We had water, 4 cheese pasta, followed by grilled hamburger and french fries; followed by an ice cream bar…Everyone was stuffed and we decided to take a walk around the old walled city of Cittadella.  For some of us who are not comfortable with heights it was a bit of a challenge as we walked along the top of the wall about 60 feet in the air…. We made our way around the wall and back down to ground level without any issues.  As we arrived back to the gym we found the older local team warming up…they looked very good…

Now it was time to play the local team.  We were started to play and quickly what we had thought in the beginning was true….. they were a better team…. As we were given a lesson on the importance of serve reception…and keeping the ball in play we lost 25-9, as a friendly gesture the local team put in all of the non starters in the game .... we won  25-23.. we were playing the best of 5 games.... the local team won the next two sets 25-19 and 25-22.

This team was one of the best teams we have seen all tour… and the scores reflected it.  We decided to play a mixed set with the USA girls and the Italian girls together... it was a BLAST.... Both teams had great energy, enthusiasm and... fun...

We took photos of all the teams… said our goodbyes

It was now about 5:00pm … our motor coach took us back to Venice …

Exhausted from the long day, and the next to the final day of the trip everyone was ready to eat and go to bed.  

Tomorrow is our last day in Venice… Boat tour…. Shopping and packing

2014 Day 9 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Florence to Venice

2014 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Day 9 Florence to Venice

Breakfast at 8am… for most of us … We have only a 1/2 left in Florence... some of the parents (and players are going to go to some of the museums and or shopping, others are going to do a walking / shopping tour.  We depart at about 3pm today..

First let me say the hotel that we are staying in is the best so far… not that the others have been bad… just that this one is the better… Larger breakfasts, more choices, and colder air… I heard some of the girls actually had to turn their air conditioner OFF last night…
Most of us have never been on a train so it will be a new experience.  We arrive to the train station (only about 2 blocks from our hotel) at 2:30pm.  John explained how to read the “reader board” so that we would know which track our train would come into… There were 18 platforms at the SMN (Florence) train station.  Some of us picked up snacks for the trip others just sat on the floor and slept.    About 20 minutes before the train was scheduled to depart the reader board flashed #8 #8 #8…. We all grabbed our luggage (and ever growing issue)… and like lemmings headed toward track #8.  We quickly found our assigned car (or Wagon as it is called) and started to board…. (Boarding the train … for the experienced train riders….. there is an art to boarding… It was obvious that we were not experienced…)  We were divided into 3 train cars #9, #10 and #11 which made it easier to get everyone on board quickly.  NOW…. We understand about the luggage…. Those who packed lighter… could move more nimble… those who have larger heaver suitcases… struggled….

Everyone settled into travel mode… headsets… video games… books.. and sleep… The train rolled through the country side doing over 300 km which is 187.5 miles per hour… but it did not “feel” like it as the train ride was so smooth…  A quick 2 hours later we arrive into Venice….

The weather was not so hot and not as humid as expected.  We quickly got checked into our accommodations, relaxed for a few minutes… and then it was our walkabout trek

to St. Marco’s square.   Before we left John explained how to figure out which direction you were traveling…. And how to get back to our accommodations.

I have never experienced anything like Venice… the buildings, the canals, the narrow walking streets and NO CARS….  As we walked our way through the streets (none of them are perpendicular… that is to say there is no… perpendicular corners… just varying degrees of angles ) Our walk took us to the Rialto Bridge …one of 4 bridges that cross the Grand Canal.  The Rialto is sort of in the middle of the island … so we knew we were ½ way to our destination.  We continued toward St. Marco’s square and just when you

think the streets could not get any smaller….. they DID….!!!  Soon we forgot all about where we were going and like mindless rats we were going through a maze looking for cheese…. Then…. All of a sudden….. there it was….. ST. MARCO’S Square….. Nothing like we have ever seen before.  Just stood there with our eyes wide open and … our mouths open too…. Thinking ….. WOW….

We took our group photos… a few individual photos…. And then John showed us were we need to go tomorrow to take our boat tour of the Lagoon and visit the other Islands.

Everyone  was getting hungry, some people ate near St Marco .. others came back to our accommodations before eating…  Most everyone was tired from the train ride… the walk to St Marco and back… and from the consecutive days of the trip….

Everyone was in by the 11:30pm curfew

Tomorrow … The final competitions of the tour.

2014 Day 8 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Grosseto to Pisa to Florence

2014 Volleyball Tour Day 8 Grosseto to Pisa to Florence

 We awoke this morning with mixed emotions… one emotion was that we wanted to extend our stay here in Marina, the other was that we really did want to see Pisa and Florence.  Most of us had packed our bags the night before just to make sure we would not forget anything (we stayed in Grosseto for 4 days and most of our rooms looked like a disaster area…. Mixed clean and dirty clothes all over the place… and not even know WHO’S clothes belonged to whom..).

8:30am on the dot our BIG Motor Coach arrived and we started loading our bags into its BELLY.  Auro; our local host who showed us such a wonderful time was away at a tournament and was not there to say goodbye to us…   

The weather was a little overcast but still warm as we made our way out of the Marina. In no time at all Marina was miles behind us… some slumbered quietly, others stared out into the TUSCAN hills and others were reviewing all of the really cool photos that they had taken during our stay in Marina.

In about 2 hours time we arrive to Pisa …  Most of us were not really sure what it was that we were going to go see… but when we entered, and past through the walled fortress it was almost surreal.  The Church, the Baptistery and the tower itself were incredible…  We sort of stood there in disbelief, 1. Because we were really here and 2. How amazing it looked.

The first thing we did was to take our GROUP photo of the leaning tower….. Then we all scattered like runaway cats… taking snapshots of each other holding up the tower… even some of us had to be held up while posing that we were holding up the tower… (it is a difficult and challenging task to stand on a post…. Have your hands the right angle, smile at the camera …… and not fall off the post….).

It was also LUNCH time…   we had about 2 hours to get … photos, lunch, AND…. shopping done…. So we had to hurry…

We all met at our meeting point at the scheduled time… and then it was back into the Motor Coach for a 1 hour ride to Florence…
We were so excited showing each other what we had bought on our shopping spree in Pisa we hardly realized that we had arrived to Florence.

It was only a 5 minute walk tour hotel… and only about 5 minute wait while the rooms were assigned and we were in our AIR CONDITIONED ROOMS… Ahhhhh it felt good… because outside it was about 85 degrees.

John gave us some time to get settled in and rest before we started our tour.  
The reason we are doing the hop on hop off tour now is because many of the parents wanted to go inside the Academia and Ufizzi to see the art work..... If we do the bus tour tonight it will free up more time tomorrow for them to do that.  

We hopped on the bus at about 3:30pm this afternoon for our tour of the city… It was nice at that time as the temperature was only about 80 degrees….  The big bus wound our way around the really narrow streets of Florence that seemed the size that would fit a Volkswagen.. and yet… here we were in a double Decker bus.  The narration

 
was interesting but we could have done without the Baroque music in the back ground….

Soon we were at Michelangelo’s Plaza high above the city… looking out at all of the morning colors and thinking to ourselves … THIS WAS THE PLACE…. Back in the day… if you were a painter, artist, sculptor, designer, architect etc….. THIS is where the cutting edge of the arts was happening…

We took our group photo and then continued onto the tour…  The rest of the afternoon was free for us to continue to the other lines of the tour or to go shopping or go into some of the museums (if the lines were not too long)… and we did most all of those things…   

Florence (For Dummies)
The home of the Renaissance and the modern world as we know and love it. After emerging from the Dark Ages and the Black Death (about 1350), Florence became prosperous as a center of the textile trade. Certain families became fabulously wealthy and became the patrons of scholars and artists who had new ideas about the world. Those ideas included the study of the natural world (which lead to the development of the science and technology that makes our way of life possible), the importance of the individual (which inspired not only the great artists of the Western world, but helped inspire the American Founding Fathers to craft our constitution and Bill of Rights), and the importance of cultivating of the mind and creativity. These trends can be seen in the Dome of the Florence Cathedral designed by a man named Brunelleschi, it was the largest

dome constructed since the time of Ancient Rome and demanded the use of advanced mathematical concepts and the invention of new machines to build it. Nearby you will see famous works of art like the Doors of Paradise on the Baptistery by Donatello and Michelangelo’s David.

Prior to going to dinner….. everyone and reviewed the RULES of TRAVEL…. And WHEN our CURFEW IS… and what will happen if we do not follow the RULES…

Groups of 4 or more headed to different restaurants for dinner….  Russ will be at the door making sure…

Tomorrow … Parents want to go to the museums.... Players will do a walking tour of Florence

2014 Day 7 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Grosseto

2013 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Day 7 Grosseto
Today is our beach volleyball tournament…. We do not have to be to the beach until about 10:30am … some of us are washing clothes this morning… others are sleeping in after our carnival night. 

Everyone arrived on time to the LIDO BEACH courts… The teams were quickly organized the individual girls into teams of 4 and we started our tournament… The day was GORGEOUS…. A slight sea breeze helped us feel a little bit cooler… but the difference between feeling 90 and 95 is not too much….

We started to play at 10:30am … and played a round robin tournament 1 game to 25 points… then the play offs…

ITALY.. was the names of the teams...
Team "I" was: Jordan, Ryan, Mackenzie, Anna they had 2 wins after pool play
Team "T" was: Kayla, Samantha, Lauren, Dalyn they had 0 wins after pool play 
Team "A" was: Noel, Cheyene, Charis, Russ they had 4 wins after pool play
Team "L" was: Emani, Gianna, Taylor, Isabell they had 1 wins after pool play
Team "Y" was: Ashley, Elana, Devon, John (a dad) they had 3 wins after pool play

The single elimination tournament had... Team I playing Y and Team L playing T
Team Y won and Team T won... pulling off an upset
The next round of games Team A playing Team T... 
The finals were between Team A and team Y..
Team A won 30-24

Following our games we spent a little more time on the beach, swimming, getting henna tattoos and having lunch... 

We had a team diner set for 8pm at the LIDO on the beach.  We took some beach photos at sunset, said our last goodbyes to the beach and had dinner..The rest of the evening was free to go to the carnival for the last time

Curfew was 11:30pm

Tomorrow PISA and Florence

2014 Day 6 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Grosseto

2014 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Day 6 Grosseto

Today is our 2^nd day on the beach here in the Marina…  We need to be ready for drills at 10:00am …

All most everyone arrived on time to the LIDO BEACH courts on time… 2 girls were locked in their room and could not unlock the dead bolt....The day was GORGEOUS…. A slight sea breeze helped us feel a little bit cooler… 

Coach Russ ran the beach drills for us…. trying to get us to move a little more easily, and to feel more comfortable on the beach.  Also to recognize more quickly where the ball is going and to arrive there before the ball does.  Moving in the sand is very difficult and if we wait a fraction of a second before we start to move … we will be late.

Following the drills we divided up into teams and played a mini 4 vs 4 tournament.

We had the rest of the afternoon off to shop, shower or sleep before our games tonight…

Several of the parents joined in and played with the girls and also a few of the boys from the beach.... 
For our indoor games tonight...We arrived to the community gym at about 4:45pm and started to play at 5:30pm.

The Older team played first…. The team we played was pretty much the same team as the night before...
The Older team lost 25-18; 25-18; 15-10

The younger girls played next… and won again 26-24; 25-22; and 16-14 in some very competitive games... 

Everyone went to different places to eat …. And then to the carnival for the last hour before curfew..

Curfew was 11:30pm everyone was home before curfew

Tomorrow beach volleyball tournament

2014 Day 4 Grosseto Junior Age Volleyball Tour

2014 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Day 4 Grosseto

We had everyone up and ready to go at 8am and after a quick breakfast we were going down the road out of Rome towards Grosseto.  But first we are going to stop in Ladispoli ( a little seaside town about 1 hour north of Rome ) to play a morning match with their club teams and have a lunch with them.  We have not been to Ladispoli or Grosseto but from the photos that we have seen from other tours and from what Russ and John tell us…. we are really looking forward to going there…
As we drove further down the road outside of Rome the country side began to change from the high rise apartments to the amber rolling hills of the rural area… As the bus drove down the  
road, the warm sun shining through the window… it was not long before most of us were asleep.  As luck would have it … just as we we were asleep we arrived into Ladispoli. The gym was about the same as the one we played in last night with one exception… this bubble gym was over a framework and had fresh air….. 

The host team had 2 teams one about 14-15 years old and the other about 16-17 years old… We decided to play just 2 sets each because we had a lunch reservation at a specific time… and when you have a reservation for 50-60 people… it is always a good idea to keep it.

The younger girls played first..the first game the score was very close the entire game … but the host team scored 2 points in a row to win 26-24.  The second set was not quite as close with the our team winning 25-16.

The older girls were up next and had a very close match the local team won 27-25 the second set we won 25-20....All of the host girls were very friendly and many of them went to lunch with us…  We drove  a few mintues out of town to a little "farm like" place called an aguro-turismo farm.  Where tourist can stay there do a little work on the farm.... "a working vacation"  The restaurant was large enough for 60 people inside.... very new and clean....We had bruschetta    (toast with olive oil, garlic and tomatoes on it….)  yum…. It too was very good… let me just say… that everything was really good.  The next plate of pasta.... with tomato sauce or zucchini and bacon… I forgot to mention they also served water… we thought we were done as most of us were really full..... but the last thing they brought us was.... our salad... (which is backwards from the way we get our food in the USA.  We ate until we could not eat any more…. And we waddled out of the restaurant and onto the bus.   

Soon we were on the road to Marina de Grosseto.

A short 2 hours later … We arrived to our accommodations in Grosseto.  They are like a long term condo vacation apartments…. Some have two floors, two air conditioners, a balcony, two bathrooms and a kitchen and refrigerator… they are really nice.   John did tell us that is sort like camping indoors…. They give us towels for our stay … if we use them all up in one day we need to pay to get new ones… I think most everyone will hang their towel up and take care of the ones that they give us. 

Everyone got checked into their rooms and in no time we were walking through the little town of …. Marina di Grosseto… Marina is about 3-4 streets wide… and most of the shops and restaurants are within 3-4 blocks.   It is very casual, sleepy, relaxing and tranquil here…. Everyone feels right at home.

We walked though town (4-5 ) blocks long and then down to the edge of the beach.
We arrived to Grosseto about 6pm ... and there was not too much to do... (as far as playing volleyball was concerned).  Most of us had dinner and went to the carnival or walked around town getting familiar with our new town.  

John showed us were we would have our breakfast, where the ATM machines and the pharmacies were located... and told us where we would play and practice volleyball tomorrow.   The LIDO beach is where we can play volleyball and go into the ocean.    It was now time to go eat…. Most of the girls went to the little street café on main street…. They had AMERICAN Hamburgers, hotdogs and…. Pizza and spaghetti…. Some went back showered and went to sleep as it had been a long long day..

After eating everyone was ready for bed and most of us were fast asleep by the time the 11:00pm curfew arrived….

Tomorrow… Beach Volleyball Training and our first indoor match in Grosetto.

2014 Day 5 Grosseto Junior Age Volleyball Tour

2014 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Day 5 Grosseto

Today is another beautiful day in Marina…. Everyone arrived on time to beach practice… applied their sun screen and Russ, had them going through their movement drills….  After about 30-40 minutes of moving and jumping in the sand ... Russ divided the players into new teams of 4 persons.  We played for about 45 minutes in some mini games... getting use to the sand the wind and the sun ... playing in the sand is MUCH more difficult that they make it look on TV.   At about 1pm we finished the beach games… The rest of the afternoon is free to take in the beach atmosphere go swimming (John reminded us that we needed to stay in front of the beach life guard and we could only go out into the water up to our chest.... !!!)  Some of us decided just hang out and use the wifi at the beach to tell all our friends what we are doing (and to make them jealous).We had a group meeting tonight at 4:45pm at the gym to play our teams from the Marina.  The U16 team played first tonight.... they seemed to play better and moved better after the movement skills in the sand this morning....We won the first 2 sets 25-19 and 25-15 and decided to play the 3rd set as well the local team won that set 16-14.  The older girls were up next ... the level of play was quite high.... but the individuals of the older group were playing a team that has been together for 2-3 years... and their level of play showed it.... our girls lost 25-10 26-24 and 15-4.  The scores did not show how close the games really were... After the games most everyone went to the carnival (just across the street from our hotel ….) many of us went there to see what it is all about and to ride some of the rides…The time was about 11:15pm … when we made it back to our accommodations on time.  Tomorrow… More Beach Volleyball lessons – a mini beach tournament and our indoor match with the Italian girls – and a return to the carnival

2014 Day 3 Rome Junior Age Volleyball Tour

2014 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Day 3 Rome

Due to the time differences between Italy and various parts of the USA… the daily blog is written at the end of each day… that means it will always be about 1 day behind… the readers in the USA… 

This morning we are going to the Vatican Area, St Peters Church and the Vatican Museum.
In the afternoon we will meet our tour guide for a walking tour of the Ancient Roman Forum.
On the way to the Vatican.... we discovered that the SUBWAY (METRO) was having a problem due to all the rain last night... oh ... did I forget to tell you that last night / early this AM... the end of the world came and went.... after dumping several inches of water on ROME .... the sky was alight with lightning and the thunder was so loud that we could feel it in our chest..... POW... KABOOM....

CRACK..... The bottom line was.... the Metro was running intermittently.... and no one knew it it would get better or not... 
So.... there we were standing about 1/2 down to the platform... with about 2-3000 of other folks all trying to get on the METRO.... that may or may not arrive...
The tempurature, humidity.... and the fragrance of 2000 less than hygenic people made it an easy decision... "Lets go to plan B"... which was to take a bus..... Great Idea..... but about 2-300 other people also decided to do the same thing..... The first bus was full and John told us to all get on the next one... and to

not be polite or we would be left at the curbside ... Not wanting that to happen... we lost our shyness and elbowed our way onto the bus like a true ITALIAN... We did not have to worry about falling over as there was no possibility of that to happen... The ride to the Vatican area was only about 15 minutes... but is seemed longer... once we got off the bus we all felt like we should take a shower in the hand sanitizer lotion.... Ah.... the life of a TOURIST....
We were only a couple of blocks away from the St Peters Church... and the Vatican ....
We all went to the Church first... John gave us the instructions on where to go and how to get in and where to meet.... and after our group photo we all headed in different directions to make the most of our time here... 
Within 15 minutes the end of the world ... part 2 happened... The skies opened up and rain began to fall.... Some of us were luck as we had made it inside the Church or inside the museum... others ... not so much... they were between locations and were ducking for cover where ever they could find it... (oh did I happen to mention the 10,000 other people that were doing the same thing...)
Some people were thinking of maybe not going on the walking tour as the weather was not cooperating.

The rains came and went... the sun came out and warmed us up .... and our time to visit was almost up so we made it back tour our meeting point to get ready for our WALKING tour of ANCIENT ROME....
We had a 15 minute walk to PZ NAVONA along the way we went past Castelo St Angelo, across the Tiber River, and into PZ Navona.... We had about 50 minutes before our guided tour so most of us went to lunch..... and made it back just in time to meet our guide Rahul.  He gave us head phones so that when we was walking we could hear all that he was saying about the area or things we were looking at... He spoke English very well.... and it was very interesting to hear.
We went to PZ NAvona, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, PZ Venetzia, the Ancient Roman Fourm and back the the Colloseum.  
Russ met us at the Colloseum and brought us back to the hotel... WHEW.... a full day in Rome....
Being a tourist is WORK.... but ... FUN WORK...

Tomorrow...we go to Ladispoli for another game, Lunch and then go to Marina di Grosseto

2014 Day 2 Rome Junior Age Volleyball Tour June

 2014 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Day 2 Rome

Our second day in Rome… after a good nights sleep it all seem real now… yesterday everyone was in a travel induced FOG…. I vaguely remember what we did and where we went…. But when others start talking about what we did… I remember it…. Vaguely… thank goodness I took photos.

It is 8am we are at breakfast… Breakfast simply means that there is food in the morning…. Gone are the eggs, hash browns, bacon, etc… Breakfast here is coffee (in several forms but still coffee…) hot chocolate… (very chocolaty ) croissants, breakfast bread, corn flakes, orange juice… and some sort of melba type toast…  But when one is hungry… it is not bad…

This morning we are going to Circus Maximus, Coloseium and Palintine Hill.  We left the hotel about 10am to go to Termini Station to take the Metro to Circus Maximus.

We all re-grouped at the hotel for our trip to our first competitions.

We were picked up by our motor coach at about 5:30pm and made our way to the gym.  The gym is a BUBBLE DOME gym and a very nice private facility … but because it is filled with air (like one of the blow up jumping areas at the fair) only 4-5 people can enter the equalizer chamber at a time to enter the gym… then the next 4-5 enter and so on.  Once inside it is a large clean space with a soft floor.  The Blue team played first and jumped out to a 10 point lead.... and then started to get a little over confidant and were trying to run plays that were a little to complicated for a group of players who just met the day before... Suddenly the score was tied at 22 each.... After a time out we played a little more disciplined and basic... and won 25-23.  The Blue team played next, and the score was pretty close up to about 12 -12... one of the Italian servers went back and served about 8 straight points ... making the score 20-12...We tried to fight back but the score was too much to overcome we lost 25-15.
For the 3rd set ... we started with the blue team playing the first 12 points .... then the Red Team would sub in for the final points.
The Red team fell behind 12-6 before the Blue team came onto the court.... And unfortunately the Blue team did not have any any time to warm up after sitting out a game and a 1/2 and found them selves behind more that 6 point most of the way thorough the game.  The combined team lost 25-18.
It was a very good night.... lots of energy... lots

of talking.... and good contributions by all players.  Following the games we went to pizza with the local team toe Ristorante Maia... a short drive away from the gym.  The fixed menu included beverage, a fried rice and cheese ball, bruschetta, Pizza... all for 12 euro.  IT as great.... We had our 34 people plus about the same number of Italian players and parents.... If you can imagine 60 teenage girls trying to talk all at the same time.... the noise level and energy levels were ..... very high..... fortunately... we were just about the only ones in the ristorante...

We finished up at about 10:30pm... made it back to the Hotel by about 11:15pm... and everyone was exhausted.... and went to bed....

Tomorrow morning we visit St. Peters and the Vatican.  We will then have our guided tour of Ancient Rome.  The late afternoon is free for shopping. 

2014 Day 1 Rome Junior Age Volleyball Tour June

2014 Junior Age Volleyball Tour Day 1 Rome

The first group of 2 different flights began to land in Rome at about 8:30am….It was schedule to arrive at 8:50am but due to bad stormy weather it actually departed the USA early to avoid the bad weather.   As each flight landed and exited the luggage area… John met them and took them to the “waiting area”, showed them where to change money and … most importantly…. Where to go to the bath room….  As each group arrived our waiting area grew larger and larger… 

The final people arrived and we went outside to go to our bus…. The air was hot and filled with cigarette smoke… (it is illegal to smoke indoors in Italy.. but that does nothing to help when you walk outside expecting FRESH AIR… only to be greeted with a face full of smoke…).  We boarded our Motor coach for our 45 minute drive into Rome and to our accommodations…  It took a few minutes to get our large group into the rooms those who were on the 3^rd or 4^th floor could use the elevator…

We all settled in … took showers … had a bite to eat and slept until it was time to go to practice.  We practiced for a couple of hours learning each others names and the type of system we would use for our team

By this time everyone was experiencing some heavy jet lag and our eyes and body were starting to drag.  We had a quick bite to eat at a little café near our hotel and …. Off to our BEDS….. AHHHHHH Sleep

Tomorrow…. The Coloseum, Circus Maximus, Ancient Roman Forum ... and our first MATCH...