Italy, It's been real...

The last couple of days, I have been packing and saying goodbye to my teammates and friends in Fondi. I went to the beach in Sperlonga a couple of times and I had some great laughs with Lynnea.

Last night, was our last night in Fondi and we went to the town center because one of our teammates boyfriends was playing jazz near the castle. We saw a couple of friends in the town and said our goodbyes. These people are truly great and I will have friends for a life time. I am so happy that there is facebook and email so we can keep in touch. 

I have learned so much from my experience in Italy, not only did I learn a new language but I learned about a new culture and I made tons of new friends. I am very thankful for this opportunity and I am glad that I got to share it with everyone through this blog!! 

This has been a great year, and I thank everyone involved in Pronto Freddo Fondi for giving me this opportunity to play on this team! It has been a blast! 

Vi voglio bene!!!! 

è stato bello conoscerti  

Italian word/phrase of the day: mi mancherai  "i will miss you"

Fell asleep on a train, woke up on a boat...

On Saturday I wanted to go down to Palermo, Sicily. I have a train pass that allows me to get discounted tickets on trains, so I went up to Rome to buy a train ticket for the night train. When I got there, the train that I wanted was sold out. Not going wasn't an option, so I changed my plans and decided to head down there on Sunday. And so the loooong journey for a short visit began.

Sunrise view

Sunday night, I hopped on the night train from Rome to Palermo, with a few stops in between. I didn't have a bed cabin, just a cabin with seats, so it wasn't too comfortable. (Not to self: ALWAYS get a sleeper car when travel over night.) At Naples, three more Americans got on and sat in the same cabin as me, so I had someone to talk to. The girls were 19 and they were with one of their mom's, and they have been coming to Palermo for a while because the husband (and father) is actually Sicilian and still has family there, so they come to visit almost every year. It was very nice to meet them and sit with them on the train because they gave me a lot of advice about Palermo! 

The trains on the boat

Sun starting to rise while on the boat

After a while of uncomfortable sitting, I finally fell asleep. I later woke up to our train going forward and backward several times, and I wasn't able to see a lot out of the window so I drifted back to sleep. I was unusually comfortable with the train changing directions as many times as it did. When I woke up, our train was being put into a ferry, and we were going across to Messina. Yes, thats right, a train on a boat! I didn't know that trains could go on boats, but it is really cool. They detach each train car and put them into the bottom of the boat, once they are done, you are allowed to get out of your car and go up to the deck of the boat and walk around. When we get there, you have to get back in your car, they reassemble the train and you head on your way. The boat ride over to Messina was beautiful, it was at about 6:30am, the sun was rising, and it was amazing to watch. 

Once we got to Messina, it was about 7am, and we waited there at the train station for some time, picked up some more passengers, then headed on our way to Palermo. We got to Palermo at 10:40am. 

View of the sunrise from the boat

Inside of the Church of Jesus

Once we got there, I stopped by a tourist information desk, grabbed a map of the city, and headed on my to start checking sites of my list. Most of the main sights are all located in the same area of each other, in the old city center. I pretty much had to walk down 2 streets to get to most of the main things. First I visited to Cathedral, it is a very big church that sits in the middle of the city. There are tons of more modern buildings and shops around it, it doesn't look like it belongs. Then after that, I headed over to the Church of Jesus, which is known for it's incredible architecture on the inside. It was kind of difficult to find, because it is back off the main street, and in the middle of houses and buildings. The inside of the church is amazing, and like they say, the architecture is absolutely wonderful, and every wall and column of the church is covered with these carvings!  

The coast

After that, the other places that I wanted to go to were closed until later that day, the daily four hour lunch siesta. So, while waiting for the sites to open, I walked to the coast, and sat on a bench right on the sea and just soaked up the sun and people watched! 

Me in one of the many gardens

Me sitting on the coast

After about an hour sitting there, I walked through a couple gardens, then headed to the Capuchin Catacombs. It is a little bizarre, and I'm glad I read about it before going; but nothing really prepares you for what you see. It is literally a bunch of bodies preserved throughout the years, organized by class, hanging or laying on the walls. Some are preserved a little better then others. Then, there is this one, they call it La Bambina (the baby girl), she died about 100 years ago, and she is the most real looking, perfectly preserved body in there. I guess the doctor who discovered the embalming method to do this, died before he could write it down or tell anybody and they haven't been able to figure it out to this day. They don't allow you to take pictures, which is understandable, so I don't have any pictures of this, but I'm sure you can google it and find several. 

The walls were covered with amazing carvings

Palermo is a big, busy city, but it is amazing how many churches this city has. I didn't even see that much of the city, but it seems like almost every other building while walking down the street is a church! It is really cool to see that they are mixed in with the other buildings of the city, you could easily mistake them for another government building, or another apartment building, while passing by. 

After that I really had nothing else to do, I sat in the square of the Cathedral for a little then headed to the train station to head back on another night train. This time, I had a cabin with a bed! Besides sharing a cabin with 3 other women, who keep in mind I can't really communicate with, tt is actually not as bad as you would imagine, and I got a pretty good nights sleep. 

Quatro Canti- Famous cross streets

Italian word/phrase of the day: come no? "why not"  happens to be one of my least favorite, over used, phrases to hear, but at the same time I enjoy using it...

The Cathedral

Me infront of the Cathedral

B2!!!!!!

Tonight was our team party to celebrate our win and advancement to Series B2!

We were told to meet at the gym at 8:30pm and we would go together to the restaurant, NDino (as the text said). From talking to other teammates, it sounded like no one really knew where this place was. We met at the gym, and while we were waiting for everyone a couple of us went over to the cafe across the street and had a drink and some snacks. Then once everyone got there, late, we piled in the cars and followed each other to the restaurant. Because it was down a little street, we had to park at the store parking lot and walk. Once we parked we all followed our manager to the restaurant, it was a very nice restaurant and we had the back room for our party!

We all sat down and talked, drank and ate. After the food, we had a cake and some champagne and a toast to the season and advancing to Series B. We all chanted for people to make speeches. They wanted the Americans to say something, so, I told them (in Italian) that this year has been beautiful because we were all together, and they were like family and thank you millions for everything!!

After the party, we said our goodbyes, because some of the people we won't see before we leave. It is good to know that we can keep in touch on the internet! Our coach had a very heartfelt talk with us. Antonio, who left for vacation tonight, said goodbye to us and thanked us for everything and gave us HUGE hugs and told us to come back and visit! It was a great night with everyone!


Italian word/ phrase of the day: quest'anno è stata bellissimo perché di tutti. Grazie mille per tutto!! "this year has been very beautiful because of everyone. Thank you tons for everything!" 

The Americans! 

Me with some of my teammates! 

Our cake!

Our team and the presidents and coaches!

Me and Davide, he's the one who picked us off the tour in Slovenia! 

Maria, Lynnea, me, and Adri- the four in the house!

The Moment We Have Been Waiting For...CHAMPIONS!!

Today was the final match of the playoffs, the team who won this match would advance to Series B2. WE WON!

Lynnea in her seat belt on the bus

Saturday afternoon, we boarded this bus with not enough seats for everyone and headed to Bolsena, the town where the finals were being held. It is a town about 3 hours away right on a lake, the lake is pretty big, but nothing compared to the lakes in Michigan!

View of the lake and little area by our hotel in Bolsena

Valentina on a ride, we later got it to work

The bus ride was pretty fun, Maria was apparently telling jokes, i guess they were really funny, we finally figured them out later that day when she slowed them down for us; they actually were pretty funny! Once we got to Bolsena, we checked into our hotel and then headed to the gym to get a little practice in. After that we had a nice team dinner, walked by the lake and then went to bed.

After what was probably the worst night of sleep, we woke up and had a nice team breakfast, a couple of us walked by the lake again and enjoyed the view, then had a team lunch. Our game was at 4pm, so after lunch we headed back to our rooms and packed our things and then left for the gym. The anticipation leading up to the game was crazy, for some reason I had "butterflies" in my stomach. Never before have I felt this way before a volleyball game, a track meet in high school, yes, but a never a volleyball game. I was so excited for the game, and I think nervous at the same time because I think I knew how much the team wanted to win this and advance to B2. We were also playing one of the "best teams" we have seen all year and I was nervous because we frequently have "off days" and I knew that if today was one of those days for some people on the team we wouldn't really have a chance.

Our city organized a bus for the fans that left Fondi this morning at about 11am, they got there right when we started warm ups, I would say it was the most amount of fans we have had all year. They brought all types of air horns and noise makers as well, it was awesome!

We won the first set, and got pretty far ahead in the second set, but we got a little too relaxed and ended up losing the second set. We pulled together as a team, and rolled on with determination to claim the third and fourth sets, winning the match!! Our managers and presidents and important people of the club came running on the court with us and joined our celebration!

We had to get off the court pretty quickly because there was another final right after ours, but we celebrated off to the side and took pictures with the fans, and they played "We are the Champions" by Queen and we sang it in a big circle! It was such an amazing feeling!

After we showered we stayed to watch a little bit of the next match then got back on the bus and headed back to Fondi!

Lynnea and I with some members of the "Under 13" team

Valentina and Me

Marzia and I on the ride back

Italian word/ phrase of the weekend:
1. GRANDI RAGAZZE  "literally translates to big girls, but used as a way of saying great job ladies!"
2. non mi sfottere "do not tease me" one of the few "sf" words I can pronounce!

FINALS!!!!!!!!!

Last night we had our home, and second, semi-final match (because we play one home and one away for semi's). It was an 8:30pm match, and it went a lot longer then we all would have liked. Apparently because we beat this team 3-0 last weekend, we only needed to win one set this weekend to not play the GOLDEN SET and to be in the finals. We started off super strong, winning the first set, and sending us into the finals. You would think then that since there was no reason to play the rest of the game they would just end it. Seems logical to me, and with all the other rules they have here I'm surprised that is not how they do it. We still had to play the whole game, and for some reason our team decided that we wanted to play a full 5 set match before eventually winning it.

To say the least, we won the match last night, and now we are on to the finals! We have ONE MORE GAME LEFT, FOR ALL THE MARBLES, the winner of this game advances to Series B2!!



Italian word/phrase of the day: noi siamo in finale  "we are in the finals"

Climbing things=great views...

My parents left last Tuesday early in the morning. On Monday, Antonio really wanted to take my parents around and show them the surrounding little cities, Monte San Biagio, Terracina and Sperlonga. He picked us up a little after 4pm and we headed to Sperlonga. This town is on the coast, and is the town that we go to when we go to the beach. I have never actually walked through the little town, so it was fun to see. The old town of Sperlonga is built up on a cliff that over looks the sea. It is very interesting because there are very few streets that actually go through the town, there are mainly little walkways that pass by lots of houses and stores. It was like walking through a maze, I definitely would not have known where I was going. When we went on Monday the skies were very very clear and it was easy to see the islands that sit just off the coast along with the whole coast line.

Sperlonga

View of the Castle is Sperlonga

Next we headed to Terracina, and every time we drive by I always see this building up at the top of a mountain and I have always wondered if it is possible to go up there, because it was probably an awesome view, well Antonio must have had the same idea because that is the first place we went. It turns out it is the Temple of Zeus, or the ruins of the temple. In the temple there is a flat open area that looks over the edge of the mountain and you can see all of Terracina, and the other surrounding little cities as well.

My parents and me over looking Terracina

Terracina

Temple of Zeus 

Stairs in the temple

After going up the mountain he drove us into Terracina and showed us the old part of the town, it had the old road that used to pass from Rome to Naples and it had all of the old churches and buildings. Then he took us to this little gelato place, on the way out of town, it had some of the best gelato I have ever had, it was amazing!!! They had nutella gelato, and I'm pretty sure it was just straight nutella, not actually gelato!

Old church and bell tower in Terracina

Once we got in the car, we thought we were finally heading back to Fondi, on the way back he stopped and drove us up to the top of Monte San Biagio. This town is built into the side of the mountain, and has a good view of the "lakes" that surround the area. I say "lakes" because to me, being from Michigan, these are more like rivers and ponds. And that was the end of my parents tour.

View from Monte San Biagio

Italian word/phrase of the day: la bella vita  "the beautiful life"

Playoffs...

Well since we didn't get first in the regular season, we got 2nd, which means we got a spot for playoffs. Now play offs are super difficult to explain and don't really make any sense, but I'll try to make it as simple as possible.

There are two divisions in our region, A and B. The winner of A and the winner of B automatically advance to the next series, B2. Then teams 2-5 of both divisions enter playoffs, which are apparently a combined playoff pool.

We are the 1st seed in playoffs so we play the 4th seeded team of the other division for 2 semi final matches, 1 home and 1 away. Then we advance to finals, where we will play the winner of division A's 1 seeded team and our divisions 4 seeded team. The final match consists of just one match, on neutral ground. Seeds, 2 and 3 of both division are in there own separate semis and finals bracket, don't ask me why, but that is how it works, so there will be two winner of playoffs, and those two with advance to B2.

Yesterday was our fist semi match, our away, against a team that we have never seen. The gym was horrible, and it was VERY VERY VERY hot, but we won in 3! The games were kind of close, but we were able to pull together as a team and played very well. Next weekend we will have to play them again at home.

After our match some of us went to watch the two teams we will be playing the winner of for the finals. And let me tell you, no matter which team wins, we will have our work cut out for us, and it will be a very exciting and interesting final!


Italian word/phrase of the day: vittoria "victory"