August 16, 2007

Childers Chronicles Part One: Travelling with Women's Soccer In Italy

As the Bryant Women's Soccer team travels throughout Italy, senior tri-captain Lauren Childers (Franklin, Mass.) is chronicling the team's journey as they sight-see and take on Italian clubs in friendly matches. The team will open its 2007 season Sunday August 26 against Adelphi at Bulldog Stadium.

Day 1 – Friday August 10th
Today we arrived in Italy after a long day and night of travelling. We had a six-hour flight from Boston to London, and then we had a two-hour layover before a short flight to Milan, Italy. When we landed in Milan we met our escort, Gloria, and took a bus to Lake Como. By the time, we got to our hotel it was 11 a.m., and we went straight to lunch. We ate delicious pasta, which we soon found out was just the first course of a three-course meal. Our second course was a piece of veal and mashed potatoes followed by flan with raspberry sauce for dessert. After lunch, we met our tour guides and departed for a walking tour of the lake and the town of Como. We learned that Lake Como is the deepest lake in all of Europe as well as the one with the largest perimeter because of its unique upside down ‘y’ shape. The lake is surrounded by mountains and the town has several historical monuments. We learned that George Clooney has a house on the lake.

After the tour, we had free time in Como before we had to get on the bus again to Switzerland for a semi-pro men’s soccer game. We saw Lugano versus F.C. Kriens, and it ended in a 1-1 tie. Even though we could barely keep our eyes open, it was exciting at the end when the home team had a couple of close chances.

Day 2 – Saturday August 11th
On our second day, we woke up for an 8:00 a.m. team run along the lake to loosen up our legs for our game that night. After our run, we went to breakfast and had free time in the town. Breakfast was different than what we are used to. They had mostly cake and bread, but the fruit was really good. We met at 11:00 for the bus to go spend the day in Switzerland. We visited the enchanting village of Bellinzona and the biggest castle in the town, Castelgrande. We had to go to the top of the castle using an elevator. There were also two other castles further up the hill that some of us chose to climb to. After some free time and lunch, we took the bus to FoxTown, which is the biggest factory outlet department store in the area. We shopped for about an hour before we headed to our game. We were cutting it close, so we had to change on the bus, which was quite interesting in a bus full of 45 people. We got to the game with not much time to warm up, but we ended up beating Balerna (a Swiss team) by a score of 7-0. Then we travelled back to the hotel for dinner and a night on the town. We met Gloria at the hotel and she took us to a bar on the lake. Everyone had a blast conversing with each other and the local Italians.

Day 3 – Sunday August 12th
The third day, we were up early and on the bus headed to Milan. We had a few hours to explore the city ourselves and to have lunch before we met for a guided tour of the Last Supper painting and the Duomo. We all got on the bus to leave the Last Supper and soon realized that (junior goaltender) Jessica Clark wasn’t on the bus. We didn’t get very far before we saw her coming down the street after us and she came on the bus unharmed. She was welcomed by our laughter. After the continuation of our tour, we got back on the bus and went to our second game. We played a Swiss team, Losone, and won 12-2. We were forced to do some extra running following the game for allowing two goals, but other than that, it was a rewarding performance. After the game we returned to the hotel for dinner and remained there for the rest of the night.

Day 4 – Monday August 13th
We woke up early on our fourth and final day in Como to take a ferry to a village of Como called Bellagio. On the itinerary, it said that we would be sailing there, but when we arrived to the dock, it turned out to be a ferry boat. (we quickly learned that many things are not exactly what they seem on paper). It rained most of the morning, so many of us bought umbrellas from the local stores. Luckily, the weather changed, and it turned out to be another gorgeous day. We had some free time to eat lunch and browse the shops in Ballagio before taking the ferry back to the bus. When we got back to the bus, we headed towards Lake Lugano in Switzerland. The lake was very large and beautiful.

The area had several shops and a large church. Some of us took paddle boats out on the lake, which was very peaceful especially after a long day of walking and shopping. After Lugano, we got back on the bus and headed to the hotel for a pre-game dinner and then to the same field as the night before to play the same team (Losone). We got off to a rough start in this game, as we all expected to dominate like the night before. It was only 1-0 at halftime. We had to give the other team credit for not giving up but we definitely started a bit slow. The second half was better and we ended up winning 6-0. It was a late game under the lights that didn’t start until 9:00 p.m., so by the time we got back to the hotel, it was pretty late. We got back to the hotel for our last night and prepared to check out in the morning. Our next destination for the next couple of days would be the Lake Garda area.