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Team VolleyHut’s Sibillini Journal 2005
Volume 2: Falconara
By Alex Dyer, Cornell University
Friday, July 24: At around 11:00 this morning we left Rome on a charter bus and endured a 5-hour drive to a little town called Falconara. (For me it was more like a 5-hour nap). We got a chance to see more of Italy and many towns along the way. I realized Italy has many very diverse climates and I found all of them beautiful. The bus took us directly to the Falconara gym, i.e. a little warehouse-looking building with a bright orange rubber court inside.
Falconara Maritima, as seen from the middle of the Adriatic
We put on our volleyball stuff and when we went to fill up our water bottles we were surprised to find the water was a murky yellowish-brown color that only seemed to get more colored as we ran the water. Having no other option, we drank it anyway (yum!) and started practice. This was the first time team VolleyHut had practiced together, so it was fun seeing the girls play and getting on the court again. This was also the first time many of us met Cory Solomon, our coach – and he seemed like a nice guy. Cory ran us through a series of hitting, passing, and serve receive drills to start getting an idea of what positions we play and our strengths and weaknesses.
Right away he explained to us that the biggest challenge we would face is not improving individual weaknesses (because the girls are all great players), but would be to make a team out of a bunch of individuals who have never played together. I could really see the validity of this comment and as we began to play we all made an effort to talk loud and communicate with each other. At the end of practice we scrimmaged a little. It was a lot of fun and everyone got a chance to play. It was our first mini-game as a team and I must say our team unity was not too bad.
After practice, we came back to Hotel Touring and showered. The hotel was very nice and had a great view of the town, not to mention it was about 3 blocks away from the Adriatic Sea!
The view from Hotel Touring
We walked down to the beach for dinner at a place called Da Rita’s. The food was served family-buffet style with huge plates of bread, pasta, salad, pizza, and finally a Nutella pizza (Nutella is a delicious chocolate-hazlenut spread common here in Europe) brought to our table consecutively. Every time I thought dinner was over, they would bring out another dish of food! After stuffing ourselves, we waddled up a steep hill back to the hotel and called/emailed our families, then finally went to bed exhausted.
Dinner at Da Rita’s
Saturday, July 25: Today was one of the few days we were able to sleep in, so my roommies (Brynn, Kate, and Kristin) and I slept until around 11:00. At Hotel Touring there are heavy shades that can be pulled down and they do a great job of keeping out the sunlight and helping tired teenagers to sleep late.
When we finally woke up, we went directly to the beach to see the beach and get some sun. I noticed a couple things about the beach – the sand was extraordinarily soft, many Italian guys wear Speedos, people lies on lawn chairs next to umbrellas (not on the sand), and lunch routinely takes over an hour and a half.
We also swam out in the sea to a group of rocks, which were covered with mussels and other crazy wildlife of the sea. I had an interesting experience – after climbing up on the rocks my foot seemed to be covered in green seaweed. Upon closer inspection we realized the seaweed had pink heads and was in fact many small leeches stuck to my foot! Ahh! Fortunately, I survived and with no serious injuries.
Around 4 we returned to the hotel, got ready for practice, and ventured over to the Falconara gym again in a crowded, hot van (sauna on wheels). This time we were sure to bring our own water. When we got to the gym, a guys’ team was still finishing practice, so we were able to watch them for a bit. It was weird hearing them make their calls in Italian. We eventually started practice with a couple drills and when Cory organized a team serve-receive drill we realized that none of us are right side hitters! So, Cory had pretty much all of us hit a couple right side hits and it will be interesting to find out who ends up playing the position. (Maybe a combination of people will?)
After practice, we returned to the hotel and Brynn, Kate, Kristin, and I rinsed off and jumped in the hotel pool in our spandex! Eventually we got out and pulled off an unbelievable feat – all four of us showered in 30 minutes, in time for dinner. For dinner we ate at Da Rita’s again, but this time there were about 3 other large groups of people at the restaurant which meant that it literally took over three and a half hours for us to receive all of our food.
Again, the dinner consisted of large plates of pasta, pizza, bread, and salad – with another Nutella pizza for dessert. A couple of us left early because
Kate was not feeling well and we wanted to bring her food. After packing in
preparation to leave for Comuunanza we were again exhausted and went to bed.
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