Sibillini 2007
Entry #3- Comunanza & Opening Ceremonies
July 1
By Kelsey Bowers, University of Florida

After a fairly short bus ride from Falconara, we arrived in Comunanza for the opening ceremonies.  Unfortunately the bus did not have great air conditioning so everyone went to sleep only to wake up pretty sweaty, but the countryside was so amazing that the hot bus was well worth it.  We saw rolling hills that turned into huge mountains.  Some of the roads were so tight to the mountain that I wasn’t sure if our bus would make it around the turn.  It was definitely an adventure.  The roads in Italy are not made for giant buses. 

The bus took us through the small town of Comunanza and Tim explained that we would spend most of our time on the main road that was only a few blocks long.  We dropped the coaches off at a hotel in town, and the bus took us up what seemed like a 90-degree slope to the town of Montemonaco and Casa Gioiosa, the monastery that we were staying at.  It took about 20 minutes to get there from Comunanza.  I had heard that the monastery was hard to stay at, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got into my room. 

The building itself is beautiful and has a great view of the mountains that surround us.  There are about six players to a room with little bunk beds.  There is a bathroom in each room.  Our bathroom was somewhat different than anything I have seen in the states.  There is the normal toilet and sink, but in the middle of the bathroom there is just a showerhead and a drain. We all unpacked, looked around, and changed into matching outfits for the ceremony.

We drove back into town and got very friendly greetings from everyone.  There were signs for the tournament everywhere.  We sat at the bar, in Italy bars are like café’s, and waited to meet up with the coaches.  A few of us ventured into the town square and found about twelve games.  Each game was hand made out of drawers, hoses, bottle caps, and other random things.  We finger painted a few pictures and hung them up and then played some of the games that we had never heard of before.  Some of the coaches participated as well.  They started to put the games away at dusk and we went to eat dinner and then get some gelato.  Gelato is now a daily ritual for me. 

When it got dark, the parade started.  They had about 20 girls with batons and a band lead each team through the town.  We thought that we were called USA Red and USA Blue so when the man asked us who was Volleyhut and who was Third Degree, we were pretty clueless.  We just guessed and got behind our two signs and marched.  I think we took more pictures of the people watching the parade than they did of us.  It was cool to see so many people show up for the event.

We marched to a stage and the head of the tournament gave an intro in Italian.  I tried to translate as much as I could to some of my teammates, but I’m still learning and could only get about every third word.  He did speak in English every now and then to help us out. 

Each team was introduced and brought on stage.  They played everyone’s national anthem and gave the captains flowers.  We split the flowers between us and then gave Paula, my team’s head coach, a flower one at a time.  After the introductions, they played music and all of us started dancing.  We usurped the stage and danced for a long time with some of the children from the town.  I think they all had a great time.  I know we did.  We got back to the monastery at around midnight.

For more information, and some great photos, please see the past years journals: