Syracuse

First, last night's 8:00 p.m., 90 minute practice. It was held in an all hard packed mud soccer field next to our game stadium. Only about half the lights are turned on for us. The only person habitually on time in all of Italy is the guy who turns off our lights at 9:30!

About 40 players showed up, they continue to work hard and improve. Davide informed me tonight that for the first time in about 15+ years we are going to have to cut. We have about 65 players on the roster and we just don't have enough helmets and shoulder pads to go around. If you want to donate some equipment, let me know. We did our first depth chart tonight and came up with 52 players who we want to keep.

I did a load of dark clothes this morning, piece of cake!

Drove about 45 minutes south today to the town of Siracusa, Syracuse to us. I asked several people if they knew Jay Shelton but no one ever heard of him here. I may move here, parking is not the problem it is in Catania.

I visited Siracusa's Neapolis Archaeological Zone. It includes a Greek theater (that's me in front of it) and a Roman amphitheater. Walked further into town to the area called the Ortygia where there is a Temple of Apollo and a very nice Piazza Duomo by their cathedral. I had an excellent strawberry gelato at this piazza. Again traveling in the off season is GREAT! Only about ten people at the ruins today and the weather was nice.

I have already reached the "all the ruins/churches/museums look the same" stage and I've got six months to go. I am going to set a one a week limit on these type of sights.

For a change of pace I went into Siracusa's new cathedral. HUGE dome can be seen for miles, seats 11,000 according to their brochure. The Madonna statue inside cries, I thought Vanessa's mamma would like that touch.

Lets talk traffic yet again. The really tough thing to deal with is the Vespas and motorcycles. The ones on these are crazy. They'll drive on the sidewalk, into oncoming traffic, in between cars...Death Wish 2008!

The other big issue is that people double park all the time. So what if traffic is clogged for ten minutes. Besides double parking, some will find a small space to park and just go in head first leaving the rear end of their car in traffic. When in doubt, park it on the sidewalk. It definitely has honed my driving skills!