Friday, June 29, 2018

Back to Reality Aboard the 666 Train to Milano Centrale


Thursday, 28 June, 2018

We start today's blog post with some great announcements about our Skorpion players.

The Italian DII All-Star Rosters
were published today

Three of our 2018 Skorpions were named to the North squad,  

Nicolas was our Strong Safety
that led our team in tackles

As you can see in this photo, Nicolas' hard work and dedication to the game all earned him a spot on our Europe Warriors team that will play against the University of Chihuahua this coming August in Mexico.

Martino was a dominant
Wide Receiver for our Skorpions

It was just announced as well that Martino will be a Europe Warrior this Summer.

VIVA MEXICO!

Tomas was a solid Defensive End
for us this season

I am excited for Tomas being named to the North team in only his first season of playing Defensive End.

Meanwhile, back in Venazza, it was time to head home to Venegono Superiore after our three wonderful days in the Cinque Terre.

 No, these were not all ours

One last look at Vernazza from
the train station

Our train trip home would be in four parts.

The first one was the easy, five minute ride from Venazza to the bigger train station in . . .

 . . . this bustling metropolis

A good cup of coffee and a brioche
at this sports bar in the station
helped us kill some time

We only had 30 minutes to wait until our second train arrived to whisk us to the Milano Centrale station.

But the train we needed was the 666,
a bad omen?

Why yes, yes it was!

The seats were comfortable, the ambient temperatures were also well within the allowable limits and the train was on time.

So what made this two hour and 48 minute journey the Trip from Hell you ask?

Simple, three fellow travelers from New Jersey, a Dad, Mom and the 24 year old son, a University of Maryland alum soon going to medical school, seated two rows behind us.

They spent their ride telling a poor Italian soul seated next to them both their life stories and their interpretation of the history and current events of the United States of America.

In itself, this was not a bad thing.

The fact that they did this in voices loud enough to be heard by people in both train cars adjacent to ours was indeed an issue.

Again, we were only two rows from them.

At least one person, after about an hour of their harangue, literally got up, gave up her seat and walked to some other car in search of another seat on our packed train muttering "Unbelievable. . ." to no one in particular as she walked past us.

The last 45 minutes of our ride to Milano consisted of eye contact/rolling moments with fellow passengers both Italian and American as our New Jersey family made more and more truly inane comments.

And no, they were not Trump supporters, just clueless in general.

As we queued up to leave the train in Milano an American turned to me and said, "Makes you kind of embarrassed  be an American." 

Yep.    

 DAMN IT!
We'll be in California

The final parts of our trip consisted of two quiet, easy rides on first a Metro from Milano Centrale station to the Cadorna station and then the usual train trip from Cadorna to Venegono Superiore.

Uneventful is a good word in rail travel.

In the evening, it was back to work with the last on the field practice with the Skorpion U19 and U16 teams before we return to California.

Working the U16s on tackling
technique improvement 

U16s Bump and Run Drill

U16s having some fun

We thoroughly enjoyed our mini-vacation in Vernazza, but it is definitely time to go home to California.

We are both missing our family.

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