Tuesday, April 16, 2019

A Rainy Flag Tournament, Gnocchi, a Baptistry and the Sacro Monte


Sunday, 14 April, 2019

This turned out to be a wet but fun filled day with Michael.

First up was a trip to soggy Cernusco Sul Naviglio, home of the Daemons, to watch our U13, U15 and U17 flag squads in action against their counterparts from the Daemons, the Bergamo Lions and Milano Rhinos clubs.

When we arrived at Daemons Field
rain was pouring down

Our plan was to watch our U17 and U13 games that kicked off at 9:30 a.m. and then the first half of the U15 contest that started at 10:45 a.m. before returning to Varese for our 1:00 p.m. Gnocchi Festival at the Nardi home.

Here come your road flare wielding
Varese Skorpions!

As with most things Italian, this tournament did not start on time.

Not even close to on time.

You can't start the game without a doctor on hand in case of injury. The doctor scheduled to assist today was a no show.

As a result, there was a mad scramble to find a new doctor which they eventually did on an early Sunday morning. Through no fault of his own, the replacement doctor arrived at the stadium about an hour after the tournament's scheduled start.

Thus we only saw a few drives of the U17 and U13 games and nothing of the U15 game as we had to start our one hour drive back to Varese before they played.

Sartorial Wet Weather Splendor
on the part of a Daemon referee

U13, in white, battling the Daemons

The Daemons have a
STRONG U13 team

U13 QB Tommy trying to connect
with WR Simone

Our U13s had a rough go of it today losing both games to the Daemons and Rhinos.

The U15s split their two contests.

U17 action
Mathias to Filippo pass play

Mathias was our Prima Squadra QB last night for the entire Third Quarter of the Hammers game. He had no problem rejoining his U17 teammates today for a couple of games.

Mathias hit Filippo again,
this time in the big puddle

Our U17s won both of their games today.

We were off for Varese and that Gnocchi Festival at the Nardi home.

We could not come empty handed so we stopped off at the Pasticceria Marabelli to see . . .

. . . the lovely Chiara who helped
us select a large tray of assorted
desserts for the shindig

Andrew was in the Nardi Home!

As stated in previous blogposts, Giorgio Nardi loves to cook on the weekends!

He would once again hand make all of today's gnocchi.

Giorgio in action

He works with loving care

Of course there were appetizers
on hand to get everyone through
the food prep period

More of Giorgio at work

The trays of gnocchi were
finally ready for the boiling water

Michael, Edvin and Federica
on the left side of me

Santa Barbara, Raffa and Giorgio
to my right

And me with a large bowl
of truly amazing gnocchi

Our dessert tray from Marabelli

Thank you Nardi family for yet another amazing meal with great people at the table!

After lunch, Michael and I drove into Varese to check out the usual Sunday street market.

Michael likes to ride his bicycle
in California for exercise

Hey, is that the World Famous
Varese Bell Tower behind us next
to the Basilica San Vittore?

Michael in the Baptistry of the
Basilica seen in the previous photo

A proper Baptistry MUST have murals

What happened to their faces?

Good looking Bishop

St. Jacob

Michael bought a few trinkets to take home at the street market and as we made our way home, we detoured to the Sacro Monte for a look.

And a panoramic look it was

Michael at Sacro Monte

Nature is interesting as a plant
grow straight out of a rock hillside

Michael shocked by this skull at
the base of the Pope Paul VI statue

Moses waiving farewell to us
at the top of Sacro Monte

It was a good day but we were quite tired and both of us crashed once we got back to the Villa Skorpions II.

We thought that the gnocchi induced food coma had something to do with our demise.

It enjoyed another beautiful day in Lombardia!

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