Thursday, September 29,2022
Our time in Milano had come to a close, it was time to pick up our rental car and hit the road to Varese to meet with a few of our Skorpion friends.
This next six days of our adventure would see us driving to Varese for a night, then to Verona for another night before spending four nights in Florence to complete the Italian portion of our journey.
The car was packed!
It wasn't quite as bad as this looked, but it was close.
This just HAD to be our first stop in Varese
Four cappuccino, four brioche and
two still waters
Such sweet carnage . . .
Our hotel in the heart Varese
was comfortable and well located
But it would come with a story at the end of what became a long and exciting day.
The Hotel Bologna's restaurant
is excellent by all accounts
All accounts but mine that is, I had never eaten there.
The hotel itself is also highly regarded
We met Enzo Petrillo for lunch
at one of our favorite restaurants
Amazingly, Enzo had never eaten at this great spot only a few short blocks from the bank where he works.
The ladies LOVED their risotto!
We enjoyed a typically relaxing three hour lunch over fine food, good wine and great friends.
Looks like Koreen and Brian
might still be hungry
My favorite spot in Varese's
historic center for a mid-afternoon caffè
Chiesa San Vittorio
never gets old to me
Sharing a bench with a kindred soul
The historic part of Varese
is indeed colorful
The main reason for our stop in
Varese was to see members of the
Skorpion Family
I believed that the plan was to go to Enzo and Nency's home for one of her famed lasagna dinners after attending the Skorpions youth team practice that started at 6:30 pm.
Majestic Skorpion Field
With lots of rain this evening, the practice was changed to an install meeting.
Skorpion players paying rapt
attention to Coach Principi's discussion
on their base defensive coverages
Swito was In The HOUSE!
Enzo at the Snack Bar with
the Senior Mens and U-19
National Championship trophies
from the 2021-22 seasons
He is wearing the Newbury Park H.S. pullover that our son Michael had promised him after Enzo gave him a Skorpions' jacket when Michael visited us during the 2019 season.
After a couple glasses of gold label Skorpion Field prosecco, I now believed that we were going to eat at the tables in the Snack Bar area.
Wrong.
With my man Raffa!!!
RB Ema and SS/OLB Nicolas
With the rain and the meeting now over, all of the players headed home.
Apparently the plan now was for our group to join the Petrillo and Nardi families for dinner at a local ristorante.
We caravanned by car to this
excellent spot in Malnate
It was the scene of my first meal with the Skorpions back in 2018.
Our group of ten people walked into the da Vincenzo, turned the corner and . . .
SURPRISE!!!
The room was full of Skorpions to share the night and a meal with us.
Laurie and I were moved to tears by this touching gesture from a group that we really love.
Let the reunion commence!
With Dani our excellent
Defensive Coordinator
Baffo was a DE and even
visited us in California
Marta and Koreen
Marta and Nicolas have stayed with us in Camarillo on two occasions.
Marta and Nicolas
Laurie speaking Italian
With Cinzia who was always
wonderful to us and now is
an official Skorpion team photographer
"Do you remember that time we . . ."
Talk about two happy
and humbled people
What a group!
Giorgio said some kind words
I spoke briefly as I really wanted
to hold my emotions in check
Nency and Enzo
Talking LOTS of Italian with
Dario and his new bride Roberta
I once told Dario that the secret to a happy marriage is just two simple words, "Si amore."
When your wife gets mad at you just say these two words to show that you are contrite for whatever perceived problem that you have created. It has a calming effect as you take full responsibility for the issue at hand.
Apparently, Dario has had to use this simple phrase already in the early stages of their married life.
Roberta's response to Dario's "Si amore" was a resounding "NO, that is George talking, not you!"
Sorry Dario, she's on to us.
Enzo's fingerprints were all
over this surprise event
Cinzia, Nency and Santa Barbara
Talk about three wonderful, hard working Skorpion ladies, WOW!
Enzo, Giorgio, Mangano, George,
D.J. and Pietro
For me, there are so many wonderful memories related to the men in this photo.
Giorgio, Laurie Maguire and Enzo
I love Swito even
if he is a Raiders fan
Tex was my personal "Get Back" Coach
and is a GREAT flag football player
The amazing Mothers and/or wives
of our Skorpion players and coaches
"So then they stacked their WRs . . ."
With the owner of da Vincenzo
who happens to be the father of
David who is a GREAT DE for the Skorpions
Dani is such a good man
With our neighbors and friends,
the Nardi family
Giorgio, Santa Barbara George,
Laurie, Raffa and Federica
All four of them are hard working people who give their all to make the Skorpion experience special.
They usually succeed.
Dani wore his absolute
BEST t-shirt tonight
Laurie and Marta bonded in
Camarillo the week that Nicolas,
Michael and I were in Chihuahua
for a Europe Warriors game
Raffa, what did you think about
this surprise party?
"MOLTO BENE, Coach!"
I can not begin to express how touched we were by this wonderfully surprising gesture of an evening.
Added to last weekend's reunion with the Falcons in Lyon, France, and it has really made me feel as if our coaching efforts made a difference in a lot of EuroBall player's lives.
This has all been extremely humbling to say the least.
GRAZIE SKORPIONS FAMILY!
Unfortunately, every silver lining has a dark cloud.
When we returned to the Hotel Bologna at about midnight, the door was locked and there was nobody manning the night desk.
We had left our keys at the front desk as requested when we went out so we were literally out in the cold. We kept pressing the hotel's buzzer which we could clearly hear, but no luck.
We tried calling Enzo, Nicolas and the hotel but had no luck in raising an employee.
Finally after about a half hour standing in the cold, damp night, we opted to call a nearby hotel to see if they had two rooms still available for us to rent for the brief remainder of the night.
The man who answered that call said that he would first try and track down someone with the Hotel Bologna to help us.
About five minutes later, without warning, someone buzzed us in to the warmth of the hotel's lobby where we found our room keys dangling on the wall where we left them.
Harrowing to be sure, but it was ok as I was still basking in the joy of an amazing evening with our beloved Skorpions.
Life was so GOOD today!
The Adventure continues on Friday as we drive to Verona, stay tuned . . .
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