Another Visit to AMAZING Bellagio With More Friends

Friday, 1 June, 2018

The skies were a glorious blue and the temperatures were soaring, in other words a perfect day to go and visit the Lake Como village of Bellagio again.

We would see Bellagio legend and Skorpions Defensive Line Coach Pacio Cranchi and his bride Teresa again to be sure.

We would also be joined by our visiting delegation from Lake Garda, Susan and Michael D'Antuono from California and Joe O'Leary from England.

The 90 minute drive to Bellagio

ended with Lake Como vistas . . .

. . . like these

The Italian Lakes District is both naturally beautiful to the eye and peaceful for the soul.

The final 20 minutes of the drive on an extremely narrow, winding road, while beautiful to the eye is not so peaceful for the driver's soul or nerves as it turns out.

The usual issues trying to squeeze by oncoming vehicles, mostly small but a few times HUGE, was exacerbated by lots and lots of bike riders today also enjoying the break in the weather.

We survived it and are still alive to tell the tale, so it was a good test of the spirit.

A view of Lake Como from

Bellagio's Promenade . . .

. . . and another

How old is this lakefront balustrade?

The Ferry Landing at Bellagio

was our designated meeting place

Laurie and I have to take a ride on one of these lakeside ferries soon.

Calming lapping of small lake waters

on a man-made stone shoreline 

Joe O'Leary's artful picture

of Mike, Susan, Laurie and myself

A cappuccino and a brioche and the world was whole again after our sometimes daunting drive.

Time to hit the streets of Bellagio . . .

Colorful wine bottles demand . . .

. . . colorful bottle stoppers

One of Bellagio's many shopping streets

whispering Susan and Laurie names

It became instantly clear that these two were quickly entering a shopping feeding frenzy stage.

There was no holding them back.

Joe, Mike and I could only observe and pray that no one got hurt.

Another view of a beautiful

Bellagio pedestrian only street

Colorful ribbons preparing for

Saturday's National Holiday,

the Festa della Repubblica Italiana

This holiday marks 72 years since he newest Italian Republic was formed in 1946 after the conclusion of World War II and the end of Mussolini's Fascist regime.

Ready to make at home risotto pre-

packaged with, from left to right, saffron, strawberries, olives or mushrooms

  

The risotto was being sold in this

quaint market

Of course a Vespa was

parked on this lane

How much more Italian can you get?

Both of those genuine leather

Italian bags were sold in an instant

Laurie bought the pink one in her hand while Susan opted for one in black instead.

Meanwhile, I concentrated on the

warm colors of the buildings to

calm my quickly fraying financial nerves

Two REALLY happy visitors

to Bellagio and a guy still trying

to figure out what happened

Joe, George, Mike and Pacio

Or is it Joe, Pacio, Mike and George?

Laurie is still a bit confused when Pacio and I are together.

Pacio had some business to attend to in Varese today and only joined us for about the last 20 minutes of Joe, Susan and Mike's visit. It was after 4:00 p.m. and they still had to drive back to their hotel on Lake Garda, normally a two hour and 30 minute jaunt which would take them over three hours today unfortunately.

Pacio, ever so proud of his beautiful city, still wanted to take Laurie and I to see the lakeside Chiesa San Giovanni.

We said our goodbyes to Teresa who was in charge of their tented, street side market, selling Pacio and Teresa's handcrafted wood products, of which we bought more of course.

Teresa is such a nice, warm and outgoing lady.

I told you that Chiesa

San Giovanni was lakeside

Gorgeous interior with a priest

leading a group of children in

prayers and giving information

about the BVM

An ornate main altar is a MUST! 

The Madonna

This statue of the Madonna came from Fatima in Portugal, has resided in this church for some time, is headed to Milano on Saturday and then moves on to Chile for some unexplained reason after that.

The Lord, and this statue of the Madonna, both move in mysterious ways.

A Papal Zucchetto that was

once worn by Pope John Paul II 

The word zucchetto meaning "small gourd" comes from the Italian word zucca which translates to "pumpkin."

A Zucchetto is the small skullcap that the Pope wears as seen in the painting.

If this was the Bellagio in Las Vegas, this Zucchetto would probably be for sale with a Certificate of Authenticity from Moe Di Candia I'm sure.

As always, the BVM is

HUGE in Italy!

The dock just a few steps from the

Chiesa San Giovanni

Downtown Bellagio on the right

Nice little lakeside cottage

My current finances might,

just might mind you, allow me

to buy that row boat

What can we say to sum up our day at Bellagio?

I think the best example of our day's wonderful experience was how relatively few pictures we took. We were too busy talking and sharing the day with friends to take our usual 200-300 fotos.

Life in Italy is SO good!

A Morning in Varese and Another LONG Night of Skorpions Practices

Thursday, 31 May, 2018

The incredibly violent storm that lasted all night finally left the Lombardia region for parts unknown just after sunrise.

This break in the weather allowed us to drive up to Varese to renew our monthly transportation passes thanks to the generosity of the Skorpions.

As usual, it was also an excuse for Laurie to go shopping.

 I liked he looks of this

stately school building

As you may know, the Skorpions are

the American Football Champions of Varese

Now they are selling American football related toys in our honor in the city's shopping malls!

World War Memorial Art is found

constantly in Italian cities

"The Senate and the Roman People"

 The Catholic Church is also a

popular theme all over "The Boot"

 Colorful marble and/or

granite sidewalks are a MUST

in Varese

Title: "Indifference"

Varese has interesting public art displays throughout the city.

Uh-Oh . . .

a Public Market next to

the train station

Noting gives us more pride than supporting the local economy almost daily!

 GOOD looking sun dried tomatoes

Laurie bought enough of her beloved

cherries to last her a few days

As I said, the Skorpions

OWN this town

At least until the first Skorpions-Gorillas game in 2019.

In the evening, starting at 5:00 p.m., it was time for another round of Skorpion American Football Mania!  

And of course the storm clouds

thundered in right on cue!

  

 It poured throughout the U19 practice

But it let up during the

three Flag practices

As you can see, by now my phone's camera lens was fogging up due to the constant moisture.

The U13s are seen in the picture above.

The U13s in action

If it's Thursday, it must be the weekly

U15 vs. U17 skirmish

 For a change up, five of the

coaches challenged the U17s to

a scrimmage

The coaches may be a bit long in the tooth but they know every dirty trick in the playbook and have no conscience against using them to win.

I LOVE these guys!

"Dirty deeds done dirt cheap . . . "

Our Seniors had a spirited workout

again as we prepared for the

Modena Vipers onslaught

The Skorpions brought a great attitude to the field, were attentive, had fun and worked hard.

As their coach, what more could I ask for from a group of men?

It's GREAT to be a Skorpion!

Preparing to Face the Modena Vipers Delaware Wing-T Offense

Wednesday, 30 May, 2018

We used the day to read, relax, do laundry, view video of our upcoming playoff opponent the Modena Vipers and research how to defend their Delaware Wing-T offense.

The Delaware Wing-T offense is dear to my heart as we ran it at Westlake H.S. and Rio Mesa H.S. in California when I was their Head Coach for about 17 seasons back in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

I have always loved to hear coaches wax poetic about the superiority of the current day spread offenses and then see them react in a somewhat panicked mode when fates place them against an extremely old-school offense like the Delaware Wing-T.

Our Varese Skorpions are no different. It is an unusual offense that indeed presents many problems for our defense.

Fortunately, the bye week gives us two extra practices to prepare and we've scheduled at least two Defensive meetings to get a solid visual picture of what awaits us in Modena the evening on June 9th.

It will be hard for our Scout Team to simulate the Vipers offense in practice but we will work hard to prepare as coaches and players I'm sure.  

Laurie took this photo out of

the Villa Skorpion's front window

It was 9:00 p.m. and it should have been pitch black outside except that we were at the start of Mother Nature's best, longest lasting thunder and lightning storm yet.

Believe us, there have been many of these storms in the last three weeks but nothing as long lasting or powerful as tonight's.

I had left Laurie at the Villa Skorpion to head up to the Bellavita Café, our official Skorpion Team Bar, for our first scheduled Delaware Wing-T defensive team video meeting.

The drive to the Bellavita in the historic core of Varese was intense due to the rain, lightning and thunder.

Or so I thought until the drive home two hours later.

It was POURING outside

the Belavita!

As I looked out the door, I could not believe what I saw.

A family, including a baby in a stroller,

still dining al fresco!

I know that the calendar says May 30th and it is Spring and all but DAMN Mom and Dad, it is POURING!

Reviewing the recent Hogs-Vipers

game tape with the team

It was a good meeting and we got our Wing-T defensive concepts installed and understood I believe, after the usual barrage of questions.

Now to see how well we can execute our game plan, first at practice and then on the game field in Modena.

As for the drive home after the video meeting, the words EPIC, HOMERIC and MIND BOGGLING would all accurately describe the weather/driving conditions as the storm continued to intensify all night long.

It was truly a shame that we were not practicing at Skorpion Field in this very special edition of . . .

SKORPION WEATHER!

A MUCH Needed Day of Rest

Tuesday, 29 May, 2018

After three incredible days of Saturday night American football, the Palio in Legnano on Sunday and seeing Joe, Mike and Susan at La Garda yesterday, we were definitely in need of a day of rest to recharge our collective batteries.

My plans of breaking down the Modena Vipers game tapes were mostly thwarted first by the loss of wifi at the Villa Skorpion and then, once wifi was restored, HUDL being extremely slow in downloading the Vipers videos.

In took some time but I got enough done in preparation for tonight's first playoff practice.

Great photo of all nine of the

Skorpions U17 and U15 Flag

football players who were recently 

selected for the Italian National Team,

known as Gli Azzurri

Our Skorpions U15 Head Coach, Enzo Petrillo seen here, is also the Head Coach of Gli Azzurri this year.

The evening's U19 practice started with only four players but ended with a whopping seven.

U19 stretching

We'll need to recruit a lot more players for this eventual nine-man team that starts play in September. Many of their players are currently key members of the Skorpions Senior playoff bound team.

We ran a lot of two-on-two

pass routes vs. Man Coverage

with the U19s tonight

For once I skipped the majority of the U17 and U15 Flag practices to get back to the Villa Skorpion and spend another 90 minutes breaking down Modena Vipers videos.

Returning to Skorpion Field, I found a good turnout of Skorpions who are excited about another chance to play football against a high quality opponent.

It was a BEAUTIFUL night

for American football!