By Emma Brown & Kirethia Chambers
Our 2023 European model of sport trip has begun! Our group met at John Glenn International Airport on Thursday, May 11th at noon to begin our voyage. Many of us were worried about the weight of our checked bags, but thankfully, all of us were below 50 pounds! After we checked our bags, and swiftly made our way through security, we spent the time waiting for our flight catching a bite to eat at the PGA tour grill. Our first flight was a quick trip to Atlanta, which flew by (no pun intended). But it was only the precursor to the nine hour trip to Milan that we had ahead of us.
This flight was completely full, but we were pleasantly surprised to see many other college students going on study abroad trips to Milan as well. We settled in watching some movies of our choice and soon enough it was time for airplane dinner. Our options were “chicken” or “pasta”, which ended up not being the full story. Kirethia and I were unlucky in choosing pasta, as it ended up being mushroom ravioli. By no means was it inedible, but unfortunately, it did not satisfy any sort of pasta craving that we had. We will give the white chocolate lemon bars a 10 out of 10, however.
After the unsuccessful dinner, we attempted to get some rest as our flight was going to land in Milan at 9 AM . However, once again we were unfortunately mistaken in our expectations of how the flight would go. The quarters were … in a word … cramped. And you know what else is cramped? Our backs today. Not many hours of rest were gotten, but we persevered as that was our only option. Eventually, after some mid-ocean heavy turbulence, we made a smooth landing in Milan.
The customs procedures in Italy were remarkably efficient as all we had to do was scan our passports and smile for the camera. United States… take notes. We made it through quickly and picked up our bags with ease. After this, we met with Sjoerd, our travel consultant to go over the day’s plans.
We went outside to hop our on bus and were greeted with gray and stormy skies. The weather was not looking promising, but we forged on. About an hour later, around noon, we arrived at Vero Volley in Monza. As we made our way into the Arena di Monza, we were kindly greeted and given a huge lunch spread. We were all exhausted and starving so this was well needed. The lunch included pastries, croissants, pizza, some cakes, sandwiches, cheeses, lasagna, and more. It felt Michelin star quality after the unfortunate airplane food. As quoted, “Now this is real.” Once we were stuffed from our great lunch we began a tour of the arena with the director of logistics and operations for the organization. In our tour we learned a great amount about the arena itself as well as the Vero Volley organizational practices.
The arena was built in 2002, originally the home of a roller hockey team. It became the home of volleyball in 2012 and seats 3,983 spectators. The arena also is home to all of Vero Volley’s needs, with 3 total courts, coach and front staff offices, athlete locker rooms and training gym, film/performance laboratory, and a coffee shop for food. There are about 50 staff who work in the building every day to keep their top men’s and women’s teams successful, while also maintaining their expansive youth program. The youth and surrounding community is very important to Vero Volley and this was emphasized through the lecture that Ilaria Conciato, the team General Director, gave following the tour. We were able to learn more about the management of their men’s and women’s teams as well as how they incorporate their 60 youth teams. We were also given a challenge to come up with new strategies for Vero Volley at the end of the lecture and worked in groups to complete the task.
Following the lunch, tour, and lecture, we were able to finally head to the hotel for check-in and a bit of freshening up before our walking tour of the city of Milan. We received our room keys and split up to go to our respective rooms. They were quite tiny, to no one’s surprise. But still nice!
After we made it to our hotel and got into our rooms which were quaint but comfortable rest was not in our sights just yet. We had a 2 hour walking tour that took us to some of the best sites in Milan. We made our way to the subway station which began in 1963, and fun fact – there are no drivers. The tour focused on the city center which is only 3 miles long in diameter making walking the easiest way to get anywhere and is filled with many beautiful sites. We went into the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. This is a big shopping center that houses many high end luxury brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton, restaurants and is beautifully constructed with art metal and glass work.
In this shopping area there is a famous bull with an indention in it where it is said if you put your heel in it and spin around clockwise the times you are sure to have good luck.
We got to see Duomo Di Milano (The Cathedral) which took 500 years to build with construction starting in 1386. It is a beautiful gothic style church that is simply breathtaking. It is constructed with marble which at the time of construction had to be boated in because the city center was surrounded by water at the time.
Another site to behold was the Sforzesco Castle, with its design worked on by none other than Leonardo da Vinci. The castle is now home to a number of museums and features several art galleries but in its glory days it was home to the Sfroza family and the citadel. Napoleon lll took rule of Milan and in his time in the castle he dried up the mat that had surrounded it since the Spanish ruled the city. The military had control of the castle in its later years and used it as a prison but at one point it rained so much that all of the prisoners drowned. In this castle you will see images of a blue snake all around which is the coat of arms for Milan.
Milan is a fashion capital and is the city where fashion brands such as Prada, Giorgio Armani, Versace, Attico, Dolce & Gabbana call home. We’re sure that Milan has even more rich history to offer that our tour guide didn’t have time to cover and we are looking forward to another trip to the city so we can take in even more. It’s unfortunate that we won’t be able to get an extended stay in Milan but what we have gotten so far, we’ll never forget!
For dinner we were on our own to explore the city and grab a bite to eat. We chose to go to tiPinso, a restaurant about a block from our hotel to get pizza. We had seen Dave Portnoy from Barstool Sports do a pizza review just a few weeks prior, and he gave it a 7.4 which is a pretty good score. We wanted to see how we felt about it and give it our own ratings. We went with two other group members, Madison and Nicole, and had a little girls night out. We each ordered our pizzas and chatted about the jet lag, our favorite places on the visit so far, and what we were looking forward to in other cities later in the trip. Our pizzas were brought out by the chef who was very excited, particularly to give Nicole her Napoletana (traditional Italian pizza with anchovies). Our pizzas were AMAZING, and we noted they tasted much fresher and lighter than our processed pizzas back home. Once again… “this is REAL.” We really enjoyed our time and couldn’t help but eat the whole thing! It had been a long and exhausting day so the pizza was really a high point.
After dinner it was time for dessert and what is better than Gelato in Milan. We had one location in mind which was closed upon arrival but we were not deterred. We made our way to Gelato Giusto and definitely enjoyed what they had to offer.
Enjoying flavors such as Vaniglia Crumble e Ribes Nero, Cioccolato extra Fondente Venezuela, and Basilico. This place was 10/10 and the perfect way to end an informative, rainy, exhaustive day.
