The Eagles Have Landed in Italy

Ciao from Italia! After an eight hour plane ride from Atlanta to London, a two hour layover in London, two hour flight from London to Milan, and a one hour bus ride from Milano Malpensa airport to Como, the Emory Women’s Soccer team finally arrived in their first destination. As much as we enjoyed our time traveling, which included Sue befriending a one-year-old and Jen/Kaelyn/Emily’s recounting their adventures in the Atlanta airport prior to our arrival, we were beyond excited to finally get settled and begin our journey in Italy. To help us along the way we are accompanied by Sara, our translator and guide, in addition to XL Travel representative Charlotte and bus driver Danielo. After checking in and bringing our suitcases up to our rooms, we had about ten minutes before we began our team run through the streets of Como. Sue and Joan led the pack of 30 of us, still donning our bright and easily identifiable yellow Emory Soccer shirts, throughout the city. After about 10 minutes in, we began to run through a piazza where a few groups of men were sitting outside of a restaurant. At the same time, Sue conveniently ran us into a dead end, which she then played off as being a stretch break.

Despite her smooth moves, we couldn’t help but draw attention to ourselves due to our matching uniforms and foreign demeanor (I would assume). Claudia was able to converse lightly with some of the Italians that were sitting outside to explain who we are and where we are from. After this brief respite, we continued on our run which could arguably be one of the coolest runs I have at least ever taken. Como is a quaint town in Northern Italy very close to the border of Switzerland. It is nested at the bottom of a beautiful mountain range and borders Lake Como, one of the three largest lakes in Italy. As we kept our run at a pretty brisk pace, we only got to observe the city in brief. It was stunning nonetheless, but we have the entirety of tomorrow to explore. After returning from our run, we were able to go immediately to dinner in the hotel where we are staying. The bread, pasta, chicken, salad, and dessert we ate made up a great meal after a long day of traveling and consuming airport food.

Following a brief discussion of rules and guidelines for the trip, we were given an hour to either explore the city if we wanted or just relax before curfew. As I was feeling wiped from traveling (as was the case for most of my teammates), I chose to unpack some and hang out in our room with Kaele and Merrill-who I am staying with for the entirety of the trip. Looking forward to our first full day in Italy tomorrow, which includes a boat ride on Lake Como and exploring the city. We also have our first match tomorrow evening against Real Meda C.F. at 8:00 PM! Buona sera!