7. Italia!

Italy in pictures

(Nb. €1 =~$1.50)

In addition to Scotland, I had timed my trip to India to allow me to come to Italy and see Hadrian play at the World Ultimate Club Championships.  I decided instead of paying a lot and being in the hot valley, I would rent a car and have the choice to stay in the mountains. The blue line is the drive from the Refugio Saldanella to the WUCC fields.!

This is the Refugio Soldanella, the first place I stayed in, for 4 days near where Hadrian was playing. I had the room on the furthest right of the 2nd floor. This was a great, great place to stay, with a delicious breakfast and morning cappuccino.

I should mention that the owners, Mauro and Daniela, were so kind and friendly. Mauro's English was OK, and Daniela's French OK, which is how I communicated with each during our different discussions. Mauro talked with the airport to help me get my lost bag back, and also lent me maps and missing gear to climb up to La Grignetta.

This is one of the 14 switchbacks you have to climb (or descend in this photo) to reach the refugio.  You also have to go through several tunnels, the longest of which is over 2 km long.  The drive is spectacular, and was tough for my Smart Car manage going up, but so much fun to drive (for me at least!)

Often I was impressed to see bikers doing the treacherous climb. The climb to Piani Resinelli was the final HC climb of a stage of the 2012 Giro d'Italia.

Later when I drove up to Bellagio on the narrow seaside road, I followed a "small" camper that at one point had to stop and negotiate past a car coming the other way. Such delays were common, but the driving always interesting from a North American point of view.

This is the view from my room. Lecco is the town mid-right at the bottom of the valley and at the end of the East arm of Lake Como. €40 /night including breakfast.

The first day, Sunday, was total rain. WUCC 2014 was rained out, but I went and found Hadrian at the dorms and explored Lecco. On the 3rd day, while waiting for Phoenix to play their first game, I could leave directly from the refugio and climb towards La Grignetta. The climb is 700 m vertical, but in a shorter (more aggressive) distance, so took only 90 minutes up compared to the 3 hours to climb the Scottish Munro. The view is spectacular. About a third of the way up I came upon this 77-year-old Milanese priest who was reading the psalms! We communicated through his broken French. He was a very nice man. On came upon him again on the way down. He told me his legs were weak and shaking. I didn't know how to help, he said he would be fine, and I bid him well.

At the summit, I met a couple who had brought their dog! If you saw the ascent (many times using hands to climb, most people with poles) you would be impressed.  They said "he is the 'King of the Mountain!'"

These are the route signs on the way up. I kept to the "easiest" trail. At the top I saw a pair of guys who had used equipment to scale a very challenging route.

Here I am at the summit of 2,184 metres.

This is the view down. You can see part of the path - an easy part - on the face above my foot. Lecco is in the distance.

This is the view from the summit looking North-East towards Switzerland. There's a strange lunar-landing type box here. I guess it's an emergency place to stay if you arrive in mid winter and/or are injured.

It's hard to capture WUCC in a photo. There were 30 fields, and I think some 4,000 across 5 disciplines plus juniors a few weeks beforehand - the Canadian junior boys won the gold this year! Phoenix plays in the Open (Men's) division. Canada sent 4 teams I think to the Open division. In alternating years they have national championships with individuals from various clubs and regions. Think of club like NHL, and Nationals like the Canada Cup.

This is Union, Emma Seaborn's team, who competed in the Mixed category. In mixed, typically 3 or 4 women per team are on the field with 4 or 3 men respectively. Union played very strong in the early going but then lost to another Canadian team in the quarters. Union eventually finished 5th in the world in Mixed.

This was a huge day for Phoenix. To their own surprise, they beat Japan's famed "Buzz Bullets" team, who had won this tournament a few years ago. The Japanese players are typically much shorter than the North American and European players, but they make up for it in quickness - critical in Ultimate - and play strategies that match those skills. Hadrian called it "an honour" even to play them in pool (preliminary) play, so to beat them was a huge high. The same day, they went on to beat Sweden's top team who were strong, so Phoenix entered the round of 16 in 3rd seed. The following day was frankly a letdown, perhaps expected after the high the day before, and they lost 2 games. They finished with 2 wins though to finish 13th in the world. Hadrian and team were totally dedicated until the night they completed their games. That night I finally got a terrific dinner with Hadrian at a cafe by the lake, and that night (with all but 6 teams eliminated) there was a huge party at the athletes' village! 

This was the last game of WUCC 2014 - the Open finals between (San Fransisco's) Revolver and Seattle Sockeye, both US. The match was not the cleanest, they each had a few drops, but incredible defensive plays especially (one or two layout bids per point), and even I could see the teams adjust strategy as the game went on to better exploit the opponent they already knew pretty well from recent US tournaments.  The crowd enjoyed the hot weather and I was surrounded mainly by international teams cheering in various languages. The tournament was a lot of unf and I'm proud of Hadrian and Phoenix for working so hard and reaching several new milestones.

Halfway through my stay in Italy, I assumed I would be bored of my first booking, so I had arranged to stay in a small village directly North of the playing fields. The Antica Corte turned out to be very old-world comfortable and in a charming village, Canzo. I think I got an extra special room with a private bath and kitchen. I had done many emails with the owner because I found them on an unusual site, and she did not accept North American credit cards. It all worked out for the best. Here is my little black Smart Car in the courtyard. The B and B is the green door, but my room was on the ground floor in the dark corner behind the fence. €30 / night including breakfast.

This was my room at Antica Corte. I'm not sure why, but Elena gave me this room under their apartment, when I had seen the rest of the B and B was next door and much more shared.  Elena had written asking if I would be OK being in her new room "in the trees" (evidently we were communicating through Google Translate!). I wasn't sure what that meant - a treehouse?!? - but I accepted. I guess I was just lucky.

In my kitchen was everything I needed. Asked about coffee, and they said, of course, use this, plus here's the pot to steam your milk.  I recognize this old expresso maker from years ago. Using gas, I had a great cup of cappuccino in no time :)

This is the beautiful 'Parrocchia Di S. Stefano Protomartire' a couple of blocks from my B and B. I would have liked to have done a drawing, but I did one excursion up the coast to Bellagio, and besides that, was occupied with Phoenix and Union playoff games. I had forgotten how delightful the frequent ringing of chruch bells is in old European towns. This church's bells rang, not randomly, and not as recognizable music either, but in gentle, lilting, and uplifting melodies.  

Sorry for the blurry picture late in the evening, but Canzo had lots of these beautiful, cobblestone streets and squares.  Walking around was a joy.

This is one of the streets I had to pass to reach the B and B, obviously created centuries before the automobile. It was so narrow - not much wider than the Smart Car - that there is a traffic light at each end to avoid cars meeting halfway along.

On a free afternoon, I drove up the coast on the triangle between Lecco and Como. This is Osso where I had a great swim in the clear, warm Lake Como. Hadrian said every day he and others would walk a bit from where they were staying to have a swim. Lake Como is also where rich villa scenes from Star Wars II/IV and James Bond were filmed.

This is a bay on the right / East side of Bellagio. That small sailboat is almost exactly like the old dinghy we had at my grandmother's cottage in Muskoka.

This is one of the very touristy - and expensive - shopping streets in Bellagio.  Not sure which came first, but I understand why this town is associated with the Las Vegas casino made famous (to me) in Ocean's Eleven.

There were so many beautiful photo opportunities on this day. Here is a particularly beautiful ochre- and rust- coloured wall.

This is a small panorama up the mountain from Bellagio. Lecco is at the end of the bay.  Note the helipad mid-right.  Maybe George Clooney lands here...

This was very interesting: at the top of the small mountain south of Bellagio is the Madonna del Ghisallo Chapel, dedicated to the patron saint of cycling!

Inside - besides the religious standards - are bikes, jerseys, and medals of many many champions like Eddy Merckx, Miguel Indurain and Italian great Fausto Coppi. 

On my last night in Italy, I did a washing. I'm getting good cleaning my quick-dry (not cotton) clothes.

Ciao Milano e Italia! (Note the sign for the chapel here in Milan's Malpensa airport). 

Now, on to India.