More from Italy

Details from players on their days in Milan, Italy and surrounding cities

Day two by Erica Eyestone - 5/14/10

The first thing we saw when arriving in Milan was the airport. We met our tour guide Cory and then we headed to our hotel to check in. We went sightseeing and saw a castle and the Duomo (cathedral in the city’s main square). We enjoyed some sun, clouds and rain.

We also went to the building where the painting of the Last Supper is but we didn’t get to see it.

Our hotel is pretty nice, the rooms are smaller than the once we usually stay in when we’re on the road during our season. One of the beds in our room is a pullout.

Milan is a cool city, but more of a working city rather than a sightseeing one.

The Italian people are very nice and sometimes we were able to communicate with them when they spoke English, but usually we just relied on modified sign language.

My first Italian meal was a caprise panini – mozzarella and tomatoes, and we ordered it by just pointing at the sign in the restaurant or we attempted to say the words.

By late afternoon we were tired and some of us fell asleep for a while on the tables at a Burger King.

Day three by Coriann Wood – 5/15/10

Our drive from Milan to Switzerland was beautiful, so green and the mountains reminded me of home.

On the way we were able to see a little bit of Lake Como, but when we got our cameras out to take pictures we missed it because there was a huge fence.

We saw some sweet castles, and the (Golden Eye) 007 bungee bridge in Locarno.

We had a fun game with Bellinzona. They were cute girls, not so tall, and not super talented. During the game they called out thousands of travel calls. Here you can’t catch the ball on run, you have to pat it down. But then they take like five steps for lay-ups. The players can’t call time out and you have eight seconds to get across midcourt.

Afterwards we ate with the team, and had pasta again but it was delicious. I’m not a fan of the bubbly water they serve here.

On the way home after the game most of the parents slept but we were all hyper so we played games to entertain ourselves.

The best thing about this day was the bungee jumping. I jumped 782 feet. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done. I bought a shirt from the bungee place and Cory our guide got me a sweet belt for jumping. There was a camera crew there from the BBC doing a documentary and they interviewed me about my jump. Also, some of coach Bill’s friends from Switzerland got us army Swiss knives.

Day four by Kristen Riley - 5/16/10

Sunday we went to Church in Milan. Sacrament meeting was held in one small room (we took up half of the seats). The people were so friendly to us. I couldn’t understand much of what was said but a sister missionary from the United States shared her testimony and we could all feel the spirit as she spoke.

After Church we had lunch in our hotel, and then we went to Lake Como. We walked around the streets and went into some cute shops and walked through the town. It was very windy, especially as we got closer to the lake. My favorite view was on the shore of the lake, looking out for the valley. There were lots of houses all over the mountains. It was beautiful!

We ate a McDonald’s because it was the only thing we could understand. Oh, and lots of gelato – the best ice cream in the world!!

There was a championship soccer game an Inter Milan won, and the town was going crazy!!! Hundreds of guys were in the streets chanting, jumping, blowing foghorns or honking their car horns for hours. We kept a safe distance but we wanted to join them.

Some of us took a tram up the entire mountain. It was gorgeous. You could see the whole valley, the lake, the town and the huge Church in the middle. And to top it all off, it was at sunset!!!!!