Winter Olympics! Torino 2006

Torino is about a 5 hour drive from our nice little town of Sacile. So I could never live with myself if I didn't go. I might never get the chance to go again, right?
















Susan got online and bought us tickets to the Men's Ice Hockey game between the U.S. and Latvia. The game was on a wednesday at 9pm. So I took a couple days off work and we headed out of Sacile around midnight Tuesday in a rental van that we were sharing with another 5 people. We got a very unrestful 5 hours of sleep in the back of the van and ended up in downtown Torino at 6am on Wednesday. We spent the day walking around the city and visiting the local markets and cafes.


This was the first time I'd been to Torino, and I must say it is a very nice city. Very similar to Milan but it was quite a bit cleaner - maybe because the Olympics were there. There seemed to be a good amount of stuff to do. Its big enough where you could lose yourself down some little alley and not even realize the Olympics were in town.


For instance, this was a local market that just happened to be right across from the Olympic stadium.

This picture is for you ladies. See how cheap the clothes are? : )

We had a whole day to kill before the hockey game started. So we just walked around, stopped into a few pubs and cafes. We had lunch at one of the best pizzerias I've found in Italy. We saw some of the touristy statues and Olympic event venues.

One of the coolest things about Italy is that you can be walking down the street and out of nowhere, you turn a corner and you see something spectacular - maybe a building that's 800 years old, maybe a little festival that only the locals know about. Here are a couple that we saw in Torino:



In this square, we saw this Italian Army marching band. You can tell by their hats that they are the Alpini, the Italian equivelant of U.S. Army Rangers. But some of these guys were old and gray, so I think some of them were retired.







Just a few blocks away from that parade we run into this other little square that has these three old Swiss guys playing the long blowhorns. And another guy tossing the Swiss flag around. There were a few people watching them and eating Swiss food and drinking Swiss beer.
After a whole day of walking this city, we were pretty much ready to get to the game. But we still had several hours before the game started. So we headed back to the stadium area to hang out around there until we could get in. As it turned out there was a little building set up outside the stadium that was serving food and drinks. Perfect place to go kill some time.

And apparently a whole lot of other people had the same idea. Now remember that the game we were going to was USA vs. Latvia. As I looked around, I noticed that there were Latvians everywhere! They had their viking hats with horns, their Latvian hockey jerseys, flags, and they were beating their drums and blowing their horns. Most of them were drunk too. They were chanting and yelling, man they were fired up!


As Americans living overseas, we have to be a little careful in our day-to-day lives so as not to stand out too much. You never know if you're a target. But at the Olympics, everyone is flying their flag. Even so, I was still a little conscious about saying, "Hey, look at me! I'm an American!" But I decided that the crazy drunk Latvians weren't gonna scare me. So I opened up our bag and pulled out my Dallas Stars Mike Modano jersey. Susan pulled out the American flag we bought earlier in the day and wrapped it around her neck like a scarf. There were people from all over the world inside as well as few other Americans. And everyone turned out to be cool.






So inside this building is a stage, and eventually a band came out and started playing. They were pretty good, they just played stuff to get people going like Sweet Home Alabama, The Doors, Rolling Stones, as well as a couple songs that sounded like Irish or German drinking songs to me.



Just as the band was getting started, all these guys from the Czech Republic come inside in a congo line! Yelling and cheering because their hockey game just ended and they had beaten Germany. They were so happy they started dancing and jumping up on stage with the band. It was a crazy thing to be in Torino, Italy listening to a band from who knows where play Skynard and watching Czechs dance to it..








So finally its game time. We get through security which was thorough, but not overly invasive. We get into the stadium Palasport Olympico, which was built specifically for the Olympics and was nice, but only holds about 8,ooo or so people.






The game was great. The US went up 2-0 early, but the Latvians took a 3-2 lead by the second intermission. All throughout the game, the stadium was filled with the chanting of "LAT-VI-A, LAT-VI-A!!!!!! Those Latvians were crazy about their hockey team.

During one of the intermissions, I headed to the restroom and a group of about 6 Latvians saw me in my Dallas Stars jersey and stopped me.

They asked if I was American and I said, "Yes, are you Latvians?".

"Yes, and we are beating you! HA!" one of them said with a smile.

I replied, "Yeah, you have a great team, you play very well."

They put their arms around me and one said, "Let me buy you a beer!"

I talked with them for a few minutes. They were so happy to be competing with the rest of the world. They love their hockey, and one of the guys even followed the Dallas Stars because his favorite player, Sergei Zubov plays on the Stars. They wouldn't let me leave without taking a picture of me surrounded by all of them. It was really cool.


The US tied it at 3 in the 3rd period and that's how the game ended... a tie. Since it was a preliminary round there is no overtime.

But if you listened to the Latvians, you would swear that they won the game. The were still cheering and beating their drums. They were so happy about tying the US, they felt like it was a victory. Meanwhile, the US fans quietly got up to leave feeling a little disappointed that we couldn't beat a country that most Americans couldn't find on a map.

As we were leaving the stadium, we heard one Latvian say to another American, "We won! You lost!!!" Was he watching the same game we were?

Rugby in Rome

I hate to waste a perfectly good Saturday by sitting around not doing anything. So when my buddy Aaron called me on Friday night asking if I wanted to go with him and a few other guys to Rome to watch the England rugby team play Italy, I didn't even have to think about it.

We caught a 7am train out of Pordenone. I guess most people would figure that on an early morning train there shouldn't be too many people ordering beer from the restaurant car. Apparently this is what the Italian train company thought, but they must not have planned for us to be on the train. We started drinking Heinekens and Moretti's at about 10:30am and after an hour had gone by and four rounds had been bought, we'd completely drank the train out of beer!

Oh well, we were almost there...

We got into Rome around 11:30 or so, and checked into the first cheap hotel we came across. After lunch and a few beers at an Irish pub we hop in a cab and head over to the Stadio Flavio, just a few minutes walk from the Colosseum. There were lots of fans in the area - mostly English fans. The stadium was pretty small, but full. When the game started, we realized that we were pretty much surrounded by old Englishmen drinking like fish, singing rugby songs, and calling everyone "Wankers". Pretty funny actually!















This was my first rugby game. We had great seats only three rows back. It was very cool. It really makes NFL football seem like a sissy sport.

After the game? You guessed it, right back to another Irish pub, this one was called Trinity College - I guess its pretty popular with rugby fans. We ended up hanging out with those old Englishmen from the game. They didn't stop singing all night. Unfortunatley, I don't remember many of these songs. It seems I'd had a few too many Guinesses...

We ended the night a little early,... probably because we started so early! I think it was around 10:30pm when we decided to try and cap off the night with some pizza. So we stumbled to a little pizzeria down the street. Pizza is sooooo good after a full day of drinking!

By midnight we were all but asleep. I've only been to Rome one other time, but I was somehow able to guide our group back down Via Nazionale and back to our hotel.

The next day our train left around 10:30am. So we were back home Sunday by 4pm. It was a whirlwind of a trip. No time for sightseeing, just rugby and Guiness.

Back to the Slopes

So I finally decided that my left wrist, the one I broke back in November while snowboarding, was healed enough to try my luck on the slopes once again. A few of my friends from work go snowboarding almost every weekend in the wintertime. They invited me along and so I figured it was time to test out my newly healed wrist.



There is this very cool ski/snowboard spot about 2 hours away from where we live. Its right on the border of Italy and Austria. Its called Naasfeldt, I think. To get there you have to drive up icy switchbacks for about 30 minutes that wind up the side of the mountain. You go across narrow bridges and little caves that look like they've been there since the Roman Empire. For a Texas boy like me, just that by itself is pretty exciting! This place has ski runs that start in Italy and end in Austria.















So it turned out to be a beautiful day. The temperature was in the 30s - 40s, (I remember when I used to think that was cold). The snow was not super fresh, but only a few days old. And best of all it wasn't very crowded. A full day lift ticket only costs 35 Euro ( about 42 USD).

I'm happy to say that my wrist held up just fine. I wore a wrist brace, I took it easy on the slopes, and I didn't try anything stupid - its amazing what a difference that can make!

A Day in San Marino

I know it been awhile since I wrote anything here. Work has been crazy. But last Saturday I was able to make it down to a little country called San Marino. Its no bigger than a small city and its completely contained within Italy. Built on a big old mountain called Mt Titan, its a very cool place.

It also happens to be the oldest independent country in the world. All throughout history, they have fought for their independence. Napoleon didn't even try to conquer them.

Anyways, this isn't a history lesson. We spent the day walking around the old town which is about 750 meters high on the top of the mountain. It was a beautiful morning, but the clouds started rolling in after lunchtime. We were on the castle wall perched atop Mt Titan and you could literally see the low clouds creep up the mountain from below us. It was a really cool sight.

Not a whole lot to do in this little country; just walking around, there are some nice little shops, old arcitechture, a few restaurants, and of course the natural scenery. All in all, it was a nice way to kill a Saturday. Another stamp in the passport too.