NYB 2024-25 | FindPenguins

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Trip start
December 25, 2024
NYB 2024-25
Day one - Colosseo & 1st match!
December 27, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C
22 of us arrived a day early, December 26. Got to hotel and were pleasantly impressed with location and facilities. A few ventured into town and loved the views. The rest came in on the 27th, 86 arrivals and only 1 lost bag! That’s a win!!!
Took everyone down to Coliseum for a tour, followed by the Forum and a dinner. That just kept coming. Starter with bruschetta, then cheese pizza, tortellini, rigatoni and finally beef with potatoes. Of course everyone thought it would just be pizza so we asked for extra. Then they started bringing the extra courses.
Headed back to hotel and engaged in much needed food comas.

Buon sera¡Read more
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NYB 2024-25
Day two - St Peters & The Vatican!
December 28, 2024 in Vatican City ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C
New day, new country. Start off with Vatican Museum (or St Peter’s for the parents). Go into the world’s smallest country and admire the sites.
Then off to find the palosport where we got to play in an inflatable gym. Single court with canvas walls. Entry has a double door where the outside door has to be closed before interior will open or the air will escape and the roof collapse. Not designed for high volume.
Good matches for younger teams although 2 lost and 1 won. Nice results considering we had no practices and had only met yesterday.
Pizza dinner at the gym with the Italian teams which will make matches on Sunday more fun. A little recognition, chitchat before and after matches. This is what these trips are about.
Back to hotel for much needed sleep, ciao bella!Read more
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NYB 2024-25
Day 3 Pompeii
December 30, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
Traveled to Naples and started with a visit to Pompeii. The amazing park is so interesting to see how the buildings, mosaics, and even paintings survived for the centuries they were buried.
Sadly, the display of body casts in not available but many of the buildings were. It was a busy day and took over an hour to get food or coffee at the ONE cafe inside the park.
We all made it back to the bus on time and headed off to the first volleyball match of the trip. All teams played well for a group who had never met or practiced together before. But the Napoli clubs were too much for us. A few photos later and we’re off to the hotel for some much needed rest.
Ciao!Read more
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NYB 2024-25
Caserta and Amalfi Coast
January 2, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C
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NYB 2024-25
Caserta Palace
January 2, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C
Another great find we tripped over! In Naples the city center is really expensive to stay. We found a newly acquired Marriott property in the north west (I think) side of the metro called Caserta. About 1 mile from the hotel is the Caserta Palace, the world’s largest palace actually occupied by a royal family. Or so they say.
It was built to rival Versailles outside of Paris and does a good job of it. In the evenings, there is a discounted entry to see the chapel, royal apartment and an art exhibit. The chapel was beautiful with an altar in the front and rows of seating. It was used as a music hall as much as a religious hall
The “apartment” was HUGE containing several wings a large rooms, any one of which could have held at least 1, if not more volleyball courts (our standard unit of measure). As expected, large amounts of artwork, a nice library, a children’s wing (complete with tiny jail!)
Great food at the restaurants outside so overall a win for the adventurousRead more
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NYB 2024-25
Catania Sicily
January 3, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C
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NYB 2024-25
Palermo
January 4, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C
Palermo has the dubious distinction of being the world’s most frequently conquered city. It has been conquered by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, and other powers.
See an interesting discussion here:
https://wearepalermo.com/history-of-palermo/

It’s also the largest city on Sicily with 1.3M in the metropolitan area. There are large historic areas all over and great food choices all over, just like all the other big cities. There are more than 20 Catholic Churches, a bunch of Roman ruins, and beautiful music and art theaters and museums.

We had a 3 hour bus ride, followed by 3 hours of sightseeing. Didn’t help the girls play volleyball well. Unfortunately we finished quickly, ate a bunch of nice traditional Sicilian foods, then dashed our way back to the hotel.

Tomorrow off to Siracusa for our last day on tour!Read more
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NYB 2024-25
Siracusa
January 5, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C
Siracusa aka Syracuse is a 2,700 year old city and the 3rd largest in Sicily. The city is notable for its rich Greek and Roman history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace and home of the pre-eminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes.
It was a quick one hour bus ride from Catania to the older part of the city. We went right past the royal palace and got dropped in front of the cathedral and, of course, next to the main shopping street.
The cathedral started as a temple to Athena in the 6th century BC, then changed between Muslim Mosque and Christian/Catholic church several times before settling in the 12th century as a catholic cathedral.
From the cathedral we toured down the shopping street to venture along the waterfront to the Maniace Castle. Walking up to a large statue we debated angel vs Icarus but both were off. It was Ikarius, a woman representing the challenges women have and are still facing around the world. She faces over the ocean to North Africa where many women still face challenges.
We stopped for a quick lunch, followed by “granita” which is like a blend of Italian ice and gelato usually in chocolate, pistachio or lemon flavor. Still refreshing despite the cool day.
Back to the bus, off to the gym for one last match and pizza party. The girls are physically and mentally exhausted after 10 days on the road. However the pizzas were hot on delivery and delicious. We did a little t-shirt exchange, killed off pizza and headed back to prepare for the horrendous 330AM departure for the airport!Read more
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Trip end
January 6, 2025