May 14, 2009
Editor’s note: During the Notre Dame women’s basketball team’s 10-day foreign tour of Europe, sophomore forward Kellie Watson is filing a daily diary with Michael Rothstein of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. Following are Watson’s thoughts on the trip with a link to her entry also available on the Journal-Gazette’s web site.
We woke up early today to take a boat tour around Lake Como. We stopped at a cute historical town called Bellagio to shop and get some gelato, which was delicious! We spent only about an hour there though, because we had to get on our private boat to ride to the town of Como. On the boat we were able to see one of George Clooney’s houses, one belonging to Donatella Versace, and one owned by the King of Saudi Arabia; they were all absolutely amazing. After our 45-minute private boat ride, we docked in Como and were able to spend some free time before our pre-game lunch. We spent our two hours or so shopping and looking for cute souvenirs to buy for ourselves, as well as for friends and family. After our pre-game meal of steak, chicken and pasta, we got back on the bus to head to Milan, where we would be playing our second game of the tour. It was about an hour bus ride, for which most of us slept.
Once we arrived in the heart of Milan, we were let off the bus to see the fourth largest cathedral in the world, El Duomo. It was made of marble and took over 500 years to build. It was the most complexly decorated building we have seen all trip. We were then treated to some gelato at the favorite gelateria of our tour guide, Leo. The strawberry gelato is absolutely to die for! This was a quick stop of only about an hour, because we needed to get back on the bus and heard toward the outskirts of Milan, where the game would be held in the town of Sesto San Giovanni.
The game went fairly well, with us getting another win by 10 points. After our game, we went to dinner at a pizzeria with the players from the Italian pro team we played (GEAS Sesto San Giovanni). We had an amazing time with them! Luckily, most of them knew some English so we could really communicate with them. We were at dinner talking with all the girls for about two hours and many of us agreed it was the most fun we have had thus far into the tour. They were really great girls!
Tomorrow we have another early morning as we head to Florence to do some more shopping and then to Rome to do the same. 🙂
GO IRISH!!!