The Elon University volleyball team is spending spring break in Italy as part of Elon's commitment to diversity and global engagement for its students. Follow along as the student-athletes share and document their global adventure!
DAY ONE
by Lindsey Harris and Kayla Palmer
We are currently at the airport, about to board our flight to Milan! Everyone is so excited to start our Italian experience. We are very grateful for this opportunity to go abroad with our teammates, experience the Italian culture we have been learning about in class and play against Italian teams. After we land in Milan, we will head to Verona. We are all very excited for this stop because we have talked about the history of Verona in class. Verona is known as “Little Rome” and is where Romeo and Juliet was set! There is also an arena in Verona, similar to the Colosseum, but smaller. This will be a great first experience and a fun start to our Italian adventure. Overall, we are so excited for this opportunity and are already having so much fun spending time with each other!
DAY TWO
by Kyla Johnson and April Rice
Today marked our first full day in Italy. We spent the day in Venice, which was unforgettable. We kicked things off with an incredible guided walking tour, where we learned about the city’s rich history and vibrant culture. Our walk began in St. Mark’s Square and wound north through the city. We walked through Campo Santa Maria Formosa, to the historic Venice hospital, and then east toward the Rialto Bridge. Afterward, we had plenty of free time to explore on our own, fully immersing ourselves in the Venetian way of life. We enjoyed amazing food, indulged in plenty of gelato, and soaked in the atmosphere around us. One of the highlights of the day was a gondola ride, which gave us a beautiful and unique perspective of the city from the water. Later, we had time to browse charming gift shops, and of course, have more gelato. Overall, our first full day in Venice was a huge success, and we’re excited for everything the rest of the week has in store.
DAY THREE
by Cameron Lanier and Simrin Carlsen
Today we headed to Lucca, a city in Tuscany, about a 3-hour drive from our hotel in Padua, and definitely worth it! When we arrived, we had about an hour and a half to explore on our own. A group of us found a cute spot for lunch and soaked in the charm of the city before wandering around a bit more and meeting up for our next activity. We then hopped on bikes for a guided tour around Lucca, riding along the famous 16th-century Renaissance walls that surround the city. The views from the wall were amazing. Then we ventured into the city center to check out some of the most popular sights, including the oak trees growing at the top of the 45-meter-high Guinigi tower. We also rode to the Duomo di San Martino, one of the larger cathedrals in the “City of 100 Churches.”
After biking, we headed to Fattoria Il Poggio for one of the highlights of the day—a pasta-making class! We learned the basics of Italian cooking and got to make our own pasta from scratch. Dinner was incredible: fresh pasta with meat sauce, bruschetta, bread with mushrooms, and a selection of wines from the Tuscan vineyard. The farm also grows olives and produces olive oil, which was used in most of the dishes. To top it all off, we made a couple of furry friends with the farm’s two Bernese Mountain dogs (Alice and Bruno) and had such a fun, relaxing evening together.
DAY FOUR
by Casey Brower and Catherine Rucker
Today we took a ferry to Cinque Terre (the 5 lands). The boat ride was amazing with a great view of beautiful architecture and terraced farms built into the sides of the mountains. The boat left from La Spezia and went up the coast. We stopped in the village of Vernazza first, then headed to Monterosso al Mare, the largest of the five villages, for lunch. The buildings were beautiful. We spent the day exploring and getting gelato and snacks. We also ate pasta on the beach!
After visiting two of the five villages, we stopped in the town of Porto Venere, between the Cinque Terre and La Spezia. Some of the team walked to the Castello Dorio, which was at the end of the main road through town. The castle dates back to the 12th century and sits high on the rocky coastline. The view was amazing.
After the boat ride, we had a pre-game meal in Pisa and made a quick stop by the leaning tower. Afterward, we played a local Italian club, which was super fun! It was really interesting to see how the international players play volleyball compared to us and we had a blast playing some volleyball overseas!
Day 5 in Italy was our day to explore the beautiful city of Florence! We started the morning at the hotel with breakfast, enjoying lots of cappuccinos and croissants to fuel up for the day. Once we got to our destination, we walked to the main square, Piazza della Signoria, and kicked things off with a walking tour. In the square, we learned about famous statues like a replica of David by Michelangelo. A highlight of the tour was getting to see the incredible Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. We also learned about Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, the last member of the Medici family, who made a deal that all the art in Florence had to stay in the city forever, which is why we can still see so much of it today! After the tour, we got some free time to explore. People split up to shop, eat, relax, visit museums and soak it all in. Later, we met back up as a team and walked over to see where Elon Florence exchange students take classes. We even got to have a few students come support us in our game! After touring the school, we had a few more free hours to explore! During this time, we went to a few more shops, got some coffee, and played games together. We found the cutest cafe called “the secret garden” which was secluded from the hustle of the main streets, and was the perfect place to sit and relax. Once dinner time hit, we all walked together to Osteria dei Baroncelli, where we ate pasta with red sauce, grilled chicken, spinach, and pie for dessert. It was all delicious! After dinner, we got back on the bus and drove to our game. Tonight, we played a B-tier professional team called Firenze Ovest Pallavolo. They were a smart, fiery team, and it was so fun to compete against them. Additionally, it was cool to see the differences small differences in the way that they play in Italy versus the way we play in America. After the game, we shook hands with them, and they invited us to eat pizza with them. Such a sweet group of girls and an awesome experience!
DAY SIX
by Shannon O’Laughlin and Caroline Berlekamp
When we arrived in Rome we started with a tour of The Colosseum. Our tour guide told us all about the gladiators, the rich history of the surrounding area of The Colosseum, and details of the architecture inside. After The Colosseum, we made our way into the city of Rome. We visited the Trevi Fountain, The Victor Emmanuel II Monument, The Pantheon, and walked past so many other beautiful sights and landmarks.
The City of Rome is packed with a rich history and every sight we visited today had a beautiful backstory behind it. We loved how the city preserved its history in the modern world. After our tours, we ended the day by checking into our new hotel, where we were welcomed with an AMAZING meal. Now we are headed to bed for another fun day in Rome tomorrow!!!!
DAY SEVEN
by Allie Schultz and Dani Wallace
For the final day of our Italian experience, we explored Vatican City. The team went on a comprehensive three-hour guided tour through many significant rooms in the Vatican Museums, including the iconic Sistine Chapel. Our tour guide put particular emphasis on the history behind each piece and room, making key notes about influences of the artists and explaining their creative process thoroughly.
After a short walk, the team arrived at a lovely spot called PASSPARTOUT for our goodbye lunch. We were served suppli—a Roman delicacy consisting of rice, tomato, and mozzarella—and cacio e Pepe. The best part was the dessert, where the staff put together a wonderful surprise of chocolate cake topped with an Elon logo! Afterwards, we were given free time to explore Rome and we made sure to take advantage of it. Some of us made our way into St. Peter’s Basilica while others continued their journey through Roman cuisine.
To finish off the day, we spent the night meeting and coaching a 14U Italian club team. It was such a great experience to learn the culture of volleyball in Italy from athletes who are younger than us, but also to bond over something both teams care deeply about. It was so much fun getting to interact and play, on court, with girls who are so skilled at such a young age. The girls and coaches were so welcoming and made us feel at home while coaching away from home.
After saying our goodbyes, we made our way to Piazza Trilussa for our final dinner in Italy. We ate at quiet, sit-down restaurants that had amazing food and service. After dinner, before getting back on the bus, we stopped for one final gelato to truly send us home in the right note!
Our team's trip to Italy was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we all benefited from in different ways. We learned about a different culture and we enjoyed practicing the bits and pieces of Italian that we knew. It was not only neat to be able to explore the famous cities of Italy like Venice, Florence, and Rome, but also be able to visit areas along the coast of La Spezia. We collectively agreed as a team that one of the most fulfilling experiences from our trip was having the privilege to work with some of the young Italian athletes at a volleyball clinic. Even though there was a language barrier, we were able to understand each other through our common ground of volleyball, and we let our common skills to do the talking. At the end of the clinic, we did a Q&A with the young players with the help of a translator and we were able to communicate about our experiences with volleyball and life in our different countries. Thank you to everyone who was a part in making this trip possible for our volleyball team, we all learned so much and had a great experience.