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Marlston House Hockey Tour to Italy October 2007

On Sunday morning at 3.45am we were woken up to leave for Gatwick. We wandered wearily down to the coach in the dark, however when we arrived in Verona, we were all really excited. We had a free afternoon at the hotel, which was really nice and some of us enjoyed a very refreshing dip in the hotel pool. The sun was shining brightly, but it was very cold!

The following day we took the scenic route to Riva Del Garda, where we had our first session of hockey training with Lindsey our coach. It was a beautiful trip to the training ground along the lake, which has a circumference of 100km and is the largest lake in Europe. Lindsey kept us really busy for 4 hours of training, then we had a trip into the town of Riva Del Garda to go shopping and the girls had their first taste of Italian ice-cream! On the second day of training we learnt some new techniques such as the flick and the slap hit. We visited two small towns along the lake after the training and in the evening we got out the microphone and those of us who hadn’t lost our voices, enjoyed some karaoke!

Wednesday was our match day. In the morning we visited Garda town and we spent some time in a beautiful little church. The architecture of the town was lovely. Unfortunately it rained on this day, but that didn’t stop us playing our games against Riva’s hockey club. They are the top team in their age group in this area. The matches were really exciting and very intense. Our girls were divided into 3 teams, The Seniors, The Swans and The Fillies. Their teams consisted of both boys and girls and they had very strong stick work and advanced skills. The Seniors lost a hard fought match 3-1, The Fillies drew 1-1 and The Swans lost 2-1. We then played a match only against their girls and our new skills paid off as we managed to win this 2-1. The opposition had arrived with a magnificent display of food and we spent time playing and chatting to them. That night we had a lovely time at a restaurant to experience a real Italian pizza!

The next day was our day trip to Venice……and a lie-in! Many of the girls enjoyed a gondola trip, whilst others shopped in St Marco square. We visited the Basilica of St Marco and saw the Rialto Bridge. The network of canals was amazing, a real day to remember.

Our final day was spent in Verona, where we visited the amphitheatre. We also saw Juliet’s balcony. The girls touched her statue for good luck and we wrote our names on the wall, so we will be remembered. (for 6 months at least!)

This completed our wonderful trip. It was busy and exciting and we didn’t want to come home!

R Carter & E Taplin

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