Finally, ITALY!

(Please also refer to George's Blog, as he has a number of great pictures and descriptions of my first hours in Catania.)

As my plane descended on Catania, my eyes grew large and I was mesmerized by the amazing landscape... rolling green hills, the bright blue see, the glowing orange of a setting sun, and the volcanic black of Mt. Etna looming over the landscape.

From the air, I realized that Catania is MUCH larger than I realized... and was later told that the population is about half a million people.  It stretches for miles down the coast and blends into the neighboring communities of the ACI's (Pronounced ah-CHI)... a group of smaller villages such as Aci Castello (where George and I live), Aci Trezza (5 min walk from home - where we ate breakfast this morning), and a number of other less important Aci's.

  

In fact, the backstory of the "Aci" is that it comes from Greek Mythology.  Aci was a shepherd on the island of Sicily, who had his girlfriend friend stolen by the now infamous Cyclops.  (I can't really blame her, you know what they say about guys with a big eye...)  The little towns are named after him.  Aci Castello means "Aci - Castle" after our Norman Castle.  Aci Trezza literally means "Aci - Three" - after 3 large rocks that lie just off the shore.  Even deeper into the backstory, the rocks are thought to be from the time of the Odyssey... as the story goes, Ulysses escapes captivity from the Cyclops by stabbing him in the eye.  Blinded, the cyclops threw rocks at Ulysses to stop him - missing, but landing in their current positions just off the coast of Aci Trezza.  I tried to email Homer to tell him that perhaps the rocks actually came from the vast amount of volcanic activity in the region, however I think he's going to stick with the original legend.

After landing, I was met at they airport by a large number of my new teammates and by our coaches, Davide ('Il Capo' ... the Chief in Italian) and George ('Il Insignante' ... the Teacher.)  See the picture above!  Davide is a great coach and also a great host -- he has done everything to make my move here easy and comfortable.  George, as you can gather from his blog, is witty, adventurous, and very detail oriented.  He gave me the complete briefing - even down to the location of hidden light switches in our condo.

From the moment I arrived, I had an almost "deja-vu" feeling that took me back to landing in Arizona all those years ago for college... maybe it was the palm trees, the cacti (which are plentiful), or the fact that I was going somewhere new to play football... but it's just that gut confirmation that I'm doing the right thing by coming here and that it is going to be an amazing time.

~ J. Twice