Dia 7 Treviso and Pinarello

Today we had the opportunity to visit one of the finest bicycle manufactuing facilities in the world, the Pinarello plant (www.pinarello.com) in Treviso Italy. Our group was given a tour by Andrea, Chiara, and her faithful companion Duplo Pinarello. The company has a rich family history which continues to this day and is a great source of pride for those who work at the plant. Pinarello makes and distributes about 10,000 bikes a year. The majority of the bikes stay within Italy, but there is a respectable market for Pinarello in both the United States and Japan. Quailty is a conerstone of the Pinarello company. This was quite evident in our tour from the shipping, painting, designing, and building of each and every Pinarello bike. Yet, Pinarello does more than just make bicycle frames. The company also sponsors several mens and womens teams and sponsors a popular Gronfondo each summer.

In addition to the impressive and beautiful bicycles that Pinarello builds, there is another more important reason that I gained respect for the company. From the moment we arrived until the moment we left, Andrea and Chiara treated our U of M group with the highest level of respect, patientce, and dignity. It was most evident that personal connection, in addition to quality, are pillars of the Pinarello business. Although many of our group members were unfamiliar with the comany before the tour, Andrea and Chiara were most kind with their explinations and their time. It was truly an honor to be in the factory and to meet the family members who are responisble for the reputation of such an elite company. My sincere thanks go to both Andrea and to Chiara for our experience today.

Ciao!
Bud Trnka
U of M Kinesiology undergraduate student

Day 6 Futbol

Ciao!

Today we began our day travelling by city bus to the International Futbol Center where the Italian national team trains. There we toured a museum filled with original soccer jerseys, trophies, and memorabilia of the team, soccer fields, and saw where they host the players during their stay. Fino Fini, the trainer or doctoro of the team for twenty years, was our guide and told us stories and memories of the team’s history.

Concluding our tour of the facilities Gennaro Testa, a professor of sport ethics and sociology, gave us a lecture. He introduced the Italian prospective on sports and expressed hope to spread a seed of improving sport in a positive light. The lecture was translated by Jacqueline a native New Yorker now living in Florence.

Jacqueline took us to lunch after the site visit at Ristorante Pizzeria il Gatto e la Volpe, which had very delicious foods.

Later in the evening we all headed over to a pub (Naima) to watch the UEFA EURO CUP Championship game between Barcelona and Manchester United (soccer game). It was a well fought battle and Barcelona won 2-0 over Manchester United. It was interesting to watch the reactions of the fans both on TV and in the pub. Tomorrow we will be heading off to Treviso. Farewell Florence!

Day 5 Firenze

Ciao Tutti!!

Another beautiful day in Italy, today we left Rome for the birthplace of the renaissance, Firenze. The trip took three hours and the bus traveled north on autostrada A1. The landscape and vistas were truly amazing, rolling hills and small mountains, tunnels cutting through the landscape, roads weaving in and out of the hills, and the fast trains traveling along side. The bus made one stop on the autostrada, "freeway" like in the states similar to the Illinois tollway there are rest stops with food, beverage, and toilets on top of the autostrada. The driver aloted for a 25 minute break in which we all enjoyed some Italian rest stop fare,**(note, not entirely different from other Italian lunch cuisine, pizza, and a variety of sandwiches, espresso, and salads which were a surprise). After inhaling an espresso the bus left and we all read the readings for today's presentation. The presentation today was done by Lindsey and Kitrick. Their research focused on comparing the cultures of baseball and soccer. Aspects of player trade, league structure and the behavior of fans were discussed. The project stimulated disscussion and topics concerning, the behavior of fans and league organization.

After the presentation the group was looking forward to touring the city and seeing the birth place of the renaissance. Bud and I will be doing our project on professional cycling, and originally there was the interest to incorporate a commuter aspect into the project. When we arrived in Rome Bud and I were disappointed to see that there were hardly any cyclists. Rome is an extremely busy city, a bicycle rider would not make it a day there without being pushed off the street by either a moped or a car. The Vespa's and cars rule ROME!!!. Florence is in the center of Italy, further north than Rome and right in the middle of the country. It was refreshing when the bus arrived in Florence and we were able to see a copious increase in cyclists, there are even bike lanes. Bud originally wanted to organize a bike tour of a city, we all wanted to see all of the important monuments and churches in Firenze. The hotel desk gave us the name of a bike shop that rented bikes by the hour, (www.florencebybike.it). For eight euro the 13 of us were able to see the majority of the city!! Here are the sights that we biked to and around: Giardino della Fortezza, the American Consulate, Ponte Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangelo (statue of David, AMAZING VIEW of the whole city), Capella Pazi (dinner), Galleria degli Uffizi, Palazzo Vecchio (bumped into Dr. Buysse, and listned to some nighttime opera), Piazza della Signoria, Ratto delle Sambine, Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Flore (Piazza del Duomo, and Piazza della Repubblica.

Personally I am truly impressed with Firenze, and seem to be enjoying it more than Rome even though we have been here for less than a day.
The bike tour was a steal for the price and we were able to cover more ground. Tonights dinner was amzing, everyone seemed to order a great dish. Italian nights are exquisite, not too hot not too cool and all of the monuments are lit up. Bumping in to Dr. Buysse was a plesent suprise, we saw Dr. Buysse at the outdoor opera performance. In addition the bike tour was a great intro into the professional cylcing research project that Bud and I will be doing on Thursday. The project will include a trip to a bike manufacturer, called Pinarello, and a disscussion about professional cycling. I would like to extend a shout OUT to our counterparts in Rome, Austin and Emily. We miss you and hope that the conference goes well, call anytime. Tomorrow we are heading to the International Football Center COVERCIANO ( the location where the World Cup Team trains).

Ciao

Bene Elias
Sport Management

Day 4 - Rome

Today was out last full day in Rome, so naturally I wanted to make the most out of it. While many opted to sleep in, my day started at 6:15 a.m. with a light jog to the park. This was my first visit the the park so I was interested to observe activity of the locals as I worked out. At the park, I witnessed for the first time people intentionally engaging in physical activity. Numerous people were out jogging. Ages of the joggers ranged from college age to senior citizens. Most ran alone, but there were a few who ran with their dogs or friends. As an aspiring P.E. teacher, I was thrilled to see that the Romans do in fact exercise.

When I made it back I ate the usual breakfast offered by Hotel Medici, which mostly consists of ham and cheese sandwiches as the main course. As I have eavesdropped in the conversations during breakfast I have noticed that the vast majority of the guests at our hotel speak English. I have met people from Michigan, Maryland, New York, Georgia, Ireland, and I have overheard some thick British accents. I feel like I am staying at a small English speaking haven within Rome.

After breakfast the first presentation was given on how social media, specifically Twitter, affects sport. This was a very interesting presentation on the way Twitter may revolutionize certain aspects of sport. In March 2009 44% of the major professional teams had Twitter, but by May of 2009 77% of the teams had Twitter. On a fun note, Shaquille O'Neil used to be one of the greatest basketball players in the world – now he is one of the world's greatest Twitterer (or Tweeter?) and has over a million followers. Twitter is an exciting up and coming form of social media that can be used for marketing and maybe even as a catalyst to reconstruct gender identities as it pertains to sport.

Unfortunately, a site visit was cancelled so we had to go to the beach (I know – it was horrible!). The beach was outside the city of Roma so we go to leave the city. On the bus ride, I noticed my first signs of sport as I saw my first basketball courts, weight room and soccer field since I had been in Italy.

When we finally arrived at the beach, the group had a great day on the Mediterranean Sea. Some examples of sport at the beach was volleyball, paddle ball and soccer. The highlight of my time there was when a quite older gentleman approached me and started playing football (soccer) with me. He could juggle a soccer ball all day with his feet. He could do every trick in the book and then some. At one point he laid down in mid-juggle to take a pretend nap – never letting the ball hit the ground! Needless to say, my skills were not up to par with his, however, he did say to me that 'You are a very big professional.' Even though he was probably just being nice, it made me feel good nonetheless. He also introduced the group to a variation of paddle ball, played with old wooden rackets and a tennis ball. We never learned the 'official rules', but it was still a lot of fun.

After the beach, the day ended with our second session of Italian lessons. The group was fairly tired, but worked hard to focus throughout the time. No one in the group will claim to be fluent in Italian, but baby steps are being made!

All in all, the day can be counted as a success – I'm not sure anyone is 100% ready to leave Rome; however, we are excited to see what adventures our next stop in Florence brings.

Ciao!

David Lovrien
Undergraduate student in Kinesiology

A note from our professora

Ciao Tutti!
I am sorry that I haven't posted sooner but, it's been a bit busy as the group faculty leader and, I think the students have been doing a great job of keeping you posted on our activities. Following just three days of activities and site visits we have many things to inform our discussions about the social processes of globalization and connections to sport.
The students are in their second Italian class following a great presentation by Emily and Austin this morning entitled: Examining Elite Sport Representation in Social Media: Conceptualizing Twitter. They will present their research at the European Sport Sociology Conference in Rome in two days. We are going to Florence without them but proud that they will represent the University of Minnesota at such a wonderful academic conference. They will join us in Treviso. Kudos also to Austin for all of her work in setting up our social networking with you.
Almost the end of class so I must say Ciao for now.


Buona Giornata!

Jo Ann Buysse, Ph.D

Day 3 - Rome

We are finally all recovered from jet lag!! Today started with a late breakfast which in my case consisted of some bread with hazelnut chocolate spread called nutella on it with some yogurt, orange juice and some fruit cocktail. I tried the carbonated water (aqua con gas) today but was not a fan what so ever.

After breakfast some students met to go to St. Peters Basilica in anticipation to hear a church blessing from the Pope. However, luck was not in their favor and instead they viewed a service from the large screens in the plaza. It was not totally packed, but many still enjoyed the experience.

Others, like myself, chose to get a work out in and go on a stroll through villa Borghese. It was not like any typical park in the US with playground equipment and basketball courts. Instead it was full of sculptures fountains and little stores selling beverages and snacks. The park also included a few amusement rides and video games. The park was full of families bicycling and walking though the park, many of which brought their dogs. Some dogs were not on their leashes and the park also had a large area for dogs, had a zoo on the outside of the park and had the main attraction, Galleria Borghese.

The afternoon was filled with soccer excitement. We visited a promo for the upcoming Euro Cup Final. We witnessed mini soccer matches played by the youth. I watched a match of boys from Italy play small sided 5 on 5 soccer. They were no older than 10 but their skills were well beyond their age of the soccer players in the US. Not only did they play like the professionals: faking injuries, flopping for calls, wasting time and having dramatic finishes with kisses to the crowd and hugging their coach. There were easily 100 fans watching the game, chanting cheers and the emotions of the crowd added to the dramatic finish in Penalty kicks where the winning team praised the crowd in triumph and the losing boys cried and pouted in disbelief in their parent's arms, throwing their shirts and kicking the sponsorship ads behind the goal.

Speaking of sponsors, we moved onto the European Beach Soccer championships where there were numerous sponsors at the event, on billboards, flags around the stadium and ad panels surrounding the game. The beach soccer was a site to see. We witnessed youth; women and men play the game. The men's final was a dramatic one where the Spanish defeated the Swiss in the championship game. The game was played barefoot with no shin guards 5 on 5 with a keeper. The game was fairly fast pace with possession being played mostly in the air off of juggling skills and the keepers throwing the ball the length of the field. Through it all both the men and women were very gifted with the ball and we saw a wide range of goals scored off of headers, corners, free kicks and volleys. We even witnessed a few bicycle kicks.

Between the matches some of the students visited the Roman Forum, where Caesar was buried. The grave still has flowers on it and it was once the center of ancient Rome.

Tomorrow we look forward to another hot day involving a journey to the beach and our second Italian lesson.

-Bryan Bender
Master's of Education in Applied Kinesiology
Sport Management

Day 2 - Rome

Today was an excellent day for our group. We went to the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica, as well as the Colosseum. At the end of the day we have an Italian language lesson.

On the way to the Vatican we went outside the original gates of Rome. They are centuries old, however, I forgot how they are. At the Vatican there were amazing sculptures, paintings, and tapestries. It was interesting to find out that the sculptures were originally painted. We passed one sculpture that had eyes painted on it, but most of the sculptures we saw were simply stone colored.

On the visit to St. Peter’s we were able to see the end of a church service. We originally did not know the service was going on, we heard organ music playing and began to wonder. As the service ended the guards blocked the crowd so they could walk past us to their quarters.

At the Colosseum we were able to see where the trap doors for the animals to come out, as in the movie Gladiator. A stage was being set up at one end of the Colosseum. As it turns out Andrea Bocceli is going to play at the Colosseum on Monday night as a prelude to the football game on Wednesday. I was really intrigued by the Constantine’s Gate. It was massive (See photo above.)


Also, the Champions Cup (UEFA) is going to be played in Rome on Wednesday. We walked through the Champions Village near the Colosseum.

The end of the day was a chance for us to learn some Italian. Our instructor Maria was very good and we had a lot of laughs as we butchered our way through the language attempting to use Spanish and Spanglish. I think many of us will begin to use Spatalian.

For the night we decided to split up for dinner and enjoy a great evening in Rome.

Ciao,
Kitrick, Applied Kinesiology Master of Education (Sport Management)