Volcanic Disruption

The coaches enjoyed a delicious pre-game dinner Saturday evening at Sotto il Convento, an indescribably cool subterranean wine bar restaurant and former convent. Practice Saturday afternoon went well, and everyone seemed anxious and ready for the long-awaited showdown between the #1 passing offense of the Catania Elephants and the #1 running offense of the Reggio Emilio Hogs on Sunday.

We arrived at the airport Sunday morning without incident (Luis drove). Upon checking the status of our flight at the terminal, the monitor read "cancellato" which we could only hope translated as "on-time." Unfortunately, all flights in Italy north of Rome (e.g., Bologna and Milan) had been cancelled due to the volcano (in Iceland, not Catania). No game. Extremely disappointing to all coaches and players, and probably even a few fans...

This coming week we hope to play another top team, the Milano Rhinos, coming off their 35-0 shutout of the Ancona Dolphins yesterday. The volcanic sea sculptures pictured here, known as Cyclops Rocks, are situated near the fishing village adjacent to ours, known as Acitrezza. According to Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, this is where the cyclops Polyphemus threw rocks at Odysseus from his home on Mt. Etna in retaliation for being blinded by the mythic Greek hero.

That's all the volcanic activity for now.