Festa di Addio di Celibato

Bachelor Party for colleague and friend, Niall B.  From left, Chris, Liam (Niall's youngest brother), Anthony D., Brian B. Stefan H., the bachelor and Charles (Niall's middle brother)

 

Niall was forced to sing Madonna's "Material Girl"....so we fellow math teachers were kind enough to provide backup!

Harroo sandwich

Did I mention that this all took place on the French Riviera?  We all met up in Nice.  Here's Anthony giving his approval in Piazza Messina.

The beach in Nice

The "purpose" of the trip was to head over to Monte Carlo for some gambling at the casinos.  We decided to go classy and get decked out....or at least not wear jeans and t-shirts.

And...yes, Brian decided to go "douchebag" and wear and ascot and eyepatch.

Here's Monaco as you step out of the train station, which is built into the hillside.

I found Monaco to be...as one might expect....very much about keeping people out.  Everywhere it seems as though you were gated off or evaluated before being let in.

 

The famed Monte Carlo Casino.  We didn't expect Las Vegas style casinos, but we also weren't expecting such exclusivity.  It cost 10 Euro's just to enter and look at the casino.  To play poker, there was a 1,000 Euro buy in.

I lost about 100 Euro's at the blackjack table.  But more exciting was seeing the city get ready for the Monte Carlo Grand Prix which is going to occur next week. 

Here's a hairpin turn right by the Fairmount hotel.  There were grandstands being erected all over the place.

Near the finish line, down at the port.

The port of Monte Carlo...

.....and the amazing yachts

Italian National Bridge Schools Tournament

This year, I enrolled in a beginning Bridge Class here in Rome.  The culmination of our class was the National Students of Bridge Schools Championship.

The tournament was help in the spa town of Salsomaggiore Terme near Parma.  It's famous for its hot springs....and being the host of the annual Miss Italia pageant.

I took two days off of work...took the train up on Thursday morning.  Things started up right away with a pairs tournament on Thursday afternoon where we played the first of 3 rounds.

Look, there I am, one of the few, if ONLY, players without a vowel at the end of my name.  And I am a member of FIGB (Federazione Italiano di Gioco Bridge) with a number and everything!

How's this for a playing room.  The first year tournament was help in the main salon of the Salsomaggiore Palazzo Congressi

The tournament in ACTION.  It was awesome to play against people from all over Italy.  And it was fascinating to start to guess the accents.  I am now REALLY good at identifying when someone is from Northern Italy.  They talk almost as if they are singing.

I'd never seen this before, an automated wireless bridge scoring system.  It's pretty bulky and my guess is that the technology is at least a decade old, BUT it functions and was a great way to log in scores.

The 1st year tournament had 36 teams.  Right off the bat in round one (hands were pre-dealt) I had a grand slam hand.  I wasn't ready for it and only bid 4 spades, but made the slam.  This first round, I played in a daze...but somehow, my partner and I ended up in 21st place.

Then, after dinner Thursday night, the 2nd round.  LO AND BEHOLD, my partner and I played OUT OF OUR MINDS.  We placed 4th in this round.  All three teams above us were the eventual top teams of the entire competition.

And here's my partner, Gino.  We both attend the same class, but on different nights.  For some reason, he came to my class one day, we played together and have been a pair for a month now.  Life is that way, just as I'm about to leave Italy, I find a good bridge partner.

As the 2nd round was finishing, the results popped, but Gino and I were finishing our last round.  Our instructor, Mario G. came over and (probably a bit surprised at the result) congratulated us.  Then, he said, if we continued to play at that level, we might get on the podium.

And then, the next morning, things came back to reality.  We started badly, and things just got progressively worse, finishing in almost last place in the 3rd round.

Overall, 15th.  Better than I would have expected coming into the weekend.  I'm pretty proud of our placing.  It's still funny to see my non Italian last name on the board.

The second event of the weekend is a team tournament.  Two pairs play as a team.  Gino and I came as part of a 3 pair team, but we found another pair looking for a team and we joined them.  It's Valerio and Eliza from Genoa.

I had to take a picture of the team tournament room downstairs in the basement.  It was echoey and not nearly the charm of the beautiful room of the pairs tournament.

As always ignorance is bliss....and after 3 rounds (of 7) team Nalesso was in 10th place.  The goal is to try to get into the top 6 to make the finals.

After 5 rounds, down to 13th

And we kept dropping....after the 7th round, 16th of 18.  Gino and I played pretty awfully at times and our partners from Genoa must have been having a bad time of it too.  So, into the consolation round for us.

These "ragazzi" are in my class at the school.  This is them finding out that they (in the list above they are EUR Venaccia) placed 7th and missed the finals.  They are bummed!

And then in the consolation, the bottom dropped OUT.  Ugh.

The way the team tournament works is that the lower ranked teams play each other...and get sent to the higher numbered tables.  Here's table 9 in the far corner.  We ended up here a number of times, and every time we walked over, it felt like we were being sent to the "lame table", which it actually was!

Final placings, and we just couldn't rise out of last place.  Oh and the "ragazzi", to their credit lapped the field in the consolation round.

At the prize ceremony, they brought up all the bridge school teachers.  They got a standing ovation!

I had to include a picture of the "arbitro" of the 1st year tournaments.  If she came by and implored "accelleriamo" you knew you were in trouble with her.

I was quietly sitting there at the prize ceremony not really paying attention and BOOM, my name is being called.  And I was up in front of everybody accepting a bottle of wine.  I had no idea why.  Turns out, the winner of each round got a prize and because in that 2nd round back on Thursday, Gino and I placed 4th (behind the 3 top teams) we got the prize for winning that round!

So, I have to conclude by saying this was a most excellent and fun trip.  I learned a ton of bridge and spoke a TON of Italian.  I think my Italian improved by leaps and bounds in this four day adventure.  But the thing I learned most, was having to trust my partner.  I'm such a control freak but sometimes Gino would do something and at first I would freak out (internally) but things would turn out ok.  Yes, he sometimes made some mistakes, but more often than not, what he did was logical and something I could support.  By the end of the weekend, I was much more relaxed and could trust what he was doing.  I guess that's as close as I'm going to get to a relationship at the moment.

The other thing I will say is, even after 96 hands of bridge, I still wanted to play.  I could feel myself getting much more confident and sure of myself as the weekend went on.  It's one of those things were I know I did some good things and played well at times, but all I remember is the few times I blew it and left "points on the table" where I might have played too fast or not thought of something that might not go my way...and didn't.  But, I will say the last hand of the 96 we played, I bid 4 hearts and made it with ease....but I could have made a minor slam had I played it right.  A fitting end...I made my contract but could have done better. 

Play Day

Brian B. and Anthony D. are stuck across the river.

So I show them the way......

And for those of you blog stalkers....Boo!

Number 18

Sunday with nothing planned....so I hopped on a train to Campobasso, the capital of the region of Molise, one of the 3 (now 2) regions of Italy I have yet to visit.

Umm, there is a reason why Campobasso is NOT a highlight of any Italy travel guide.  Really, not much to do.

I got the docent at the castle of Campobasso (highest point in town) to take a picture of me as proof of my actually being there.

The town is right at the southern end of the Apennines...so lots of wind.

With snow on the nearby mountains.

My plan was to stay the entire afternoon, but the town was CLOSED up.  It felt like a ghost town.  So I cut my time in half, got on the train and headed back to the big city. Here's a self-portrait as proof.