Tennis!

I've been wondering how I would break into the tennis scene here, that is, if there was one!  I figured, the red clay isn't just reserved for France and Spain.  The Italian Open is one of the biggest non-grand slam events in the world and it's played on red clay.  The question would be, could I find it in a little town called Viterbo??  The answer is definitely yes!  There a couple of places you can play in Viterbo, but you must buy an annual membership.  Then there's a court fee for each time you play.

There are a couple of SYA teachers who play, Santo and Danielle.  When I mentioned I played to Danielle at the Student Welcome Ceremony, he suggested we play at his club, called Club di Rasenna.  So today was the day for tennis!  Club di Rasenna felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, yet it was no more than a 5-10 minute drive from my apartment.  Danielle was telling me afterwards that the club backs up to a prison.  "So if the prisoners try to escape, the first place they'll take refuge is the club," mentions Danielle.  My response to that was, "well I'm sure the club got a good price for the land then!"


(At left) - The club has two covered courts, which is where we played (ours was the one above) and two outside courts, not easily seen in this picture.  It was a beautiful and sunny (not too hot) day out, but I was happy just the same to play on one of the covered courts.  Our court had just been watered, so the clay wasn't as slow as it usually is.  That said, I could tell the difference in how the ball bounced on the red clay verses the hard courts back in the States.  Whereas a topspin ball would ricochet of the surface and kick forward, the red clay catches the ball a bit and keeps it from kicking forward as much.  I would guess this is why the clay surface is considered by most the slowest surface out there.

Danielle and I hit very well together.  We both threw all of our skills at the other with equally good results in returning it.  We had the court for a little over an hour and we worked up a pretty good sweat.  I was serving particularly well today but it didn't matter.  Danielle returned everything I served at him!  It was nice to get out there and play on an authentic European red clay court!

Danielle and I have discovered that there are few tennis players among the student body, so we're hoping to maybe get a few of them out there and have some round-robin fun!

For those who've played tennis with me back in Atlanta, they know I bat the soles of my shoes all of the time with my racket.  While it's only supposed to be done on clay surfaces, it's simply turned into a habit for me regardless of the surface (lol).  Today, I had good reason to bat my shoes, so that the clay would not build up in my treads!

(at left) are the soles of my shoes after Danielle and I had finished playing.  As much as I tried to get it all off, there was still some remnants left.  Oh well!