Morning, Lucca - To combat the long last two days, we decided to have a free morning in Lucca. Majority of the group slept in and ate breakfast at the hotel. After getting up and moving around, most went and explored the City Center a bit more. Whether it was biking the massive City Center Wall, climbing the Torre del Oro, or visiting the grand Cattedrale San Martino, it was a perfect morning to stroll through the historic streets and soak in Italy's smaller city lifestyle.
1:00 pm, just outside of Lucca - We walk to the entrance of the City Center and load up the bus to drive 15 minutes outside of Lucca to eat at Nanno Mariano. It was another amazing FULL course meal (which ended with Italy's famous gelato - literally, it is on ever street corner and in every bar/restaurant), which was accompanied by a spectacular view of the mountains surrounding the Lucca/Pisa region.
5:30 pm, Lucca - The players and coaches load up the bus and head 5 minutes to the nearby Athletic Club Luccette to host a kids basketball clinic for the local youth teams. As we pulled up to the gym, many of the kids and their parents were waiting at the steps to greet us off the bus. In the gym, our players split into four groups for four 10 minute skill-instruction sessions. While they were unable to completely understand our guys, it was amazing to see how the kids were able to follow the basketball instruction. Basketball really has become a global sport and universal language!
7:30 pm, Lucca - We make a quick stop at a modern-looking sandwich shop called La Pasticceria right after the clinic. It is a quick turnaround before we drive to our first scheduled game, so our players brought their game bags on the bus before the clinic. The sandwiches are great, but we learned that European portions are considerably smaller than in the US.
8:30 pm, Altopascio - Our players' first taste of international basketball is a tough one to swallow. With jet-lag still keeping our legs heavy, we drop our first game of the tour 67-84 against a run-and-gun N.B. Altopascio, located 15-20 minutes outside of Lucca. We lead by as much as 10 early on, but fatigue and poor shooting set in very quickly. The atmosphere was enjoyable and the host team was terrific.
