It was a Tuesday.
A day of tennis in Modena Italy
On a Tuesday I got a call from my friend Monica from Modena. She said “Susie I need you to play tennis on Saturday in Modena”. It is a double tournament and I need you to come! She assured me that it would be great fun two hours of tennis in the morning, lunch, two hours of tennis in the afternoon, and then a meal with the group.
Little did I understand what this really meant at the time I said “YES”!
I planned my trip, leaving from Marradi on Friday late afternoon arriving by train in Modena.
Stepping off the train in Modena tennis gear in hand, Oh and a cooler full of frozen bottles of ice. This became a big joke as Italians never, I mean never, use ice on hot days to cool off. Me however being the American that I am I had a huge bag of ice. Monica helped me but laughed while carrying the cooler of ice bottles. Shaking her head and laughing at my American ice she assured me that she had room in the freezer for my ice.
After a short trip to her small town outside of Modena, we decided to go back to Modena to the festival of Music. All the small squares and parks in town had live music of all different kinds. It was a wonderful atmosphere. I can compare it to a state fair with food vendors, kids running, parents enjoying the music, the community coming together.
Knowing we had to play tennis the next morning at 8am we decided to only have one bottle of Lambrusco accompanied by these wonderful fried sandwiches filled with all types of different meat and cheese typical snack of the area. It was hard not to stay and enjoy the night of music, but we managed to make it home at midnight!
Saturday the day of the tournament, I woke ready to go with my tennis bag and cooler of ice! As we get closer to the tennis courts I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. How will this go? Who will I be playing with? Will I understand what is going on? The nerves set in!!! Oh NO!!! What am I doing?
Once we arrived at the courts I find out that Monica and I are the only girls besides the female tennis pro! What? 15 some men, Monica and I??? Now I am really feeling the pressure! It was two hours of play in the morning and two hours of play in the afternoon. The first two hours in the morning was some of the worst tennis I have ever played in my life (this is no joke).
To my surprise we played on covered courts that where cement and some rubber covering. It was not the beautiful clay courts that I have grown accustom to here in Italy. My tennis game was so off the ball moved so fast on the surface that I was lost. My tennis friends will understand what I mean here.
I made it through the disaster of a morning and we moved on to lunch as a group. Food was fresh and wonderful serviced by the restaurant/bar located on the grounds of the sport club. Everyone got a chance to relax and get to know one another. By the time the afternoon tennis started I was feeling a bit better and knowing the “feel” of the court better I put on my game face and sucked it up. The afternoon was much better tennis, plus a ton of fun joking laughing and yes winning!
With tennis being completed we move into the supper and party phase of the day. It was a night filled with laughing, eating, and drinking. It is not possible to put into words the wonderful warm welcome I received from the whole group of people that earlier in the day I did not know but by the end of the night we are all friends.
We had one of the young tennis players serenade us with his musical talent. We all got the medals and trophies during the presentation of awards. Food was never ending as well as the Lambrusco. This will be a day of tennis I will not forget soon. It was understood that sometime someway we would all play tennis again together.
I am thankful for my Italian adventures and all the tennis friends I have all over the world. I would recommend if you do not play tennis that you should get a racquet and start swinging. The next thing you know you could be in Modena Italy playing tennis, eating great Italian food, drinking great Italian wine, and making new Italian tennis friends.
Thank you Monica for the invite I will remember this day of tennis in Modena as one of the highlights.
