Men's Basketball Italy Trip Diary - DAY 3 - Providence College Athletics

Aug. 20, 2002

*Note - Assistant Coach Bob Walsh will chronicle the team's trip through Italy. His reports will be posted regulary on www.friars.com. Reports on all the team's game action also will be available on www.friars.com.

Italy - Day 3 - Milan

We had a full day today to go sightseeing in Milan. After a morning breakfast (the guys are getting a little tired of Cocoa Pebbles), our host set up a tour guide for us. He met us downtown and took us through the city for about an hour and a half to learn a little bit about the history of the city.

We started out at the Castle Szforeseca outside of downtown Milan, a castle that was built in the 1300s. It is amazing the amount of time and effort that went in to the building of these structures. Our guys were pretty taken aback by the size of the building and the way the castle was used to protect the regime. There were huge moats around the castle, and they showed us underground tunnels that were used to sneak behind the assailants after they had made it across the moats to take them down while they were climbing the castle.

It is great to see our guys experiencing a completely different culture. Most of the people in Milan were staring at our players wondering where they must come from. Chris Anrin kept talking about how all of this information was stuff that he had already studied in Civ class. The castle included some original sculptures of Michelangelo, and it was great to see Abdul, Kareem and Leland snapping pictures of ancient sculptures that until today they had never heard of.

We also visited the Duomo Cathedral, which is the third largest catholic cathedral in the world. Everyone was amazed at the size and the structure of the Cathedral. I can't imagine how long it would take to build something like this. Everywhere you turned there were sculptures, statues and stained glass set under a gothic style roof that had to be at least 1000 feet high. It really is an amazing structure.

After giving our guys some time on there own to stroll around Milan after lunch, we got back together to visit the Last Supper. We got to see the original famous painting by Da Vinci set on a brick wall of an old Dominican building. It was incredible to see one of the most famous paintings in history right in front of you on the original wall it was painted on. It really is a breathtaking sight. A few of our guys noted that it The Last Supper was actually painted on a wall in a building that housed Dominican Priests. Our tour guide told us that it was the Dominicans that decided to put a door into the wall where the painting sat, and that doorway removed some of the original painting.

It was a fun experience for all of our guys. They have not had too many days off on road trips like this one. Coach wants to make sure they get the most out of this experience, and everyone was very impressed with what we got to see today.

Tomorrow it is back to basketball. We play one of the local teams in Varese tomorrow at 6:00 and it will feel good to get back on the basketball court.

Go Friars!

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Nebraska on November 7, 2026 at TBA

Providence College Athletics

Men's Basketball Italy Trip Diary - DAY 3

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