Pools: Riviera Ligure

This is the first post in a planned series. I’ve tried to take pictures of every pool I have played in in Europe. Most recently I traveled with the team in Florence, N.G.M. Firenze, to Rapallo on the Ligurian coast (south of Genova). There we played two games, the first against Plebiscito Padova and the second against ASD Rapallo. Although Rapallo has many players from the Italian national team and won the league last year, we played better against them. It is possible that we were finally warm, and/or it was because they were missing their starting goalie.

As for the other pools, in 2009 I helped coach/tagged along on on a high school boys’ water polo trip, where we played at Camogli. At that time Rari Nantes Camogli was in the A2 division and was coached by Ricardo Azevedo. We also visited the pool at Recco, which is home to one of the best men’s team ever, Pro Recco. They have won the Italian League twenty seven times and the LEN cup seven. On our way to Florence, we hiked the first part of Cinque Terre, Monterosso al Mare to Vernazza. In Vernazza, we played an informal game against their local club in the waters of the harbor.

Later in 2009, I spent a week in Nervi (ASD Sportiva Nervi) training with their team. At that time they were coached by Massimiliano Ferretti, who won a gold medal in the ’92 Olympics in Barcelona. Last year I traveled to Bogliasco to tryout with Rari Nantes Bogliasco.

There are, of course, other pools and teams in the area. These include Savona, Sori, and Imperia. Always more places to go and pools to play in!