Wake Forest Athletics
Deacs Set for Summer Trip to Italy
6/7/2018 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeWBB)
WINSTON-SALEM – The Wake Forest women's basketball team will embark on a nine-day trip to Italy this August as the team prepares for the upcoming 2018-19 season.
The trip, which features stays in four different cities and visits to 11 different cities, will be highlighted by three exhibition games. Wake Forest will face a pair of Italian All-Star teams, comprised of some of the top club players in the country, and will cap the trip by facing the Italian National Team. For senior Elisa Penna, it will be a return home as the Deacs will make a stop in her hometown of Bergamo.
"It was something that we have been trying to do since we have an international flavor on the team and the administration has been very supportive of allowing us the opportunity," said head coach Jen Hoover. "To have the opportunity to take a team to the country of one of the players on the team is going to be an unbelievable experience. For our freshmen coming in, they will get a lot of experience right off the bat. We get the extra 10 practices leading up to the trip. But, more importantly, we get two weeks together where we are spending time together, getting to know each other off the court and on."
"From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much to all the people who are making this trip possible, it means so much to me," said Penna. "There is no better way to start this last ride with this incredible family who welcomed me when I was just a kid and helped me to become the person and the player I am today."
Wake Forest will depart for Italy on the night of August 11 and will return on August 21.
The Deacs will spend their first three days (Aug. 12-14) in Rome and will have the opportunity to see sights such as the Colosseum, Holy Rome (Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica) and the Pantheon before concluding its Rome leg by facing its first All-Star team on the night of the 14th.
Following a train ride to Florence, located in the region of Tuscany (Aug. 15), the team will get a tour of the city, including the Duomo and Giotto's Bell Tower. The following night (Aug. 16) the Deacs will face their second All-Star opponent in the town of Ponte Buggianese. On August 17, the Deacs will make a quick stop in Bologna before heading to Vicenza.
While in Vicenza on August 18, the Demon Deacons will have the opportunity to take an excursion to Venice before playing in its final game. That night, Wake Forest will take on the Italian Senior National Team, the top players in the country who are set to represent Italy in the 2020 Summer Olympics. Penna, who is the only current college player on the Senior National Team, will get to face her Italian teammates as she will represent the Deacs in the contest.
Wake Forest will wrap up its travel with a quick stop in Verona (Aug. 19) before departing to Bergamo later that day. The Deacs will have the opportunity to host a youth clinic for the local children of Penna's hometown later that day.
"I am so happy and glad I will be able to show to the team where I come from, the country where I grew up," added Penna. "I cannot wait to see how they will interact with a new and different culture. I know they will enjoy it, especially the food!"
On August 20, the Deacs' last day in Italy, the team will spend time exploring Lake Como and the lakefront village of Bellagio before a final farewell dinner.
"I am thrilled that the team will meet my family and my friends, and that I will be able to play in front of them all. Just thinking about it makes me want to be there already," said Penna.
