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March 13, 2009

Ashley Weinhold Travels to Italy!

Buongiorno!

I’m on another European adventure, this time in Italy and by myself. I will be playing 4 tournaments total and all on red clay once again. My 1st tournament will be a $10k in Rome-Pomezia, the 2nd is another $10k in Latina-Nascosa, the 3rd is a $50k in Latina, and the 4th is a $220,000 WTA Event in Barcelona, Spain. There’s a slight chance I may play a tournament or two in Belgium somewhere along the line. I won’t know for sure until I see the entry/acceptance lists in the coming weeks.

I departed Austin Wednesday afternoon and landed in Rome on Thursday afternoon. I had a layover in Atlanta and Paris on the way here. For some reason the Paris airport was a bit confusing getting from one terminal to another, but I had plenty of time since my layover was 2 ½ hours. I had one of my favorite things there as well which is a chocolate croissant and cappuccino. The real adventure began when I landed in Rome and there is no way I could have made up this story or imagined it would be this difficult to get to my hotel. After I exchanged my money and thankfully got all of my luggage I checked with a taxi how much it would cost to get to my hotel. He told me about 60-70 euros which is quite a lot so I decided to take a different route. I dragged my bags to the Leonardo Express train which is located across the way from the airport. I stood in line for awhile to buy my ticket to Roma Termini and got on the next scheduled train. It took about 35 minutes to get to Termini station and from there I had no idea where to go. I asked a couple people and they all told me to take another train to Nettuno and get off at the 2nd stop which is Pomezia. So I bought that train ticket and somehow managed to find the train among the many other platforms. I took a seat close to the doors so it would be relatively easy to get off the train with all my bags. I waited for the train to leave which took about 20 more minutes than the time I was told the train left. I guess they wanted to fill it up completely which was definitely accomplished. My train stop was about 24km away and I could have sworn it was going back the same direction I just came from the airport. I guess I had to go to Roma Termini because there were no direct routes to where I was going, similar to connecting at Grand Central Station in NYC. Once I got off that train I felt totally lost because there were only a few people around and it looked like I was in a neighborhood. I found a lady who spoke pretty good English and she told me to take the public bus and just tell the driver I need to get to Hotel Selene which is where I’m staying. So I did that and I got off the bus about 20 minutes down the road. From there I dragged my bags through a little town and down a hill where I saw Hotel Selene from a distance. I had to cross a crazy busy intersection with no pedestrian walkway, I was just praying a car wouldn’t hit me! Then I walked under a highway bridge, crossed another intersection and arrived at the hotel, sweating and out of breath. I walked into the lobby and the guy at the front desk told me I was at the wrong hotel, I laughed and thought he was joking! Supposedly there are two Hotel Selene’s and the tennis players are staying at the “Sporting” one which is about ½ mile away. Luckily the concierge drove me to the correct Hotel Selene. I checked in successfully, got to my room, and sat down in amazement and relief. Now tell me nobody could have made that story up! I’m pretty sure I made it as difficult as possible and I highly doubt anyone else came that way or else they’d be insane. After all that it only cost me 14euros, but the 60euro taxi ride sounds pretty good right now. That was definitely the hardest travel day I’ve had to date. I’m just glad I made it to the right place safely after 3 hours of confusion and disbelief.

Sorry that was such a long story, but I had to tell it. I wish someone else was with me or I had video camera to record all of that because it was hilarious. For some strange reason I wasn’t that sleepy and didn’t even feel the time change. I only got about 6 hours of sleep on Tuesday night and slept maybe 5 hours total on all 3 of those flights over here. But as soon as I sat on my bed after getting some pizza for dinner across the street I was knocked out. I’ll probably feel the time change a bit more throughout the day today. I’m about to take a taxi over to the tournament site which shouldn’t be too far away. I’m going to ask the first player I see to practice since I don’t know anybody here yet. I’ll fill you in on everything else later. Ciao!

Ashley Weinhold

Posted by Jack Newman at March 13, 2009 11:17 AM