During my time in Bologna I was lucky enough to get put in contact with a club basketball team through a former student who had studied abroad in Bologna as well. This turned out to be one of the most important experiences of my entire year abroad and I was able to make friends with whom I still speak on a regular basis. Although Italy’s first love may be soccer, the city of Bologna is one of the country’s best basketball cities and even though it was an amateur league, the quality of play was pretty high. Since most of the clubs were based in distinct neighborhoods in the city and small towns surrounding, the games also tended to be intense as civic pride and bragging rights were often on the line. Even though a couple of players of the team spoke some English, the coach made it known they were to only speak to me in Italian so I would learn faster and be better able to communicate on the court. This definitely made for some frustrating plays at the beginning as we didn’t really cover the basic vocab of basketball terms in my Italian language classes, but within a short time I saw my Italian skills improving quickly as a I became more comfortable using the language in a casual setting outside the classroom. Being on the team also gave me a chance to travel to some of the outer suburbs and smaller towns outside of Bologna that definitely wouldn’t appear on any tourist website. Finding my way to the various gyms where we would practice during the week made sure I learned the bus system and geography of the city well. While playing a different style of basketball was definitely a great deal of fun, the most important experiences, however, came off the court at the various social gatherings with the rest of the team. Even after the season ended, I kept in contact with some of my teammates the entire time I was in Bologna and kept playing at various outside courts around the city when the weather got nice. I would definitely suggest to anyone interested in playing sports while abroad in Bologna to do so whether it’s through a club, an Erasmus or a UniBo program. Or you could just go to any park or basketball court and chat with whoever is there. It can always open up new experiences during your time in the city!