Sunday, July 09, 2006

E adesso aridatece la Gioconda

I make it to Rome just in time to see the game. In Frankfurt airport, a group of French that was on my plane from London starts singing the Marseillaise while walking to their connection. Sorry, guys.

On our way to the city center after the game, we stop at a newspaper kiosk on via Nomentana. Around midnight, barely an hour after the end of the game, and with the city completely gridlocked, they are selling the Monday edition of the Corriere dello Sport with a chronicle of the match. If only these miracles of logistics and of getting things done with tight deadlines could happen in areas unrelated to football!

The city is in a complete, beautiful chaos. (I'll post some pictures.) About two hundred thousand people had watched the game at Circo Massimo, which is absolutely unreachable by car. There have been so many fireworks in Piazza del Popolo that there is smoke everywhere. Around 2am, throngs of people walk back along the Muro Torto to wherever they parked their cars, while an endless queue of cars and scooters tries to go in the opposite direction and reach the Lungotevere.

Sportsmanship, unfortunately, is not the strong point of the Roman football fan. The most popular choruses shouted in the street are not very classy. And what about the group of guys running around in tighty whities and with "W la fica" written on their chest?

At one point, from one car they start shouting "Forza Italia" ("go, Italy" which is, by the way, the name that Berlusconi chose for his party). From another car they shout back "don't say 'Forza Italia," say 'Forza Roma'."

(The title of this post, and now give us back the Mona Lisa, is from a sign I saw on tv.)

Update: Roberto Calderoli, formerly a minister in Berlusconi's government, commented:
una squadra che ha schierato lombardi, campani, veneti o calabresi, ha vinto contro una squadra che ha perso, immolando per il risultato la propria identità, schierando negri, islamici, comunisti

"A team composed of Lombardi, Campani, Veneti and Calabresi won against a team that has sacrificed its identity and played with negroes, muslims and communists." Eat your heart out, Pat Robertson, we have much, much crazier guys than you in Italy, and they get appointed to the equivalent of cabinet positions.

Update: From YouTube, a video shot in Rome in Piazza Venezia.

18 Comments:

  1. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/09/2006 07:49:00 PM

    Way to go & sweet revenge for the 1998 quarter-finals. Italy's first ever penalty shoot-out win in world cup: I guess it had to happen today by law of averages once it went that far.

     
  2. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/09/2006 09:34:00 PM

    Congratulations! We are looking forward to photographs of the celebrations in Rome.

     
  3. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/10/2006 12:13:00 AM

    Congratulations!

     
  4. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/10/2006 12:45:00 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

     
  5. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/10/2006 01:22:00 AM

    Do NOT click that previous link. Please delete it.

     
  6. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/10/2006 02:49:00 AM

    Luca,

    read this:

    http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldFootballNews&storyID=2006-07-09T221434Z_01_L09458110_RTRIDST_0_SPORT-SOCCER-WORLD-FINAL-ANALYSIS.XML

    :)

     
  7. Blogger Luca
    7/10/2006 06:17:00 AM

    Luca,

    read this:

    http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldFootballNews&storyID=2006-07-09T221434Z_01_L09458110_RTRIDST_0_SPORT-SOCCER-WORLD-FINAL-ANALYSIS.XML

    :)


    Sour grapes!

     
  8. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/10/2006 08:24:00 AM

    Sour grapes!

    While Italy is certainly the legitimate World Cup winner, I think this is because all the other contenders proved themselves unworthy, Not so much because Italy was great. The only Italian performance that to me felt championworthy was their hard fought semifinal against Germany.

     
  9. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/10/2006 11:23:00 AM

    World champions eh? May you all live a million years.

     
  10. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/10/2006 12:41:00 PM

    italian football sucks. they are the worst team to watch. everyone except the italians hate them for their ultra defensive catanesio system.

     
  11. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/10/2006 04:00:00 PM

    they should have lost to the americans. they are better actors than footballers.

     
  12. Blogger al
    7/10/2006 07:06:00 PM

    That video reminds me of what we do back in Venezuela when Italy wins a World Cup Match (on a smaller scale, of course). But then again we do the same when Brazil wins, or when France or, or when Spain wins, or when ...

     
  13. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/11/2006 05:59:00 PM

    "I think the Italians can take solace in knowing that their combination of rugged good looks and victory in the world cup make them, arguably, the most fuckable human beings on the planet."

    - jason jones from the daily show

     
  14. Blogger Luca
    7/12/2006 12:54:00 AM

    It's funny because it's true.

     
  15. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/12/2006 03:06:00 AM

    Calderoli was disappointed because no gay or jewish was in the French team, at least as he knew.

     
  16. Anonymous Anonymous
    7/17/2006 08:51:00 AM

    What about "Noi al Circo Massimo e voi massimo al Circo"? (Not sure how to translate this.) Sometimes the humour of "The Romans" is superfine.

     
  17. Anonymous Anonymous
    8/08/2006 09:58:00 AM

    ehhoohhhohhh materazzi ha fatto goal!!!!!!!!!!!
    i think italy has been the best team this yr and we deserved 2 win this bloody worldcup!!!!

    GO ITALY!!!!!
    FORZA AZZURRI!!!!

     
  18. Anonymous Anonymous
    11/19/2006 12:55:00 PM

    Yeah! go Italy \m/ \m/

     

Post a Comment

<< Home