Pazza Inter amala

Yesterday I was a soccer fan for a day. It was actually pretty awesome. I was in the Villa after lunch working on my journal/final project for Giuseppe with Faith when we heard someone nearby screaming in Italian. After a little while we determined he was yelling at a TV. Then later we heard sirens and loud pops in the distance. I thought it was an ambulance and maybe gun shots, but then the sirens came closer and eventually up the street we were on. It was actually a long (long!) line of cars all decked out in blue and black, horns and megaphone sirens blaring. Apparently a very popular northern soccer team, called Inter (rival of Milan), had just won some tournament that I would say is equivalent to the Superbowl, and every Inter fan turned out to celebrate.


It was actually pretty cool, there were people hanging out of car windows and waving flags, throwing confetti and such. And of course I was playing tourist and taking pictures while standing on the curb watching with everyone else. I saw Enrico drive by with a few Zona Briganti in the car and waved. Then I made my way home. I guess the sfilata of cars goes back and forth across town a few times, so they passed the house another 1 or 2 times before Enrico and the rest finally stopped and waved for me to get in the car. I got to wave the Italian flag out the window, which was pretty fun. They threw some black and blue Inter scarves at me to help me fit in.




Then right as the procession all parked and made its way up to the Villa to form a crowd it started to rain. I improvised and wrapped one scarf around my head ninja-style to keep my hair less than soaked. Then, with all the spectators left over from some political rally in the square watching us, the crowd started to sing and chant and wave flags. Then they lit off fire crackers. And I mean real heavy duty firecrackers, probably illegal in the States. Every time one went off without me seeing it I screamed like a girl. But that only lasted about 10 minutes, then they drove me back home. Anyways, I’m pretty excited I had the whole soccer-madness experience, especially since I wasn’t in Rome for the Champions League Barcelona-Manchester game. I’ve at least now had a taste.