Soccer Anyone?

I cannot believe my luck! Here I am, in the capital of Italy, during a World Cup year, while Italy is playing (and quite well, I might add). I am not actually a soccer fan myself, but I love seeing the Italians' enthusiasm. Because let me tell you, these people love their soccer. Last night I was on the street talking to my mom on a payphone during the game. When Italy scored their first goal, I knew it immediately! Of course, everyone was in bars and the like watching it, and the windows are always open...so there was this roar of "Goal!!!!" all up and down the street. Some people came out onto the sidewalk pumping their fists and honking their little horn things and waving Italian flags. And that was just for one goal! I couldn't watch the game, but I knew about all 3 goals (Italy won 3-0 over Ukraine) because of the noise...and then after the game, it was unbelievable. Fireworks were going off outside my window (green, red, and white...plus a little blue for the team's jerseys, I suppose):

And the chorus of car horns was incessant. Italians honk at each other a lot anyway, but this was entirely different. This was a chorus of celebratory honking, with pretty much every car and scooter flying up and down Via Angelo Emo honking all the way, many sporting Italian flags (even the scooter riders somehow managed to hold these huge flags while they drove). You could hear people walking down the sidewalk screaming "Ya!!! Italia!!!" when the cars weren't drowning them out. And this celebration went on for at least 2 hours after the game was over! I can't imagine what these people will come up with if Italy wins the cup. I really hope they do, so I can be here to see the fun. (As a side note, I ought to mention that none of these crazy celebrating Italians was drunk. Italians have a very, very strong social taboo against being drunk...ever, in any situation. You never get drunk. It's just not acceptable. This is why they have no drinking age or any drunk driving laws to speak of. Social pressure takes care of the issue. So the craziness...it's completely unaffected by alcohol.) Go Italia!!