"We Are the Champions!"

Yes, that's right. The Azzurri (blue guys--it's what they call the soccer team) are now the campioni dil mondo (champions of the world). How fortunate am I? Not only was I here during a world cup year, I was here, in the capital city of Italy, on the night when the Italians won the World Cup! Who cares if I hate soccer? This is something I'll be telling my children and grandchildren for years to come...haha.

I actually experienced the game at a popular local sports bar down next to the river called El Ritual. The place has several different screens, including one really huge one. We weren't able to get there until after the game started (we got caught in traffic on the way back from Tuscany), so by the time we arrived, it was packed. Standing room only. So there we were, jockeying for position, standing the whole time, surrounded by tense smoking Italians (have I mentioned that they smoke like chimneys around here?) who were shouting things at the screen. A lot of it, of course, I couldn't understand, but I did understand the shouts of "Ugh! Brutto!" during close-up face shots of a French player (brutto=ugly). There were some other rather obscene things that didn't need translating either--these I mostly heard after the same French player head-butted one of the Italians, and was a given a red card. Needless to say, that caused a lot of ruckus with my crowd. It was soooo much fun just watching everyone. I wish I had a picture of the group of teenage guys who were shirtless and covered with paint, just like some of our own Red Raiders at football games. Sometimes they, and then the whole crowd, would randomly start screaming "Italia! Italia!" and various other chants. It was great. The end of the game was really exciting, and when the last Italian (whatever his name was) made the last goal, the crowd went CRAZY. Naturally, they'd just won the world championship! We were caught up in the celebration, screaming and hugging and all that kind of thing. It was amazing.

We started walking home pretty quickly after the game ended, because it was late and Claudia had class this morning. As we walked along the road, the Italians started hitting the streets in full force, zooming down the road, waving their flags and honking the whole way. When they passed us (dressed in our Italia t-shirts) they would wave at us and scream "Yaaaa!!!! Italia numero uno!!!!" etc., and we would wave and holler back at them. The buses were miraculously still running, and the bus drivers would honk at us and pump their fists while we waved back. It was incredible. We did that all the way home (it's almost an hour walk) and then, of course, the noise kept going for hours afterward.

I hope you listened to the audio post. The phone only picked up only a fraction of the noise that was actually blaring in the background (because it's a good phone...darn it...), but it can still give you some idea of what it sounded like in Rome after the victory. It was unbelievable!

Time to celebrate! Break out the bandiere italiane!

Oh, those crazy Italians. Believe me, they look way calmer in these pictures than they actually were. Haha it was amazing!


Nancy, me, and Claudia: all smiles after the victory.

But the best part of the Cup win, for me, happened this morning. When I went down to Caffeterià Emo for my cappuccino this morning, everyone was excitedly discussing the victory, pointing to the pictures in the newspaper and so on. I couldn't actually understand anything that they were saying (oh, how I wish I knew more Italian), but I could just feel their excitement and loved it. The bartender there, who speaks no English, is always very nice to me despite my inability to communicate anything beyond what I need and how I'm paying for it. When I paid out and was about to leave, he grabbed a plastic replica of the World Cup trophy that was decorating the counter, held it up to me, and called out (in a very thick accent), "We are the champions!!!" It was a priceless moment that I'll never forget. Grazie, Italia, for letting me share this victory with you.