Forza Viola!

What are Italians more passionate about than anything? Soccer!

On Wednesday evening, my roommates and I went to a Fiorentina soccer game, Florence’s home team. It wasn’t just any game of calcio either. This was Florence’s biggest game of the year; a game locals have been waiting for. The opponent… Inter Milan, the number three team in the country. Fiorentina, also known as The Viola because of their purple jerseys, are not so high up on the list. The fan base reminds me an awful lot of that of the Washington Redskins. The fans know they are terrible and have no chance of winning, but they remain loyal to the end.

It had rained all day on Wednesday and it showed no signs of stopping. The walk to the stadium was long and wet as I could feel the water start to seep into my shoes. The closer we got, the more fans joined in on the walk. It was so strange going to a game at a stadium and not having to park a car a mile away. The amazing thing was, there was no parking lot at all. Everybody walks to the stadium because Florence is such a compact city. What weren’t any different, were the vendors on the streets selling Viola merchandise. Purple scarves, gloves, hats, jerseys, flags and sweatshirts lined the inside of the vendors’ carts.

As soon as you step into the stadium, you can feel the excitement as the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. A sea of purple surrounds you as people flood into the stands. Chants and songs erupted from the crowd as the players took to the field. Huge plexi-glass walls topped with spikes surrounded both the field and the visitor section to dissuade rioters and rowdy tifosi from causing too much trouble. Inter scored first only five minutes into the game. The comparably small number of Inter fans went nuts! Cheers and insults went back and forth between the two sides. Fiorentina scored about ten minutes later to tie up the game! The crowd went crazy!! Now the pressure was on!

Half time came and went and in the second half, Inter scored again to take the 2-1 lead. After numerous close calls, the Viola couldn’t pull it off. We went home both wet and a little disappointed. It was definitely an amazing experience to go to a European soccer match and experience a vital part of Italian culture.