Campioni del mondo!

Shouted and spelled out almost letter by letter... World Champions is all you can hear, read, talk, feel: just be in Italy!

Which I'm not.

Today is the worse day not to be in my homeland where soccer is not a passion for sport but a feature of our culture... where the pride of being Italian eventually comes out to fill squares, to light fire works, to blow horns and to hug strangers!

Instead I'm in Australia.
Well, little Italy wasn't bad... but was too little.

But ehy... Italy won and I'm happy: next time I'll make sure I'm back home for such an event, but meantime I enjoy all I learned in this world cup: the way different people feel about their teams, the way the same thing can appeare so different when feelings and national pride are involved, the way a sport can be so much more.

10th July 2006... It's still the 9th in Italy when the last penalty is shooted and we become World Champions: a day to remember, a day which is already history and will be the end of many stories of sufferring and winning, of love for a sport, of missing home, of being anyway Campioni del Mondo!