If you were there

Below an email I got from a Kiwi friend of mine, Sunita, who happened to be in Italy for an historical moment of our country. This email gave my goosebumps: thanks, Sunita!

Hi, yeah we were a couple of hours out of Rome in Bolsena near a beautiful lake.
I'll start from the beginning...

On our first night in italy we had hired a car in Milan and drove along the coast to Genova.
got terribly lost and were driving around the streets for hours and hours looking for a hostel.
This was the same night Italy were playing Germany.
As soon as the game finished the town came alive... not much fun when we didnt know what fricken direciton to drive in.
There were cars everywhere, honking horns, letting of crackers and leaning out their car windows flying flags. We could hardly hear each other speaking.
it was a cool night and we were a bit gutted we missed the game. we never did manage to find a hostel that night and slept in the car.

About a week later it was the final. Bolsena is pretty small but we went down the town centre where they put up a huge screen in the square. The whole town seemed to be out watching...even a 90 yr old granma in a wheelchair and oxygen mask who started singing the national anthem when the game started.
it was the best atmoshphere ive ever being in... everyone was shouting wildly, cursing (i think) and just having the best time. it wasnt quite the same when we didnt know what they were saying.
Once the game was over everyone again piled into their cars and started doing laps of the town centre. this time there were cars, trucks, scooters and even a tractors driving around honking their horns, singing the anthem and flying flags. we went out and watched and took photos till about 1am.
Once they were done with the driving around they started pouring buckets of water at each other... time for us to go home at that point.

We got to Rome the day of the parade around capitol square. unfortunately we missed it but saw it on tv. It looked mad!
Since the final everyone on the metro has been humming the national anthem... sounds similar to that white stripes song. Very funny!

Anyhow... im sure thats enough detail for you... hopefully i didnt bore you with it.
Italy has been really cool... you have a great country and the people fantastic. Maybe except those at train stations in rome. ha
Would love to work in tuscany some day... maybe I'll have to learn italian.
I was annoyed with myself for not learing more italian words off you...i remember bwon journo though.

anyway better dash. Hope everything is going well in sydney.

ciao

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!

...

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060704/1/8km5.html

When Soccer meets Cultures: he's expect to recover in a few minutes!

"Italy-Germany: 4-3". Well, actually the game has to be played yet. In fact Italy vs. Germany is the first semifinal of the soccer world cup.

But it's not about soccer... not anymore. "Italy-Germany: 4-3" was a memorable match played in the semifinal of the world cup in 1970. And when I say memorable I really mean it, if you consider I was born only 9 years later. It's not just an unforgettable story of soccer: in fact Italy will lose the final with Brazil. But I believe behind that game there is a spirit, a sum of emotions, a culture that make Italy the country it is: loud, passionate, at times proud... "Italy-Germany: 4-3" is now an expression in the Italian language, an expression that goes over the soccer vocabulary: it means the ability of coming back, never giving up. It means something big, a great achievement...

Well, that semifinal eventually didn't bring much luck to Italy, and that's why rather then mentioning this event, Italians prefer to stick to a bit more recent and lucky fact: the previous world cup match between the two teams happened when i was 3 years old: final of the world cup in Spain, 1982, when Italy won 3-1... Therefore the word revenge may be used by the press, teams and peoples of both sides... one side with hope, the other with fear!

What makes me reflect a lot is how a different point of view can change things: Germans have no clue of the meaning "Italy-Germany: 4-3" has for Italians.

Yeah, well... soccer, as most of the things in life probably, is so much influenced by your point of view.
Italy has recently beaten Australia in the Round of 16th. How?! A penalty... when? The very last 5 seconds of the game!
Who played better?! Was the penalty deserved?!.. Well, who do you wanna ask?!

Never in my life I have been told "you are so brave" so many times in such a short timeframe: entering the Australian pub in Bondi a few minutes before the match, waving high my small flag and singing loud the Italian national anthem gave almost everyone the opportunity to spot their target: me!

I tell you, it's much more than just soccer: Australian are extremely friendly people, no doubt... and I never felt in danger... oh well, I did, but I also knew someone would have helped me!!
Here it's a matter of national pride: the Australian team getting out the world cup so badly and with so much passionate the team and the people had put into this world cup.

But... I'm Italian: what would you do?! In a sport competition nothing can get better than your team beating your host's team: no matter how much I like Australia and Australians, and that's a good deal, but my roots, my culture, my everything is 100% Italians.

On top of that add the fact (yes, is pretty much a fact!) that I can be one of the most annoying person you can meet when it comes to such kind of situation.
To make a long story short: I enjoyed that night, hugging strangers and arguing with them... I enjoyed to be back in the office and start receiving (i still wonder if it will ever finish) photos, PowerPoints, jokes, comments of any kind about the way Italy eventually won the game with Australia...

Would I do it again?!
Thursday morning 5am is Germany-Italy... what a better place to watch it than the famous German pub in Sydney: full of people, among whom I do not expect many Australians!!

Soccer and cultures, what a great mix... I'm enjoying it so much!

In the belief that self-irony really is a good quality, let me be fair to my Australian mates and share this joke I found hilarious:
"An Australian man has been arrested in Italy for an assault on a local man after the World Cup Soccer Match between Australia and Italy.
Witnesses say that the Australian was 20 metres away when the incident happened.
The victim suffered a fractured skull, a cardiac arrest and has developed diabetes as a result of the attack.
He is expected to recover in a few minutes."