Ahhlalara ROMA lalaraahh ROMA

Soo that's my attempt at one of the cheers I heard at the AS Roma/Napoli soccer game last Saturday. SO. MUCH. FUN. A group of us wanted to experience the atmosphere of a true futbol match, so last Wednesday, we walked down to a lottery ticket shop, where we bought our tickets. It's interesting how they deal with tickets here. We had to bring passports to get them, our name is printed on the ticket, and then we have to show our passport with the ticket to get into the stadium.

Before we went though, we had a nice barbecue in the garden. It was pretty good, though I missed having some french fries to go with the burgers and hot dogs. Our lovely program director, Franco, helped us out (and by helped I mean he grilled everything) and even arranged a bus to get us there, since, as a Napoli fan, he wanted to go. His daughter, Elisabeta (what a pretty name, eh?) also came, though she was decked out in Roma gear and helped us paint our faces. After a ride to Stadio Olimpico, we were there!

There were street vendors selling knock off scarves and jerseys, so I got a Totti jersey and scarf for 15 euro total, not bad. I think it was because I tried to speak Italian (which was me speaking Spanish).

Anyway, once we got into the stadium, seating was kind of just pick where you want to go, since we got cheap tickets. We were on a curve but the view wasn't bad at all. They didn't play the national anthem, but they DID play the Roma club song, so we got to hold up our scarves and pretend to sing along in Italian. Some shots of the stadium and the crazies...

Unfortunately, Roma lost the game (their first home loss of the season) 2-0, one goal on a PK. The funniest part, though this won't surprise anyone who knows soccer, is that of the 17 or so fouls called, only 3 were legitimate fouls. Ohh Italian soccer :) The PK was definitely questionable...but what can you do? The cheers were also fantastic, though of course, being in Italian, Elisabeta had to explain what they were about. My favorite involved something along the lines of "we will destroy Napoli like Mt Vesuvius did". Niceee. I'd say we won for best cheer.

Alas, after the game, getting back proved to be difficult. Our Franco bus was only one way, and there isn't a direct route to where we live from the stadium. So we took a bus to the Vatican in order to catch a bus home. Too bad said bus is the 870, which NEVER comes. We learned this last week on our art history field trip to the Vatican Museum. Oh well. We walked back. UGH. Usually not bad, but it was after midnight and the walk from the Vatican to Trastevere involves some badass hills. All in all, a solid adventure.