So we know how it ends. I have to say I have seen both teams play better, especially Italy. But that’s how it goes, and luck was with the Azzurri last night. And Buffon the goalkeeper, of course.
But on to the partying.
The living room of our new apartment faces the cortile, or inner courtyard of our apartment building. The first few times we watched games in our house, I noticed a strange thing. We would cheer for a good play or goal, and a few seconds later, so would our neighbors.
This was a continuous occurence, and finally I spoke with others to understand why: digital television has a few seconds delay behind the analogous one (which we have). Finally, a payoff for those of us too cheap or too poor to pay for digital television!!
I can only imagine how they must have felt hearing us cheer, not knowing what happened and afraid to look away from their own TV, and finally being rewarded a few seconds later.
Here’s a video of a street near my house and all the craziness going on directly after the win:
I didn’t see the bus hijacked by fans in Milan, but I did see an empty tram going full-speed while its driver was on his feet waving an Italian flag out the window with both hands, and this huge truck packed with fans:
There were also some interesting sights out and about after the game – some interesting fans:
And some interesting transportation choices (can you see the Road Runner scene?)
As usual, the entrepreneurs were out – this one was selling a flag for 10 euro (twice the price of before the win) but was throwing in a scarf. Business deals!
This building, which is hard to see here, is about 20-30 stories tall, and they must have practiced this light setting so that they would be ready for the win! It says “Italia” at the top in different colors.
At lunch today, S said that the streets near our house were still full of honking horns and cars flying the flag. We have to take into account that school is out everywhere and summer school doesn’t exist, so there are some people with time on their hands.
I am disappointed that I’m no longer in Rome because we missed the homecoming of the team this afternoon at Circo Massimo. Totti, Sante’s favorite player, says he expects at least 2 million fans to be there. That must be one or two more than were there last night – you have to see the pics of Circo Massimo from last night and tonight – I had been there for a few concerts but the crowd was relatively calm compared to this – over a million fans there tonight!
And in case you didn’t know, the official world cup song, “Time Of Our Lives” was by Il Divo and Toni Braxton (good singers, but the song is no “Cup of Life” by Ricky Martin) but the unofficial song was Po-po-po-po-po-po-po, otherwise known as, the bass line from “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes. If I had a centissimo for every time I heard that song. But it is catchy. :)
Forza Azzurri! Bravi! Ci vediamo in Sud Africa nel 2010!!
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