![\"soccer](\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/calcio-400x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nJust in case the rest of the world outside of Italy hasn’t realized it yet: calcio<\/i> season has begun! \u00a0Italians are famously crazy for soccer, the way Japanese go nuts for bizarre game shows or the way Germans enthusiastically embrace the musical talents of David Hasselhoff. \u00a0I guess we all have our cultural idiosyncrasies.<\/p>\n
Perhaps nobody in Italy is happier to see the arrival of soccer season this year than the politicians.\u00a0 Now, and for the next nine months, their actions will go largely unnoticed once again while the national discourse addresses more critical issues, such as quality of Totti\u2019s penalty kicks or the questionable morals of the referee\u2019s wife. <\/p>\n
Last year, a friend of mine and I attended a live game at Stadio Olimpico when A.S. Roma took on A.C. Milan.\u00a0 I have been to many sporting events in the U.S., but nothing could have prepared me for that Sunday afternoon last winter.\u00a0 I should have suspected something was different when my friend, who grew up in a small town in Lombardia, insisted that I had to buy the tickets for both of us at a ticket outlet in Rome.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut why?\u201d I asked, \u201cCan\u2019t we just buy them online?\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained, \u201cIt\u2019s possible, yes, but not so easy.\u00a0 Since my family lives near Milan, they won\u2019t let me sit next to you at the game.\u00a0 You will have to buy the tickets for both of us with your American passport, and then we must hope that they don\u2019t look too carefully at my I.D. when we enter the stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s crazy! What are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCrazy?\u00a0 Wait until you see for yourself.\u00a0 Then you\u2019ll understand.\u201d<\/p>\n Once I took my seat, I understood.\u00a0 As for my friend, he wasn\u2019t such a hardcore fan.\u00a0 But the real tifosi<\/i> are absolutely rabid in their support of their respective teams.\u00a0 Consequently, the stadium was sectioned-off with Plexiglas (bulletproof?) partitions to separate the opposing sides.\u00a0 There was only one smallish area reserved for the visiting fans from Milan, and entire sections on either side of them were intentionally kept completely empty, except for the riot police in full combat gear lined up and down both aisles of the steps.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, at the end of the game, the Milan fans were not allowed to leave the grounds until the rest of the stadium was cleared out. \u00a0Only then did the police escort them back to their buses where they were immediately whisked off for the trip back up north.\u00a0 The Carabinieri <\/i>even patrol the train stations on game days, keeping a careful eye on arrivals and departures from the visiting team\u2019s city.<\/p>\n This was a bit shocking to me because it was in sharp contrast to my image of Italy in general.\u00a0 People sometimes ask me if Rome is a safe place to visit.\u00a0 I come from South Florida where rednecks with 8th<\/sup> grade educations carry guns into supermarkets\u2026legally!\u00a0 Rome, dangerous?\u00a0 Ha!\u00a0 To me it feels about as dangerous as a petting zoo.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been in the \u201cworst\u201d areas of the city at 2:00 in the morning and never once felt at risk of anything more treacherous than having my pocket picked.\u00a0 (Which is always<\/i> a risk in Rome, so hide your wallets, sports fans!)\u00a0 Perhaps I\u2019m a bit too cavalier in my attitude, but the truth is in the statistics.\u00a0 Random violent crime is extremely rare in Italy\u2014especially compared to the U.S.<\/p>\n But despite my overall impression of Rome, the soccer game did feel a little dangerous.\u00a0 Indeed, there have been incidents where fans have been injured and even killed.\u00a0 For some reason, fans like to throw objects from the top of the stadium with no regard for the pedestrians below.<\/p>\n Several few years ago, some Inter fans first torched a Vespa and then launched it from the upper deck of San Siro stadium in Milan. Violence aside, one has to wonder: how do you smuggle a good-sized motor vehicle into the upper deck of a sports stadium?\u00a0 That\u2019s some really lax security, if you ask me. Or maybe the fans disassembled it, smuggled the parts in collectively, and then reassembled it on the inside, only to toss it from the balcony at the appropriate moment. Now THAT\u2019S teamwork! Forza Inter<\/i>!<\/p>\n![\"Stadio](\"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/cal2-400x300.jpg\")