Geared in my burgundy and orange Roma t-shirt, the three of us and two undergrads ventured over to the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday night to experience the intensity of Italian calcio firsthand. When we first got off the bus, we were surprised to see no one, I mean no one, outside the stadium. It was like a ghost town with evidence of lots of heavy drinking left behind (including plastic shot bottles of espresso, which I found to be hilarious). We quickly realized that Italians must do their pregaming well before the actual game because they were all seated at the least 30 minutes before kickoff, when we arrived. I was impressed...until we got to our seats...or what we thought were our seats. Two men were sitting in two of our three seats. After showing him that we had tickets for those seats, he started explaining himself to me in Italian, which I of course did not understand a lick of until the man behind us translated. "He doesn't want to move because he has sat in these seats all season." I've never seen such superstition before, but because Roma is number one, the man did not want to chance his luck by moving seats. After looking around, seeing no other seats, being offered the lap of the superstitious man, and feeling a little scared of these fanatics, Robert, Huaxia, and I crammed our butts into two seats. Good thing there were no arm rests and Huaxia is super tiny. We managed fine the first half, but it wasn't comfortable, so at halftime Huaxia started standing/sitting in the aisle, and then Roma scored two beautiful goals. When she decided to move back and sit with us, the man sitting next to me insisted she stay where she was when they scored, and another couple behind us wanted her next to them because they now thought she was their little good luck charm. A stretch to say the least...but whatever works for them. So, Huaxia ended up standing in the aisle the rest of the game to appease all these crazy people. This was just one of the wild things we experienced at the game.
I am not kidding when I say that these people are Cra-Z. We noticed a whole section of empty seats (we're talking like 1,000 seats) between the Lazio and Roma sections that were guarded on both edges by heavily geared and armed policemen. They were like the freakin swat team or something. Just before the game started, a group of fans started charging the section from both sides and immediately started beating/punching/kicking/etc. each other. The cops, knowing this was about to happen, as it does at every one of these rivalry games, took out their clubs and started decking all these fans and pushing them back into their respective sections. Our translator behind us explained to me that those people buy those tickets just to fight and have no intention of being able to watch the game because they get kicked out immediately. So, yeah, no one sat in those seats the rest of the game.
Throughout this riot, huge bottle rockets, colored smoke-bombs (in the team's respective color: red or blue), and canons were fired off making me worry about not only dying from blunt force, but now pyromaniacs. There were firefighters surrounding the track around the field because people threw fireworks down onto the field, and they had to continuously spray water all over the track to keep it from catching on fire. Seriously...I am not even being dramatic, contrary to my usual story telling.
(Here you can see the glass wall they put up to keep crazy fans from spilling over into the opponent's territory. Look how well it works...)
When Roma finally scored, and then again shortly after, the man in our seats started jumping up, grabbed my head and my glasses and started shaking it. This was actually pretty funny, but I thought the man broke my glasses for a second because he shook my head so hard. It was ridiculous. However, we're friends now, and he wants me to come back to next week's game and sit in the same spot because he thinks I'm good luck. That's a first.
One of the strangest things that happened was as we were walking out of the stadium with all the other Roma fans, a huge swarm of Lazio fans dressed in dark clothes and some wearing black masks started running into the Roma section. All the Roma fans, knowing what the heck was going on started running out of the area quickly. Again, curious, but scared, we all took off running too.
The rest of the night (until at least 2 am), Roma fans drove around the city on their Vespas and Smart Cars honking the horn and chanting the Roma fight songs. It was so cool to see such strong spirit in a team.
The whole night, although scary, was totally awesome and exhilarating. I'm glad I went, and I would do it again, but I think I'll stick to American sports if I have the choice.
The next day, my friend, Jason (you're welcome for the shout out, man) sent me this article.
"ROME (AP) -- Seven fans have been injured, some suffering knife wounds, in clashes between supporters of rival Rome clubs Lazio and AS Roma, news reports said Monday.
Rome-based daily La Repubblica and other reports said three people were stabbed, and one was hospitalized in a serious condition with a throat wound. The reports said four people have been arrested.
Roma beat Lazio 2-1 on Sunday to reclaim the Serie A lead.
Police had to intervene inside the Stadio Olimpico before the match as fans threw firecrackers at each other. Police in riot gear formed a barrier to prevent the supporters from coming into contact with one another at the stadium.
The start of the match was brought forward by two hours due to security concerns.
After the match, fans hurled bottles and stones at each other, some setting trash bins on fire, reports said.
Police in the Italian capital refused to comment pending a press conference later.
When the clubs met in December, the game was suspended for nearly 10 minutes during the first half due to firecrackers exploding in the stands.
In 2004, the derby was stopped three minutes into the second half when a false rumor spread through the stadium that police had killed a boy outside the stadium, sparking riots."
After reading this, I think I’m happy to be alive. GOOOO ROMA!
