Watching football Italian style
Italy 2 - 1 Germany
That was something that sent the people of Pontinia (and rest of Italy) into wild celebrations last night, here is how a traveling photographer on an evening off witnessed the events.
Having stretched my assignment in Italy one day longer than on normal trips, I was lucky enough to be here for the Italy vs Germany EURO2012 semi-final. And those who have followed my blog know that I was in Greece to see the Greeks win their game against Russia, then in Germany to see Germans beat the Danish, in England to see them beat Ukraine.. so could the winning streak continue in Italy as they met the mighty Germans?? Not many believed it could - even most Italians seemed a little unsure of their chances, but come 8pm on Thursday evening, I headed out of my hotel into the village centre of Pontinia to find out if I could watch the game somewhere.
Pontinia - is probably a town of few thousand people about 70 miles south of Rome. As I walked to the village square, all the roads leading to the square were closed for traffic and as I got to the square.. four large screens had been erected to show the game and the all the pizza places had brought table out to the roads and it seemed that whether you were 9 months or 90 years old.. the whole village was there. I picked up a pizza from the 'usual' place - once again not quite sure what was under all the cheese, but it tasted nice.
By kick-off time the tables were all taken and people was standing around behind them and ready for the game. Few nervy moments to start with, but soon Super-Mario struck twice and people were jumping up and down and hugging friends and strangers. It was a friendly family atmosphere were everyone was having fun - apart from the German couple who stayed at the same hotel and disappeared after the second goal ;-)
Things got a little edgy after the German penalty in the end, but after the final whistle the restaurant workers rushed out and started to pull away the tables. I thought that this was kind of harsh for all the people who were sitting, but it seemed that everyone was moving.. and in few moments the horns started to blare, then the scooters appeared, next came the cars and other vehicles..
Imagine, if you can, a small town square with a fountain in the middle and road going around it - people standing on all sides and cars, scooters... all driving around like mad, honking horns, playing loud music, people hanging out of the windows, standing on the roofs of the cars. Younger fans were jumping into the fountain, throwing water balloons at everyone, people who lived in the houses facing the square took water hoses and started to spray from their high vantage point.. and EVERYONE WAS SMILING!!
This went on for good 45 minutes with no-one wanting to go away - music, flags, water, hugs, shouting.. it was such different way from what I am used to seeing. But it was great to be there to see it - and see how sports brought everyone together. Now, all good things come to an end, and so did this one, when all of a sudden the cars started to leave the square or park .. things went quite for a moment, a single Police (Carabineri) came with ONE car, had a word with one of the cars and that was it. Few whistles as people saw this - but then as soon as the police left.. the cars came back!! And so the party went late on into the night.. I hope the couple of pictures and small video clip give you some idea how the victory was celebrated in Pontinia.. a town that I will always fondly remember when thinking of EURO2012 and football fans in general..