Serie A soccer

We’ve now been to TWO Serie A (premier league) games in less than a week (and we’re hoping to go to Juventus – Fiorentina next Saturday). ‘Our’ side, Fiorentina (Florence), also known as Viola because of their purple colours, is an exciting, flamboyant team to watch and are probably better than their current 10th place on the ladder suggests (they also play in the EUFA championships). Games are relatively cheap to attend here (65 euros for a family of 4), easy to get to by train, and brimming with atmosphere, passion, sound and....smoke (cigarette smoke!). Watching live sport here is quite different to Oz. Firstly, your ticket has your name on and you have to provide photo ID to get into the stadium (for security reasons). Drinks are affordable but served in paper cups not plastic bottles – as full bottles could be used as projectiles! It’s all about security. Opposition spectators arrive by bus with Police escort (we actually saw this). They all sit together, behind glass, with rows of security people on either side. And then, when they score they swear at us and when we score, we swear at them. Good fun for the whole family! Here’s Tom’s take: “I find the soccer here fantastic. The fans are so passionate when their team makes a mistake they scream at their own player and when the Ref makes a mistake the fans swear at him. The opposition supporters have to be in a cage of their own so there is no violence between the fans. Robbie and I each have our own Fiorentina shirts. We are trying to get mum and dad to buy one each!”