The Beautiful Game in Palermo
While in Palermo - worrying about my own football team's prospects this season - I idly checked whether the football season in Italy had started, and found that on our last weekend Palermo were playing their opening fixture of the new season.
In England it can be impossible to buy tickets unless you are a season ticket holder, but it seemed we might have a chance, so one morning Angie and I caught the bus up to the stadium to ask.
They were really helpful, but it took a long time because over here you need ID such as a passport to buy a ticket. We found out later there was a good reason. It stops tickets falling into the grasping hands of criminal organisations who might make money reselling them. Also they charge you 2 Euros less if you are a woman (or 2 Euros more if you aren't, I suppose).
So we grasped our lovely Italian tickets in our paws and waited to see what Saturday night was like. And it was absolutely wonderful! The first thing we notice when we tipped off our bus about half a mile from the ground and walked towards it was how sociable everyone was. There were loads of stalls selling good-looking and good-smelling food (no hotdogs here) and there was plenty of beer (and even inside the ground!). And as it was the first game, old friends were seeing other old friends and going up to them and planting a kiss on each cheek. Italian football eh?
And, apart from the game, the other thing we were really keen to see was how the 'Ultras' in the ground behave. These are the most fanatical fans in the big curved stand behind one of the goals. There were probably ten thousand fans in there and the ones right in the centre are the real Ultras. I will show you a bit of how they look and sound in this video:
And here is how the squad is announced:
NB, the announcer gives the first name and the entire stadium shouts the surname!
It was very lively and joyful. The Ultras kept up co-ordinated singing, drumming and flag-waving the whole game through. We did meet one man on the way home who seemed to have lost his voice and his shirt, so I suspect he was an Ultra.
And luckily, Palermo won 2-1 so everyone went home happy.
A couple of days earlier we had come across a clubhouse from one of the Ultra groups (the CNI or 'Curva Nord Inferiore', which you will be able to work out means the lower tier of the North Curve). We at first noticed some lovely murals, then realised they had a pattern, and that the steel doors were actually the entrance to the CNI clubhouse.
In the last picture it is useful to know that the emblem of Palermo FC is an eagle and that of their biggest rivals, Catania, is an elephant.
And then, to complete our weekend, we went up to the clubhouse on Sunday to see if they would sell us any merchandise. And I have to say they were very friendly, especially when it became clear that we supported teams from other countries and not from anywhere else in Italy (or, heaven forfend, Sicily).
And so they were happy to sell us the two lovely T-shirts below, whose logo translates as 'Sons of Palermo'. And they were also happy to sell us two nice cold Morettis. So my view of Italian football has been very much burnished by our experiences, and I will make sure I get to the ground next time in time to try some of that food.
"Forza Palermo!"
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