It had been raining all day today and I was dreading going to the stadio (stadium) this evening for a partita (soccer match). I talked Alessandro and a friend of his into going to the game tonight. I love calcio (soccer) and went to my first partita back in 1984. I, unfortunately, never went to see the Fiorentina before I met Alessandro. And even though he used to have an abbonamento (season ticket), he didn't get one for this season. He's now wishing he did since I'm always up for going to a partita.
Because of the traffic to and from the stadio, we decided to walk there from our apartment. It was sprinkling when we left our house, but when we arrived at the uncovered stadio a half an hour later, it had stopped. We had to bring newspaper with us to place on the narrow, plastic seats because they would be wet from the rain.
During the entire partita not a drop of rain fell. We were able to enjoy an exciting game without getting drenched. I was prepared for the rain thanks to Alessandro's dad who loaned me a heavy rain jacket to wear over my jacket. It wasn't until the last ten minutes that the rain started up again, but by that time we didn't mind it so much.
There is one thing that I learned from going to this partita: if you are not for the Fiorentina team, you do not want to be sitting anywhere else except in the designated area for the opposing team. There were a few people rooting for Milan in front of us and when Milan scored, they jumped up and cheered. I wasn't all that surprised, but did find it odd that almost everyone else around us were seated, swearing, and stomping the ground. But the other fans were on their feet and full of joy.
Numerous people turned to them tell them to shut up in voices that were quite harsh. I hadn't expected anyone to say anything, but the Fiorentina tifosi (fans) around us were insulted that they were among us. Alessandro explained to me afterwards that the other tifosi should've just kept quiet and cheered internally. I definitely understand that if you're surrounded by thousands of tifosi rooting for one team, you might not want to cheer when that team is losing.
We walked back home after the game and had to jump a few barriers to get out of the area around the stadio. I had hoped that my team would win, but there's always another partita next week that I'll be watching on the TV. We might not go to another partita for a while, but if we do, I hope the weather will be nicer.
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