Alessandro and I have been watching the Olimpiadi (Olympics) almost religiously every day at lunch since they began. It's interesting to watch the Olimpiadi in Italy because I have been exposed to sports that the Americans seem to focus on less. This is the first time that I have watched scherma (fencing) especially fioretto (foil) and spada (sword/epee), which I now appreciate much more now. When I watched the Olimpiadi in the US, I watched more swimming and gymnastics.
The sports that I hope the US wins are the ones that they are strongest in like athletics, swimming, gymnastics, pallavolo (volleyball), and basketball. For Italy, I especially hope they win in scherma and calcio (soccer). Although I know they're also incredibly good at pallavolo.
I have cheered on the Italian participants and been so happy when they received their medaglie (medals). Although when Italy lost the partita di calcio (soccer match), I was very disappointed.
Most of the time Alessandro and I are rooting for the same team except when the women were playing pallavolo. Every time I'd say, "Stiamo vincendo! (We're winning!)" He'd tell me, "Chi siamo noi...è la tua squadra, non la mia! (Who are we...it's your team, not mine!)"
One of my favorite moments was when the three American athletes stood on the three podiums for the 400m and the American national anthem played. Even Alessandro had a smile on his face. We'll both be sad when the Olimpiadi are over, but we'll finally get some sleep as we woke up a few times at 3am to watch a competition we were interested in.
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