Last Wednesday, I met up with my friend Johan at a bar near the Duomo to watch the Chelsea-Liverpool soccer game. He is really trying to turn me into a tifosa (fan) of calcio (soccer). He doesn't realize that I only go to watch the cute players and enjoy hanging out with people who are so passionate about the game. As I was heading to the bar there was an amazing cloudy sky with rays of sunlight shining directly behind the campanile:
This photo looks really dark on my computer but anyway, it was the kind of sky you would expect to see in a Renaissance painting and the kind that makes you begin to realize why the artists of Italy were so inspired. Here is Johan on the left (from Sweden) and another guy from our school whose name I forgot (from Japan). They both look ridiculous, they wouldn't smile like normal people for me:
Anyway, so we watched the game and I think there was one goal in the whole 90 minutes of play. At bars in Italy you have apertivo where you buy a drink and then you eat all their finger food they have. So it can be relatively economical if you are going to drink anyway, you might as well just go and eat all their food as your dinner and order just one drink. At this particular bar they had some pastas and sliced meats (prosciutto) and cheese along with tomatoes. Not terrible but I had already eaten dinner at home. I had a very un-Italian, strawberry margarita. I forget which one team it was but one of the two teams had some really cute players. I think it was more engaging to watch the game on the huge screen with all the different camera angles because you can actually see the players and understand what is going on. When I went to the game in person, I was more involved with watching the fans because the players were too tiny down on the field. We went to watch another game last night (same guys, same bar, different un-Italian drink: pina colada) and I think that was the end of the semi-finals for the championship league. Johan has explained it me (the sequence of games leading up to the final and the determination of who plays in the championship league) about 100 times but I keep trying to make it harder than it is. My brother can attest to the fact that I am mildly retarded when it comes to understanding sports. Johan says he can understand why I would be confused because in America we play a ton of games and some of them count and some of them don't. Plus, in this championship league, different countries are playing against each other. And we don't really do that all so much in America. We have enough teams of our own, we don't really have to play other countries (plus, I would venture to say that we would assume we are the best anyway...). So last night was the end of the semi-finals (Milan beat Manchester 3-0) so sometime soon Milan will play Liverpool (I think it is...). Being a true tifosa, I will have to watch.
This photo looks really dark on my computer but anyway, it was the kind of sky you would expect to see in a Renaissance painting and the kind that makes you begin to realize why the artists of Italy were so inspired. Here is Johan on the left (from Sweden) and another guy from our school whose name I forgot (from Japan). They both look ridiculous, they wouldn't smile like normal people for me:
Anyway, so we watched the game and I think there was one goal in the whole 90 minutes of play. At bars in Italy you have apertivo where you buy a drink and then you eat all their finger food they have. So it can be relatively economical if you are going to drink anyway, you might as well just go and eat all their food as your dinner and order just one drink. At this particular bar they had some pastas and sliced meats (prosciutto) and cheese along with tomatoes. Not terrible but I had already eaten dinner at home. I had a very un-Italian, strawberry margarita. I forget which one team it was but one of the two teams had some really cute players. I think it was more engaging to watch the game on the huge screen with all the different camera angles because you can actually see the players and understand what is going on. When I went to the game in person, I was more involved with watching the fans because the players were too tiny down on the field. We went to watch another game last night (same guys, same bar, different un-Italian drink: pina colada) and I think that was the end of the semi-finals for the championship league. Johan has explained it me (the sequence of games leading up to the final and the determination of who plays in the championship league) about 100 times but I keep trying to make it harder than it is. My brother can attest to the fact that I am mildly retarded when it comes to understanding sports. Johan says he can understand why I would be confused because in America we play a ton of games and some of them count and some of them don't. Plus, in this championship league, different countries are playing against each other. And we don't really do that all so much in America. We have enough teams of our own, we don't really have to play other countries (plus, I would venture to say that we would assume we are the best anyway...). So last night was the end of the semi-finals (Milan beat Manchester 3-0) so sometime soon Milan will play Liverpool (I think it is...). Being a true tifosa, I will have to watch.
1 comment:
you are a true california girl! margaritas... pina colada.... ha ha.
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