La Fiorentina vs. Catania/ A Culture Walk

Due tifosi fiorentini

Florence played Catania this Sunday afternoon before 21,000 local fans (in Italian, fans are tifosi), two of them recent arrivals from the land of Otto the Orange. Since we were in the land of La Viola, the color of the Florentine soccer team, we put the orange aside in favor of, as they call it here, viola.

Florence won the match 3 to nil. Catania passed well but Florence’s two offensive stars, Adrian Mutu and Alberto Gilardino, were too much for the Catania defenders. Mutu scored twice in the first half on passes from Gilardino. Gilardino scored once in the second half on a pass from Mutu.

A family of tifosi viola

We spent an afternoon in a concrete stadium, singing and cheering with the Florentines. There was a good turn out of young and old and the fans were sometimes grumpy but never intoxicated since no alcohol is sold in the stadium. Perhaps a weak opponent against a disappointing local team had kept some of the more outspoken fans at home. Except for some occasional colorful language, it was a family-friendly atmosphere.

Florence has not had a good year; Florence is in eleventh place in the twenty team A league. Catania, however, is worse, fourteenth in the same A league. Interestingly, here the bottom four teams in the A league get dropped (or as they say, relegated) to the B league and, correspondingly, the top of the B league teams get promoted to the A league. Catania is staring that possibility, that terrible shame, straight in the face. Florence is not facing that fate but the Florentines are accustomed to a better performance than they’ve seen so far this year.

We attended the game with Sondra, a retired political science professor, who has many connections to our family, too many to begin to go through here. She enjoys the games and  likes to enlarge her considerable knowledge of colloquial vocabulary and usage.

A side note:  We hate to leave the impression that we’re in an artistic jewel of a city and that we’re only yelling at opposing soccer teams. Yes, we are yelling at opposing soccer teams but we’ve also had some pleasant uplifting experiences. 


Today we visited Orsanmichele Church in the center of town. It was a combination church on the ground floor and granary on the upper floors, an expression of Florentine pragmatism. The upper floors are now a museum containing the sculptures done by Florentine masters and placed in niches on the outside on the ground level. The outside niches now contain copies and the originals are out of the elements on the second floor.

Opposite end of the stadium,
reserved for the most serious tifosi

On Saturday we visited Medici Tombs. Michelangelo designed the space, designed the details, and sculpted seven statues. Two of the Medici, Lorenzo and Giuliano, were depicted as the Thoughtful Life and the Active Life respectively. In front of representations of the passage of time. Below Lorenzo and on his tomb are massive reclining figures of Dusk (left) and Dawn (right). Below Giuliano and on his tomb are massive figures of Night (left) and Day (right). Lorenzo and Giuliano face each other across the room and are turned toward a Madonna and Child on the wall between them. 


Seven pieces by Michelangelo in a somber space designed by the artist. It’s a lot to think about.

Mutu passes

But enough of culture. Sunday's soccer game drew a restless crowd. Until the first score there was quite a lot of coaching from the seats. Then people chanted MU TU for the Romanian striker who made the first score. A few minutes later the cheer was repeated when Mutu scored again. We were sitting in one of the ends of the stadium and this action was at the other end, in front of the most rabid Florentine Viola fans who were waving flags, singing, and cheering.

Gilardino scores!

The teams reversed direction for the second half and Mutu repaid Gilardino for his assists in the first half. In a play that developed in what seemed like an instant, Mutu drove to the goal, passed to Gilardino, and Gilardino scored. Somehow I caught the action that took place in front of us.

Is this really a good idea?

As the game closed some of the male spectators at the bottom of our section celebrated  the victory Green Bay-style by waving banners and their shirts. It was a sunny but cool day, a little too cool for a sane person to be testing the air temperature au natural.

At the end of the game Florence moved up to tenth place and Catania fell to sixteenth place. It must have been a quiet ride back to Catania.