More of the Festivale

The delights of the Festival of San Giovanni continued until this morning. We missed the performance by the children because it started an hour early (!!) The EUFA (European Union Football Assoc. ) 2012 game between Italy and England started at 8:30 pushing the children up an hour. The band was pushed back to the early hour of 11pm.

My friend, Olga and her friend at the soccer match.

The Komoda bar had set up a projector in the piazza and projected the game on to the wall of a building. As the evening progressed more and more people came to watch the game, have a drink and talk to friends. It was an expressive crowd made more so by the many goals Italy attempted and missed. Italy had dozens of attempts and England maybe only 3 or 4. During the half, a replay of Italy’s attempts were shown. The despair at watching these was equal to or greater than the original broadcast. The English goalie was the most valuable player. He had to withstand multiple attacks with multiple shots within an attack. He saved England from a rout. In the end it came to each team picking five players to attempt a shot. England and Italy were successful in their first attempts at the goal. Then Italy missed the shot. Great was the devastation in the piazza. MA NO!! England missed their shot, Italy scored again, England scored again and all that stood between defeat and victory was the Italian goalie.  England shot. The Italian goalie caught their last endeavor. Outrageous uproar! Children were lifted high above their father’s heads. People cheered, “Bravo” and “Viva Italia!” It was a great night to have been a part of. People made sure we had chairs, that children did not stand in our way and several tried to engage us in our limited conversation. We had a gelato, our only meal after that lunch. Next, Italy plays Germany. I am informed this will be a harder game.

With victory uppermost in their minds, some people headed up to the large piazza to listen to the band and others stayed below to rehash the victory. After enjoying the air of victory we sauntered up to the large piazza. Amazingly cars were still trying to use this road. I don’t think it is of necessity, but rather a chance to be seen. Upon reaching the piazza we were delighted (too much Jane Austin) by the sight of a dozen really old people, about my age, dancing in sync to the music. I thought my face would split from smiling. Some young girl scouts tried to jump in, but they were not in the oldies grove. They were tolerated along the edges, but basically ignored. When the polka started up we were even more amazed. There weren’t many couples, but each pair made it look easy. Backwards in heels on cobble stones!

We got home about 11:30 having walked the ten minutes from the piazza followed by the sounds of electric guitars and the accordion.