Football Italiano!

I'm sure some of you already know about this because I was so excited about it, but last week the Italian National soccer team came to play in Siena against South Africa. As soon as I heard about it, all of my friends and I bought tickets. The game was amazing. The line-up was obviously different, but this was the Italian team that WON the World Cup last year. The team had never played in Siena because the stadium in Siena is relatively small, but for some lucky reason, they decided to play here. They beat the South African team 2-0 and we sat directly behind the goal where both goals were scored. It was freezing cold, but the crowd was roudy, the beer was cheap, and Italia played a great game. And (I think this is almost as cool as the game) one of my Italian host brothers got to be out on the field carrying the flag, leading the Italian players onto the field. He is 9 and is on the Siena soccer team, so he was chosen to be on the field. He was stoked and did a great job holding the flag. I realized I never posted pictures of my Italian family, so I added a few: one with my little Italian brothers, Federico (9), Edoardo(7), Francesco (3) and one with my host father, Giacomo. Carmen is the mom, but she wasn't there when we took the pictures.

Anyway, so possibly more exciting than the game was what I got to do the day before the game. (drum role....) I got to see the World Cup. The actual gold trophy cup the Italian team won last year. It was incredible! It was in Siena for two days prior to the soccer game. There were two guards next to it and a picture of the Italian team receiving the trophy behind it and I got to stand 3 feet away from it! (Maybe I'm a little over-excited, but how many people actually get to see that?!) Italians are so proud of their soccer and it's really cool to be here during this time that there is so much Italian nationalism. So of course I added a picture of the cup =)