Garret Phipps – Civil Engineering
Calcio, the beautiful game – perfectly imperfect in its tactical brilliance and athletic mastery, yet also so prevalent in everyday life here in Florence. The city bleeds viola, and I can’t help but be a part of it! Outside the classroom, this has to be the most interesting aspect of Italian culture.
If you can’t tell, I’m a huge soccer fan; especially with the lesser quality of American soccer, fans often look to Europe – Spain, England, Italy, Germany, and France – for their fandom. Since accepted to this program, I’ve watched every ACF Fiorentina match virtually and, I have to say, the football culture of Florence has grown on me. Much like the city itself, a history of drama, questionable financial decisions, and cult heroes color the past of Fiorentina, resulting in one of the most historic athletic organizations in all of Italy. Today, the squad is mid-tier, qualifying for the smallest of European tournaments, placing mid-table, and having its players poached by larger clubs. Smaller, more historic clubs have always attracted me more than larger, money-driven organizations.
Much like American sports teams, cities find great identity in their teams and love following the dramatic stories, epic comebacks, and symbolic heroes that come with them. Much like the Pittsburgh Steelers, residents find their players to be symbolic of the values of their home city and, when outside of their own city, often represent their regional identity with the crest of their local team. Last weekend in Rome, we even visited an entirely Pittsburgh-themed bar, with Steelers helmets and banners covering the wall and even an IC Light tap. Irony aside, the bar was filled with visitors from western Pennsylvania, all connecting through this fierce nationalistic pride that comes with coming from Pittsburgh.
However similar, there are several differences I’ve noticed since living in Florence on the nature of sports fandom. Firstly, fans more often follow players in America rather than teams. In sports like the NBA, you find many more LeBron James fans than Cavaliers fans, Steph Curry fans than Warriors fans, and Michael Jordan fans than Bulls fans. The nature of the game of basketball is much more individualistic and star-driven than the beautiful game; naturally, the game then becomes a face-off of the biggest and brightest stars rather than the biggest and brightest teams, and fans then follow these players much more closely. Don’t get me wrong, Europeans love their heroes and stars, but this is almost always in the context of loyalty and respect to the city rather than the story of the player himself. For example, in the image above, I’m wearing the jersey of Gabriel Batistuta, nicknamed Batigol for his goal-scoring, who is revered as a messiah to Florentine football for his loyalty to the Viola after the team was relegated. Rather than moving onto a bigger and better club, he remained with the club through its dark period of losing and led the team into their golden era. However, respected for his loyalty to the city of Florence, after he left for Roma, no Florentines jumped ship for Roma; they remained steadfast in their support for their own city, continuing their support for the Viola. When Michael Jordan retired for his final time, on the other hand, the Chicago Bulls struggled to pull in fans due to the lack of star power.
I think this reveals an element about Italian culture that is often overlooked as different from the US; Italians have a militaristic pride of where they come from, and respect loyalty to their home much higher than Americans. Americans, with their fast and busy lives, are quick to reject their American-ness and see sports as a spectacle, a drama of characters and plotlines to follow instead of having a war-like following of their regional identity.
Swanson School of Engineering 