James & Vilija

Last Thursday (yes about a week ago now – sorry for being slack yet again!) we went to our first concert in Italy Once a year in Genova there is a music festival called Goa-Boa, much like the Big Day Out hosted by Triple J, but with a bit of a difference. Goa-Boa is held at a disused steel mill! Also, it only has one stage and is therefore held over three nights, each with a different theme. I’m not quite sure what the theme was for Thursday – loosely alternative I guess, Friday was rap and hip-hop and Saturday was electronica. (more…)

Firstly condolences to Jules, Helmut and all other Germans, we feel your pain!
We passed a number of proud Germans doing the same walk of shame home tonight as we found ourselves doing a week ago.

Tonight we went out to watch ‘la partita’ in Porto Antico with two of our friends. We hadn’t bothered to book anywhere and so were very excited to basically get front row seats for the match in front of a huge projector screen. There was a small, but vocal crowd of patriotic Germans doing their country proud, and a few hundred(?) Italians, as ever armed with flags and loud voices.

The game was intense. We sat enthralled for the first 105 minutes of the game along with everyone else. I felt a little like Switzerland (neutral) in a sea of soccer-heads. At the 119th min when the Italian goal was made ~60,000,000 Italians jumped for joy as did two Aussies, it was hard not to be swept up in their excitement!

As we write this now, we can once again hear the horns of cars tooting the familiar toot of victory (toot, toot… toot, toot, toot… toot, toot, toot, toot… toot, toot). It was a great night, enhanced(?) by the restaurant turning into a discotech playing the same 5 songs over and over (including such classics as ‘Switch’ by Will Smith, and ‘lets get retarded (this party started)’ by the Black Eyed Peas).

With a continued flare for the dramatic (i.e. scoring a goal in the dying seconds) this Sunday’s game should be crazy!

FORZA ITALIA!!!!!!

A couple of weeks ago I went to see an art exhibition by an illustrator named Emmanuel Luzzati, a Genova local. He is most famous for a character named Pulcinella (masked (masquerade) man). The exhibition began with a half an hour film of the Luzzati operas. These operas were cartoons set to operatic music (no actual words used). The first was a love story between two cats, the second was the story of the Turks in Italy, the third was the story of the Italians in Algeria, and the forth was the Birds’ revenge on bird hunters, all very cute, and very funny. I think that now is about the time when I point out the somewhat obvious – Italians are perhaps (;-P) a step behind when it comes to political correctness. The Turkish have a reputation of being lazy here in Italy. Therefore this particular opera was about a lazy Turk who doesn’t want to go to work despite his “old lady” kicking him out of the house. He (Pulcinella) urinates on a statue and the rest of the opera depicts him being chased all over town by the police for this indiscretion. (more…)

Well, this is just a quick post to allow us (read me) to vent my frustrations. For those who have just arrived from the dark distance past and haven’t heard we just lost a sudden-death match in our quest to become the BEST soccer nation in the world.

Vilija and I have just spent the weekend pottering around in Tuscana (a lot more on that to come) and came home early to be able to witness the next victim in our quest. The entire way home all that was said on the radio was “Italia Gioce Australia al 5” (Italia vs. Australia at 5!) This built the tension and Genova was buzzing. We quickly dropped our stuff at home, Vilija got changed into the only Green and Gold clothes she has and then ran into Centro Storico and found a small Piazza that had 4 small cafes scattered around it.

Locating a table close to a 64cm TV, we quickly realised that we were the only two in an ever-increasing crowd to be cheering when Italia missed!! We tired our hardest to make an equal amount of noise for Oz as the competition did for Italia. This resulted in at least one “Calma” directed towards me.

By half time my previous thoughts that we would be thumped were replaced with a quite optimism that we MAY even get through to the next round!!! Whilst Italia were obviously technically superior and molto pericoloso around goal we were holding our own and even managed to have the majority of possession!

With 2 minutes to go, the crowd had grown to over 500 and everyone was on the edge of their seats!!! I kept saying to Vilija, all we need is 1 goal and that’s it!!!!!!! When the referee called, the soon to be infamous, penalty all calamity broke loose!! As time ticked down fingers were tapped against the table and no one dared to breath… As the shot was driven home, 60 million Italians yelled in excitement and Vilija and I shrunk in to our seats and held our heads in our hands.

With it all over in such an anti-climatic fashion we followed the “walk of shame” home to the sounds of trumpets, air horns and people yelling “Forza Italia” (update: and now fireworks…). This I can honestly say was one of the most isolating experiences I have had here. It felt at times like people knew that two despondent Australians were nearby and the result needed to be revisited. “Abbiamo vinto nel ultimo minuto!!!!!”. I did respond once or twice with a token “Ausie Ausie Ausie”.

We are now faced with the interesting quandary, continue to support our new adopted country, or continue to support the country that so cruelly took advantage of fate and kicked us out of the competition we were bound to win!!! Well, if you can’t beat them, join them…… “FORZA ITALIA!!!!!”

For those that watched the game at home, leave a comment below and tell us all about what the feeling was like before and after that penalty!!! Where were YOU when we were robbed?!?!?!?!?!?! (more…)

This week can be fairly easily summed up with by the following;

Summer has arrived, and not to rub it in but it’s hovering around or above 25° everyday
The World Cup has started. The only scores that matter are Australia (1 win – Japan, 1 in progress – Brazil (Update 1: 1-0 Brazil) (Update 2: 2-0 to Brazil )) and Italia (1 win – Ghana, 1 Draw – USA)!

That’s pretty much it… Not really but it is a sign that this week has been a little more mundane than the previous few. Vilija has fitted into Italia like a good pair of Jimmy Choo’s (That’s a VERY expensive shoe brand for the un-initiated ). Though having only received two “Ciao Bella” is a little disappointing. A change of wardrobe in favour of shorter skirts should see that count increase in the near future! (more…)