Poor old Sampdoria. After a brilliant second leg of their Champions League qualifier against Werder Bremen, the famous Italian club are today licking their wounds from another failure in Europe’s premier cup competition.
Samp overturned a 3-1 first leg defecit to lead the tie 4-3 last night before a couple of late strikes sent them out.
More’s the pity as I was really excited about back over to Genoa and catching Samp in action, possibly in a Champions League tie.
It’s four years since I last saw an Italian game with Gordo, when we managed to get in the Inter end for the match at Parma.
Between 2000 and 2006 we probably caught at least a dozen games, and saw Samp on a couple of occasions.
The last of which was during a crazy couple of months when we flew over to Italy and back in a day no less than four times just to watch a football match.
Those where the glory days of 2003-2004 before Ryan Air and Easy Jet started adding on surcharges for almost anything. One morning flight to Genoa in January 2004 memorably cost £12 return including taxes and if I recall correctly we counted half a dozen passengers on board.
This was my account of that last Sampdoria game on the road – their trip to Atalanta on November 7, 2004 which I originally wrote for now defunct Italy magazine.
Such is the availability and cheapness of flights to Italy that it is now feasible to pop over to Italy for the most frivolous reasons. Whether it’s saving money on Christmas shopping or designer clothes there is a genuine chance that the cost of the flight aside, savings will still be made.
But it’s not all about savings – it’s just as cheap to go to Italy for me and watch a top flight football match as it would be in this country. If I could get a ticket for a run of the mill Premeirship game in England for say Charlton v Aston Villa it would cost around £50 for train and ticket. With a flight to Bergamo costing just £32 and a ticket at just
£8 it’s easy to see that it is just as cheap to watch a game in Italy as it is in England.
Money aside there’s far more glamour in heading out to watch foreign football. Like those wine counissuers who harp on about new world wines, Italian football has always been admired as a game for true afficiandos.
Football is like chess in Italy – a masterclass of tactics and tricks and rituals. English football just doesn’t have the drama and total absorbance that Italian football fans bring to games. It’s very much a young mens sport – the kind of family friendly football that has come to England over the last 15 years is still a world away in Italy.
For that reason and the fact that more can happen in a goalless draw in Italy than a game littered with goals in England, Italian football still has a certain decadence about it.
That decadence is now available for a bottle of pretty decent Italian wine and if you’ve ever wondered what a day trip to Italy involves, here is my timetable for the Atalanta v Sampdoria game on November 7.
TIMETABLE:
3.45am Wake up
4am
Leave home for the 50 mile drive to Stansted. Traffic is non-existent so by 5.20am I have parked the car and I’m in the terminal at Stansted.
5.45am
Check in takes no longer than five minutes and its straight through to the departure lounge where it’s time for a coffee and a doze. Food on board the Ryanair flight is limited so I grab a sandwich and a bottle of water. For some reason sipping water on the flight seems to keep me entertained!
6.30am
Call for boarding which again is so smoothe and easy. This morning flight to Bergamo is only half full so there’s no major rush, everyone else seems to be half asleep as well, but I get chatting to a couple who are also heading out to Italy for the day to do some Christmas shopping.
6.50am
Right on time, we’re off to Bergamo and that early start is rewarded with a pretty good sleep for most of the journey.
9.10am (Italian time)
Wake up just as we cross the Alps – as usual with these morning RyanAir flights, there is a cracking view as the plane effortlessly glides over the mountain range and touches down at 9.30am local time, a full 20 minutes early.
9.45am
Less than five hours after leaving my house, I’m standing outside Bergamo’s Orio airport waiting for the bus to take me into the town centre. The bus costs just two euros and takes 15 minutes.
10.30am
Central Bergamo is pretty small and easy to wander around on foot – this is my first trip to central Bergamo and I quickly found my bearings. Viale Roma, the road that crosses the town from the central station up towards the mountains is the key - five minutes walk up from the station and I come to the central square.
Most of the Italians seem to have come out for a Sunday morning walk after going to church and in the square there are Sunday morning strollers gazing at pictures from a local artist for sale
10.50am
A stroll up Viale Roma reveals just how small the town is – Sampdoria, the opponents for Atalanta today have their team bus parked outside one of the towns four star hotels. A few Sampdoria fans who have arrived early are hovering outside looking for players to sign their autograph books. It’s the first confirmation that the game is taking place today. These Sampdoria fans probably think they’ve had a long three hour journey from Genoa – little do they realise that I woke up in East Anglia six hours ago.
11.15am
Back down Viale Roma and the square is filling up. It wouldn’t be a Sunday morning without the brightly coloured cyclists from the local cycling club bombing down the high street. A market stall selling sweets is open and I buy a couple of packets of almonds coated in sugar. They make a great snack as I head to a café and stop for a coke and a panini before returning to the bus station to ask about buses to the ground.
1pm
The bus journey to the ground from the bus station takes only ten minutes and there are already a couple of hundred home fans at the ground. I’ve been up for eight hours by this point and to be fair I’m starting to feel it. Normally I’d probably have a couple of pre-match pints in England, but, it’s going to be a full 13 hours before I get back to my house. So, being sensible, it’s far better to have a soft drink and a calzone.
Walking around the outside ground before a game always seems to bring some extra atmosphere – the fans in their late teens are trying to stuff their smoke bombs into their so.JPG)
cks, and flag waving fans on their mopeds are already circulating in their small groups.
For an Italian game there are surprisingly few ticket touts and I get a ticket on the curva sud for 13 euros. A real bargain!
2.30pm
Into the ground and the Sampdoria fans are already in. Atalanta’s ground is a primitive affair – concrete terracing doesn’t make the best cushion for a travel weary backside but I plonk myself down and watch the Sampdoria fans make themselves heard. It’s a marvellous spectacle with one brave fan scaling the perimeter fence at the front to turn and face his fellow Genoans and orchestrate them in a frenzy of chanting. The smoke bombs continue until kick-off
3pm
Kick-off. Around 20,000 fans are packed into the stadium, smoke descends all around and the game begins. Ten hours since I woke up, I am certain that I’ve had the longest and most interesting journey of all the fans inside the ground.
4.10pm
Into the second half and the sun finally comes out, stretching out long shadows across the pitch. With the sun shining I take a look around and think what a beautiful setting this is for a game of football. At this point it all seems worth it. I know I’m feeling tired now but this is what its all about – I feel really lucky to be able to do this kind of thing for the day at such little cost.
6pm
The game ends in a 0-0 draw, but its been great entertainment, not least watching the fans wind each other up with their taunts. Rather than get a bus back into central Bergamo I decide to walk the 15 minutes or so to get back.
8.30pm
After wandering around a few shops and grabbing a few bits from the supermarket I’m back at the airport and checked in for the return flight. There’s time for a relaxing beer and a glance at the football on the television being shown in the airport bar. I’m now pretty tired, but pleased that I’m back safely at the airport for the trip back
9.50pm
The flight leaves for Stansted. It’s pretty full as many of the other passengers would have been over to Milan for the weekend. I bet few of them had travelled such a short distance in Italy as I had – I had been no further than 10 miles from the airport all day long!
10.45pm (English time)
Back at Stansted safely and off to the car for the journey home. This is by far the worst part. It’s only an hours drive but the buzz and the adrenilin of the day trip starts to wear off pretty fast as I begin the journey.
12.05am
Back home shortly after midnight and the end of a 20 hour trip. I’m shattered!
Samp overturned a 3-1 first leg defecit to lead the tie 4-3 last night before a couple of late strikes sent them out.
More’s the pity as I was really excited about back over to Genoa and catching Samp in action, possibly in a Champions League tie.
It’s four years since I last saw an Italian game with Gordo, when we managed to get in the Inter end for the match at Parma.
Between 2000 and 2006 we probably caught at least a dozen games, and saw Samp on a couple of occasions.
The last of which was during a crazy couple of months when we flew over to Italy and back in a day no less than four times just to watch a football match.
Those where the glory days of 2003-2004 before Ryan Air and Easy Jet started adding on surcharges for almost anything. One morning flight to Genoa in January 2004 memorably cost £12 return including taxes and if I recall correctly we counted half a dozen passengers on board.
This was my account of that last Sampdoria game on the road – their trip to Atalanta on November 7, 2004 which I originally wrote for now defunct Italy magazine.
Such is the availability and cheapness of flights to Italy that it is now feasible to pop over to Italy for the most frivolous reasons. Whether it’s saving money on Christmas shopping or designer clothes there is a genuine chance that the cost of the flight aside, savings will still be made.
But it’s not all about savings – it’s just as cheap to go to Italy for me and watch a top flight football match as it would be in this country. If I could get a ticket for a run of the mill Premeirship game in England for say Charlton v Aston Villa it would cost around £50 for train and ticket. With a flight to Bergamo costing just £32 and a ticket at just
£8 it’s easy to see that it is just as cheap to watch a game in Italy as it is in England.Money aside there’s far more glamour in heading out to watch foreign football. Like those wine counissuers who harp on about new world wines, Italian football has always been admired as a game for true afficiandos.
Football is like chess in Italy – a masterclass of tactics and tricks and rituals. English football just doesn’t have the drama and total absorbance that Italian football fans bring to games. It’s very much a young mens sport – the kind of family friendly football that has come to England over the last 15 years is still a world away in Italy.
For that reason and the fact that more can happen in a goalless draw in Italy than a game littered with goals in England, Italian football still has a certain decadence about it.
That decadence is now available for a bottle of pretty decent Italian wine and if you’ve ever wondered what a day trip to Italy involves, here is my timetable for the Atalanta v Sampdoria game on November 7.
TIMETABLE:
3.45am Wake up
4am
Leave home for the 50 mile drive to Stansted. Traffic is non-existent so by 5.20am I have parked the car and I’m in the terminal at Stansted.
5.45am
Check in takes no longer than five minutes and its straight through to the departure lounge where it’s time for a coffee and a doze. Food on board the Ryanair flight is limited so I grab a sandwich and a bottle of water. For some reason sipping water on the flight seems to keep me entertained!
6.30am
Call for boarding which again is so smoothe and easy. This morning flight to Bergamo is only half full so there’s no major rush, everyone else seems to be half asleep as well, but I get chatting to a couple who are also heading out to Italy for the day to do some Christmas shopping.
6.50am
Right on time, we’re off to Bergamo and that early start is rewarded with a pretty good sleep for most of the journey.
9.10am (Italian time)
Wake up just as we cross the Alps – as usual with these morning RyanAir flights, there is a cracking view as the plane effortlessly glides over the mountain range and touches down at 9.30am local time, a full 20 minutes early.
9.45am
Less than five hours after leaving my house, I’m standing outside Bergamo’s Orio airport waiting for the bus to take me into the town centre. The bus costs just two euros and takes 15 minutes.
10.30am
Central Bergamo is pretty small and easy to wander around on foot – this is my first trip to central Bergamo and I quickly found my bearings. Viale Roma, the road that crosses the town from the central station up towards the mountains is the key - five minutes walk up from the station and I come to the central square.
Most of the Italians seem to have come out for a Sunday morning walk after going to church and in the square there are Sunday morning strollers gazing at pictures from a local artist for sale
10.50am
A stroll up Viale Roma reveals just how small the town is – Sampdoria, the opponents for Atalanta today have their team bus parked outside one of the towns four star hotels. A few Sampdoria fans who have arrived early are hovering outside looking for players to sign their autograph books. It’s the first confirmation that the game is taking place today. These Sampdoria fans probably think they’ve had a long three hour journey from Genoa – little do they realise that I woke up in East Anglia six hours ago.
11.15am
Back down Viale Roma and the square is filling up. It wouldn’t be a Sunday morning without the brightly coloured cyclists from the local cycling club bombing down the high street. A market stall selling sweets is open and I buy a couple of packets of almonds coated in sugar. They make a great snack as I head to a café and stop for a coke and a panini before returning to the bus station to ask about buses to the ground.
1pm
The bus journey to the ground from the bus station takes only ten minutes and there are already a couple of hundred home fans at the ground. I’ve been up for eight hours by this point and to be fair I’m starting to feel it. Normally I’d probably have a couple of pre-match pints in England, but, it’s going to be a full 13 hours before I get back to my house. So, being sensible, it’s far better to have a soft drink and a calzone.
Walking around the outside ground before a game always seems to bring some extra atmosphere – the fans in their late teens are trying to stuff their smoke bombs into their so
.JPG)
cks, and flag waving fans on their mopeds are already circulating in their small groups.For an Italian game there are surprisingly few ticket touts and I get a ticket on the curva sud for 13 euros. A real bargain!
2.30pm
Into the ground and the Sampdoria fans are already in. Atalanta’s ground is a primitive affair – concrete terracing doesn’t make the best cushion for a travel weary backside but I plonk myself down and watch the Sampdoria fans make themselves heard. It’s a marvellous spectacle with one brave fan scaling the perimeter fence at the front to turn and face his fellow Genoans and orchestrate them in a frenzy of chanting. The smoke bombs continue until kick-off
3pm
Kick-off. Around 20,000 fans are packed into the stadium, smoke descends all around and the game begins. Ten hours since I woke up, I am certain that I’ve had the longest and most interesting journey of all the fans inside the ground.
4.10pm
Into the second half and the sun finally comes out, stretching out long shadows across the pitch. With the sun shining I take a look around and think what a beautiful setting this is for a game of football. At this point it all seems worth it. I know I’m feeling tired now but this is what its all about – I feel really lucky to be able to do this kind of thing for the day at such little cost.
6pm
The game ends in a 0-0 draw, but its been great entertainment, not least watching the fans wind each other up with their taunts. Rather than get a bus back into central Bergamo I decide to walk the 15 minutes or so to get back.
8.30pm
After wandering around a few shops and grabbing a few bits from the supermarket I’m back at the airport and checked in for the return flight. There’s time for a relaxing beer and a glance at the football on the television being shown in the airport bar. I’m now pretty tired, but pleased that I’m back safely at the airport for the trip back
9.50pm
The flight leaves for Stansted. It’s pretty full as many of the other passengers would have been over to Milan for the weekend. I bet few of them had travelled such a short distance in Italy as I had – I had been no further than 10 miles from the airport all day long!
10.45pm (English time)
Back at Stansted safely and off to the car for the journey home. This is by far the worst part. It’s only an hours drive but the buzz and the adrenilin of the day trip starts to wear off pretty fast as I begin the journey.
12.05am
Back home shortly after midnight and the end of a 20 hour trip. I’m shattered!
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