Where do you live in Florence? #4

Our apartment is about 1.6 kilometers, or 1 mile, from Florence's soccer stadium.  It is called the Franchi, after Artemio Franchi, a beloved Italian soccer commissioner and former president of the European soccer association (UEFA).

We knew the Franchi is close by.  The other night we learned just how close it is.

In a night match against Palermo, ACF Fiorentina scored the go ahead goal in the third minute of extra time.  The crowd reaction was a long roar of joy for the home team winning the game with practically no time remaining.  We heard that long roar in our apartment one mile away.  The crowd noise was so loud that it sounded as if the stadium were in our backyard.

Florentines love soccer, or calcio in Italian. And they love their team ACF Fiorentina.

Click here to see the winning goal.

We are planning to attend a game, but we learned buying a ticket is not so easy.  At the stadium, there are two sections of seats.  One section is for Florentines.  The other section, much smaller and to the side of one goal, is for everyone else.  The small section has its own separate entrance from outside and it is fenced off from the rest of the stadium, with large buffers of empty seats on either side.  Anyone can buy a ticket for the small section. 

As you probably guessed, the small section is primarily for fans of the visiting team.  Italians are crazy for soccer and love their hometown team.  That strong emotion, sometimes alcohol enhanced, has in the past boiled over into violence between fans of rival teams.  So, fans are segregated for everyone's protection. 

The Franchi: the visitors section

To sit in the large section, you must be a resident of the Florence region and obtain a special card after vetting by the state police.  Without the right address and a clean record, no card for you!  We still need to obtain our cards.  When we do, we plan on attending a game and wearing the color of ACF Fiorentina.