Italy - Champions of the World

Continuing the theme of travelling for the purposes of sport (World Cup, World Cup, Wimbledon) was the trip away for the final of the World Cup. It was too difficult to try to get to Germany - though I'd already been to Berlin twice AND Germany weren't in the final. So I flipped an (imaginary) coin and decided for Italy over France, then jumped into a plane in the cheapest plane I could find going to anywhere within Italy.

I ended up going to Florence, meeting up with my mate Giovanni's (from Stanford) best friend, Ciro.

For those of you who haven't been to Florence - it's pretty amazing. There is a huge river that runs through the city, overladen by bridge ...



Which looks gorgeous at night and twilight ...



... There was a large video screen set up on Micahelangelo's Piazza, a gorgeous huge lookout/car park overlooking the cirty ...



... This was the area for which we were to gather for THE game, the final, on the Sunday night (see statue of David in the background)!



In the meantime, Ciro's friends led us to this bizarre massive music festival about 30 miles away, situated in an old italian village ...

...

With musicians, lots of food, and cool circus performers like this fire dancer:



Of course the highlight of the weekend was the Italian world cup victory. OUR victory (sorry, you just had to be there).

After we (Italy) won, it was absolute ecstacy throughout not just the place where we were watching, but every single person in the city ...



Which continued well into the early hours of the morning ... what a party! :)