Thursday, November 08, 2007

Shopping for Emergency Purple

Tonight the Purple and Gold flags are flying outside and the streets are once again full of parked mopeds.
This only means one thing - Florentina are playing at home.
I was late at work tonight - there are only 2 trains to come to Campo di Marte - one at 1829 the other at 1929. The latter gets in at 2005, more or less - just as the crowds were thronging into the stadium.
Italian football is something to behold - and I have only done so from outside the stadium but now that I am officially living in Florence, I will plan a trip to see a game.
The purple is omnipresent in Florence, especially here with the stadium in the 'hood. But around game time, the purple banners are hoisted high, and I feel quite left out not to be toting something in the team colours myself.
Of course, if I really felt like it there is a vast amount of purple on sale. Everything from t-shirts that proclaim "100% Viola" (100% purple - but they're white, go figure!), to enormous purple and gold flags, to scarves that delineate the area of the stadium you frequent - the Fiesole Corner seems a popular choice.
All that shopping would presumably create significant hunger, hence the huddle of fast food stalls that intersperse the souvenir stalls. On sale, other than the usual beer and hamburger / hot dog sportsfan fayre, are local specialities - porchetta, and, perhaps more unusually for the non-Florentine - lampredotto panini - sandwiches with the boiled sliced lining of a cow's stomach. Not something that would normally set my tastebuds going, but actually, it smelt pretty good when I was on my way home. Not irresistable though - I had a far more palateable leek and tomato mixture for my tea.
Not a real Florentine as yet!

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