Posts Tagged ‘Sports’

(Image: Azzurri Team, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from laertes_za’s photostream)

The World Cup 2010 is in full swing! For those fans of the Azzuri who are in Rome and Florence and want to catch some of the football action, we’ve compiled this list of places where you can watch the matches with other Italia fans!

Rome

Villa Borghese – One of only 7 places where FIFA (World Cup Sponsor) is hosting their FanFest. With the FanFest, FIFA is trying to bring some of the atmosphere of the World Cup venues into some of the world’s largest and most football obsessed cities. Admission to the FanFest area is free and games are broadcast throughout the day on large, outdoor screens.

Florence

Florence has placed large outdoor screen throughout the city, including ones in Piazzale Michelangelo, Via Villamagna and Piazza Santo Spirito. Around Tuscany has a great Google Map with all the locations on their website.

Where ever you watch, make sure to enjoy the game and celebrate responsibly! Forza Azzuri!

Italy has a history with fast cars. We’ve already heard about Maranello, the birthplace of the Ferrari.  Today, we’re focusing on the world’s premier car racing series: Formula 1.

Image: The Iceman commeth, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from ph-stop’s photostream

Formula 1 race cars are single seater racers (similar to American Indy cars). The “formula” of Formula 1 is the set of rules that all cars must fit into. These rules limit everything from the size of the chasis, the minimum requirements of engines and the amount of fuel and tire changes during races. The rules can (and usually do) change from year to year; the most controversial of the rules changes for 2010 was to ban fuel stops during races, requiring all cars to begin races with a full tank. Despite these restrictions, F1 cars can reach over 220mph and pull up to 5gs during some track corners. These aren’t cars for your Sunday drivers.

Nearly every country that participates in Formula 1 racing hosts a race, or Grand Prix, in their home country. The soon to be launched USA Team will begin hosting races in Austin, TX in 2012. Many of the races take place in beautiful and exotic locales such as Bahrain, Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. In Monaco, the race is held through the streets of the city (on the same course that was featured in the recent Iron Man 2).

Image: Ferrari Fan at USGP 2005, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from special_k_'s photostream

Formula 1 drivers are employed by teams. Italy is currently home to two F1 teams: Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and Scuderia Toro Rosso. Both teams use Ferrari engines (as does Switzerland’s BMW Sauber Team), but the Ferrari team cars are constructed by

the legendary automobile company.

To Italians, Formula 1 is as big a cultural and sporting event as Football and the affectionate nickname for football fanatics also applies to F1 fans: Tifosi. The tifosi, generally Ferrari Team fans, have been known to flock to Italian and other European Grands Prix, completely decked out in red, supporting their home team.

There are Grand Prix nearly every weekend during the Formula 1 Season; The Italian Grand Prix will take place on September 12, 2010 in Monza, Italy. There’s still time to plan your trip and Driver in Italy can help with all your Italy tour arrangements.

Image: Giro d’Italia in Leiden, a Creative Commons Attribution No-Derivative-Works (2.0) image from archeon’s photostream

The Giro D’Italia (or Tour of Italy) is Italy’s answer to the Tour d’France. For three weeks in May or June every year, cyclists and cycling fans from around the world come to Italy (and nearby countries) to watch one of the most exciting cycling events of the year.

The first Giro d’Italia was run in 1909, but while the event may be over a hundred years old, this year marks the 93rd Giro (the race was suspended during both WWI and WWII). The race consists of 21 stages, ranging from just over 5 miles to 159 miles. At the end of each stage, the overall leader is given a pink jersey to wear. At the end of the last stage, the cyclist with the fastest time wins the Giro. There are also special awards given based on mountain times, points and youth classifications.

While the Giro began in Italy, in recent years the stages have branched out across Europe. This year’s Giro began on May 8th in Amsterdam. After spending the first three stages in the Netherlands, the race will move today to Italy, kicking off in Savigliano. The stages will make their way thoughout Italy before ending in Verona on May 30th.

As an annual event, the Giro d’Italia is something that you don’t want to miss on your May tour of Italy. When you’re traveling to Italy, make sure to check the Giro schedule and plan to be in one of the Italian towns that the race passes through. Driver in Italy can put together a special Italy package to take to to one or all of the Giro stages so you don’t miss any of the action

While football (soccer, to Americans) is popular in many European countries, Italians rank up with Brits and Brazilians with their passion for the sport. With good reason, too; Italy has won four World Cup titles (second only to Brazil, with five), including the most recent and 27 various European titles. If you’re thinking of catching a match on your vacation to, here’s a quick guide to Italian football.

(Image: Italy v Ukraine, Koln 30 June – 7, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike (2.0) image from charlesfred’s photostream)

The first thing to know when you’re catching up on Italian Football is the difference between the National Team and the Club or League Teams. The Italian National Team is made up of Italian players from all different professional teams and competes in the World Cup and in the major European tournaments. Sort of like Team USA Basketball. When they’re not training for National Team matches, the players are employed by private teams throughout Italy (and other worldwide football teams). These League teams are broken up into different divisions (similar to American College Football where you have Division I, Division II, etc). The top tier of teams is called Serie A and is made up of 20 teams. I’ll let Wikipedia explain how the Serie A season works:

During the course of a season, from August to May, each club played each of the other teams twice; once at home and once away, totaling 38 games for each team by the end of the season. Therefore, in Italian football a true round-robin format is used. In the first half of the season, called the andata, each team played exactly one time against each league opponent, for a total of 19 games. In the second half of the season, called the ritorno, the teams played in exactly the same order that they did in the first half of the season, the only difference being that home and away situations are switched.

Just like catching a game of hockey in Canada or a baseball game in the US, if you’re a sports fan of any kind you want to catch an Italian football game while you’re over on your tour of Italy. Today, we had the pleasure of being the official transport for Italian football team Internazionale as they played the last game in a 3 game series against Roma. While the home team (Roma) lost, we cheer on both teams for a match well played.