Derby Fun

Saturday was a beautiful day here in Torino. I would guess in the high fifties but since I still can't do math in my head very well the calculation between Celsius and Fahrenheit is something that I usually don't waste my time on. I mean being the only country on the standard measurement system is annoying enough but the crazy temperature conversion (plus or minus 32 divide/multiply by 5 and multiply/divide by 9 or something crazy like that) is just not worth it!

Saturday I walked around all day and enjoyed the weather. I saw a crazy protest or a rally due to my limited language skills I am not sure what it was although there were a lot of police in riot gear. In the evening I went to the derby (a soccer match between two teams from the same town) between Juventus and Torino (Juventus won 1-0!) with my coworker Massimo. I was told by my coworker back home Andrew that it was going to make the Cubs vs. Sox game look PG! It reminded me a lot of a Badger game as each team's fans were in the section behind the goal posts dressed in Black (for Juve) and Maroon (for Torino). There were a lot of chants and songs and I am sure they were just as crazy as some of the ones we sing up in Madison, although I did not hear any singing "If you want to be a zebra (Juve's mascot) then come along with me...". The game was pretty mild mannered and only a couple flares were thrown and a few fireworks set off. I learned that each soccer club has a farm system. I learned this by asking Massimo what the kids dressed in Berretta (which I pronounced like the type of car my mom used to have) soccer warm ups were. Massimo laughed and pronounced it the Italian way and said those were kids from the number two (U-19) farm club. Primavera (which literally means spring) is the first farm club team (sort of like a AAA team in baseball) with players ranging from 15-20 who feed directly into the Juventus squad.

Here are some pictures from the game.

Juventus warms up

Juventus banner

Before the game

Torino banner

Goal!