Enough about being sick. Yes, I still am *cough*. However, I have to interrupt my real life for a timely report. My sincere, heart-felt apologies to my German travel friends who may want to stop reading here...
I am in Florence, Italy. I've been here for a little over a week and my good friend Sylvia, from Los Angeles, has already emailed me and accused me of going soft. Tough crowd :) I can think of no better place to be to experience the passion Europeans have for football (soccer) than in the country that has a possible contender for the finals. I figure it's even better than being in Germany - where the World Cup is being held - because the fans here are 100% Italian - not diluted nationalities choosing one side or the other because they have tickets to the events, just pure screaming, cursing, out-of-control Italians pulling for the Italian team - All or nothing!
My Italian friend Tania tipped me off to the huge, outdoor, big screen TV that was
erected on the other side of the Arno River to showcase the semi-final match between Italy and Germany. Germany was favored to win, but as many of the matches have progressed in this World Cup, it was anyone's game to win or lose. The game was scheduled to begin at 9:00pm - the site was a half hour walk from my apartment - 8:30 and it was still light outside.
When I arrived, there were at least ten thousand people sitting on the park lawn anxiously waiting in front of the Sony PS2 big screen. They were already waving flags and banners and singing those songs that only Europeans sing. The reason that the US sucks at soccer is because we don't have a song. The only thing we have that even comes close is the Atlanta Braves Tomahawk Chop chant, but that's baseball. Americans think it's sissy to sing, therefore, we'll never win a World Cup.
I made my way towards the front of the stage so I could shoot back at the crowd. The TV fired up - Live From Germany - and the crowd went bonkers. Everyone joined in during the Italian national anthem and when it ended you would have thought Italy had 
just scored the first goal. When the German national anthem began to play, a single German fan with a face painted in red, yellow, and black - likely the only one for a hundred miles - stood up on a high pillar in front of the crowd, more to antagonize the Italian fans than to show spirit, and was summarily jeered and ridiculed by 10,000 blood thirsty maniacs. I have never seen so many beautiful women scowl and flip someone the bird. Fortunately, he had the sense to stay well out of reach.
For those of you not savvy with World Cup rules at this late stage of the tournament, regular play is two forty five minute periods. If the game is tied after regular play, there are two shorter overtime periods. If the game is still tied, then the game moves to penalty kicks. The overall consensus was that if the game were to go to penalty kicks, Italy would certainly lose because German efficiency did not allow for failure from 12 yards out.
I spent most of the match looking at the crowd trying to pick out animated faces while listening to the broadcast to anticipate the best times to shoot. As the game progressed, emotions ran the gamut of joy, frustration, and cries of sudden horror quickly followed by nervous laughter and relief whenever Germany got too close to the Italian goal for comfort. After the two periods of regular play, the Italian crowd was still engaged, but their faces were filled with angst. It was almost too much to bear.
The first overtime period had finished, the second was two minutes from ending and still there was no score. Penalty kicks were all but inevitable. Download the movie clip to see what I saw and it will be like we saw it together. You and me in Florence in front of 10,000 screaming Italian football fans...
