Calcio (or if you’re not ready for total Italian immersion, soccer) is by far Italy’s most popular sport. It is also a unifying force for its people every time the national team plays, and a venue for airing age-old antagonisms every time the league plays. Clearly, there’s a lot riding on the humble soccer ball’s every bounce. The Italians are understandably proud of their national team, which is known as La squadra azzurra (the blue team) or Gli azzurri, for dynastic reasons dating back to the nineteenth century. Italy has won calcio's top prize, the World Cup, four times (most recently in 2006), with only Brazil having more championships.

Every two years, the summer in Italy is dedicated to following the Azzurri’s every move, at either the World Cup or European Championship. When the going is good, the streets and piazzas are full of delirious fans honking, cheering, hugging, and diving into fountains to celebrate another victory. However, an unconvincing tie, or, dio mio, a loss, and the nation falls into a tizzy, debating and bemoaning coaching faults new and old, the players’ laziness or exhaustion, the refs’ corruption or bizarre legalism, and, of course, how things were better when. . . .

While the national team feast last an exhilarating summer month (at best), the bulk of the soccer diet comes from club competitions that run from August to May. The top Italian league (Serie A) consists of twenty clubs playing a double round-robin tournament with the champion awarded the Scudetto (a small tricolor shield added to next season’s jersey). In recent years, Serie A has been dominated by three teams that have won nineteen out of the last twenty-four scudetti. This elite group--comprising the two Milan teams, Inter(nazionale) and A.C. Milan, and also the teams of Juventus of Turin--has a national following and receives the bulk of attention in Italy and abroad.

However, some of the most bitter rivalries are those pitting local rivals like the match-up between Rome’s two teams—Lazio S.S. and A.S. Roma, or Bologna F.C. against Florence’s Fiorentina. These matches make Red Sox v. Yankees games look like college faculty tea parties, with fan groups unfurling massive banners, leading organized chants questioning the other side’s sanity, decency, and manhood, and engaging in occasional flare throwing.

The best bet for experiencing the excitement of Italian soccer first hand comes during the Serie A season, when tickets for most matches can be had for as little as twenty Euro. However, a word to the wise: first time visitors should look for tickets along the sidelines, as the areas behind the goals (curvee) are traditionally reserved for the most die-hard of the tifosi (the so-called ultras) where things can get pretty "exciting" rather quickly!

Each season, the top four teams in Serie A qualify to compete against Europe’s other leading teams in the Champions League, a parallel competition that also runs from early fall into May. In 2010, Inter Milan defeated Germany’s Bayern Munich to win their third European Cup, giving Italian teams their twelfth victory in Europe’s top club competition (tying Spanish teams for the lead).

In the last decade, the Serie A has fallen from its perch as the top league in the world, dropping behind the English Premiership, Spain’s La Liga, and even Germany’s Bundesliga. A host of theories explains this relative decline, ranging from outdated stadiums (most dating back to the 1990 World Cup), the influence of the ultras, and a bribery scandal that saw Juventus stripped of two scudetti and sent down to the second-tier Serie B for the first time ever. However, during the height of the calciopoli scandal in 2006, the Gli azzurri pulled together to capture its fourth World Cup, bringing relief to the nation’s struggling tifosi.

(Guest piece for Nello's Italy by longtime European soccer fan, 24K. Grazie, amico mio!)