by Sunday day-trippers to Venice are notorious for flashing their QR code on a €5 entry ticket to pass through the turnstiles at the city’s main access points when football supporters don’t show their match tickets instead. Attending a sporting event turns out to be one of the exemptions in the opaque regulations behind what locals see as an attempt to turn their town into a living museum.
Anyone who joins the throngs of football fans making their way through the streets to the Sant’Elena neighbourhood, in the east of the city just outside the Biennale Gardens, will discover that this city is far from in his museum, and that he is buying. a ticket to watch Venezia FC gives you the chance to enjoy a slice of local life. Where else in the world can you reach a football stadium through vaporetto (water bus)? It costs just €15 to sit up in the Curva Sud stand surrounded by friendly cheers, singing Venetians, and watching a game against the backdrop of the Venetian lagoon.
I jump on the vaporetto outside the Venice train station and head for the stadium
For the last home game of the season, against Feralpisalò from Lombardy, I hopped on the vaporetto outside Venice’s Santa Lucia station and headed for the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo. Built in 1910, it is the second oldest football stadium in Italy, with a capacity of 11,500. There are still plans to build a modern stadium on the mainland, but for now it is the unique venue where all Venice – children, mothers and fathers, bar staff, butchers, bank clerks and gondoliers – forget about the daily invasion of tourists. and come together to support the local team. And that team is about to be promoted to the giddy heights of Serie A under American owners who have tapped into the global potential of a football team in Venice.
Sitting next to me on the vaporetto, wearing the team’s distinctive green, orange and black, is local builder Thomas Blascovich and his son Nicolas. “Although I was born on the mainland, my parents are from Venice itself and I attended games with my papa from the age of seven,” says Tomás. “I think I’m Venetian even though I live on the terraferma. And, although it may seem strange, the moment the bus crosses the Ponte della Libertà and I get on the vaporetto, well, I feel like I’m home again.”
With tickets for the game almost sold out, I find an early seat, high up in the rickety Churva Sud, home of the most passionate home supporters. Here I meet Nicholas Pettenello, an 18-year-old Venetian student. “All my friends at school support the team and it’s a ritual for us to get together and watch the game on Sundays,” he says. “It’s a great experience, win, lose or draw, with everyone singing and laughing for 90 minutes. It’s one of those rare moments when we Venetians are all together, standing united, forgetting all the tourists who dominate the town.”
The Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo remains the unique venue where all of Venice – bar staff, butchers, bank clerks and gondoliers – forget the daily invasion of tourists and come together
Match days always follow the same pattern, he says. “We meet at Sant’Elena for a beer and a panino at Vincent Bar on the way to the stadium, and after the game we head to Via Garibaldi in the Castello area, where oysters such as Strani and Alle Colonnette are favorites among supporters, and then on to Piazza San Marco. A perfect day for Venetians, as long as we win.”
One person I don’t expect to see in the Curva is Duncan Niederauer, the American owner of Venezia FC and former CEO of the New York Stock Exchange. But there he is, wearing his team shirt proudly. He is welcomed as a savior by the tifosi, and he waits for the wild celebration after Venezia’s 2-1 win. Certainly not the kind of welcome the Glazers could have expected if they walked into the stands at Manchester United.
The winning goal in the 93rd minute gave Venezia automatic promotion to Serie A on the final day of the season on Friday night. (The nail-biting fears are more likely to bear fruit, however, and may continue until June 2.) After the game, I walk with the chanting supporters to Via Garibaldi, where for once it’s the cruise ship groups that seem calm. we went over bridges into narrow streets.
In Trattoria alla Rivetta, a place famous for gondoliers near St. Mark’s, Alvise d’Este, 31, is taking a break from taking tourists along the Grand Canal. “Whenever I can get off work on Sunday, I’ll be with my friends in the Curva Sud. I was at work today, but I was getting phone notifications from the game on my gondola.”
Back home, I have a final celebration bitter al spritz along with Lorenzo Pedrocco, a beaming 88-year-old man who was born close to Stadio Penzo and one of the few Venetians who were there when the team won the Coppa Italia (Italian Cup final) in 1941. “It’s a pity that we cannot I don’t want to see any other games,” he says. “But I am so proud of our team, of being Venetian, so I was following the game today as always.”
If Venezia returns to Serie A, glamorous teams such as Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan will be making the boat trip to the creaking Stadio Penzo next season. And tourists will see Piazza San Marco invaded by joyous tifosi spreading their favorite songs in the Venetian dialect, and the traffic on the Grand Canal enters not in a victory parade over the top of the bus, but in a flotilla of gondolas.
Of course, playoffs are always a big event, but even another season in Serie B will give all Venetians, those who live in the historic center and the diaspora on the mainland, the opportunity to celebrate theirs. venetian in his beloved island stadium.
