I always like travelling and soaking up culture. When I'm abroad I also try to fit in a football match. I've seen Dutch, Belgian and French football on a few occasions but I've always wanted to see matches from the big boys of Europe ie. Spain Germany and Italy.
In April 2004 I had decided to take my eldest son, then aged twelve, to do a whistle stop tour of Northern Italy, taking in Milan, Venice, Rome and Pisa. I had been to all these places before so it wasn't new to me but my son had been keen on Italy so I thought I'd show him the sights, smells, architecture and culture of Italy. Great, but what about me?
Wouldn't it be nice to see an Italian match, I said to my son, particularly at the San Siro Stadium. Good kid that he is he agreed wholeheartedly. So I began investigating on the internet to find out how possible it would be to get to a game, whether one could pay on the gate or needed tickets etc. I went on to Channel 4's football Italia website which is an excellent starting point. I found the fixture list for the weekend when we would be in Milan. My heart sank when I saw that Inter Milan were at home to Juventus. No way, I thought, would we be able get into the stadium for a top match like that, there would be few tickets available except those priced at exhorbitant rates. I therefore started looking at other possible fixtures, such as Chievo v Udinese. No problem getting in to a game like that, I thought.
However, after a couple of days I thought hey, why settle for second best. So I went back on to Channel 4 website which gave good references and guidance on buying tickets over the internet for each individual club. The website Channel 4 referred me to Inter's website which advised me in English that tickets for the Juve game would go on sale the Monday prior to the game and that kick off would be at 8 o'clock on the Sunday night. So I waited patiently until that Monday arrived and at 3 o'clock that afternoon got on to the website again.
I clicked on the booking section, hoping that there would be a meagre few tickets remaining and that I was not too late. Lo, a problem appeared. The booking page was entirely in Italian. I then spent the next ten minutes hunting high and low for my Italian phrase book and dictionary.
By this time I had gone offline (pre broadband) so I had to crank up the system again , wasting precious minutes. I thought that I stood no chance of getting tickets, it would take so long to translate the website in to English. But as it turned out I need not have worried. Using a mixture of phrase book, dictionary and common sense I managed to book two tickets for the Juve match, total charge £49. I didn't know where we would be sitting but frankly at that price I couldn't have cared less. All I had to do was pick up the tickets at the ticket office on the night.
Fast forward to the day of the match. We were having a great time, seeing the sites of Milan. We had checked in to the Youth Hostel which was only a mile from the stadium on the other side of the race course. The two Danish lads with whom we were sharing a room were also going to the match. In addition they had found a nearby bar that would be showing the Modena v AC Milan game live on TV. What a way to spend a mild Spring Sunday afternoon in Milan, sitting in a bar packed full of locals watching football while knocking back the beers. Unlike Britain, my son was made to feel welcome in the bar and sat with me and the Danish lads knocking back his cokes.
From there it was on to the match. We arrived two hours early as I had fears that there would be complications in obtaining our tickets. Those fears were unfounded. The ticket office had around ten windows open so I did not have to queue for long, and on producing my passport and credit card my tickets were promptly handed over.
We then entered the stadium, even though we had just under two hours to kill. Our seats were on the lower tier in one corner level with the goal line. But that didn't matter. What a ground. It is massive. And those iconic towers at each corner of the stadium, we knew where we were all right. What was incredible, though, was the noise coming from the rival sets of supporters. It was awesome, bearing in mind that kick off wasn't due for ninety minutes. The Inter and Juve supporters were in the second tiers at opposite ends of the ground to each other, all hurling abuse back and forth. Each set of supporters had a cheer leader armed with a megaphone, organising and conducting the chanting and singing while hanging dangerously over the parapet. Amazing.
As the ground began to fill up, seats around us were being taken by a number of English lads who looked very shaken. One of them explained that approximately two minutes after my son and I had left the large forecourt to enter the stadium, some one hundred Juve supporters with scarves round their faces had appeared from nowhere and, armed with knives and baseball bats, steamed in to the Inter supporters milling around. The police had been too few in number to prevent the trouble occurring and several people had apparently been injured. The dark side of Italian football.
Once the game started, however, all this was forgotten. The match, refereed by of all people Pierre Luigi Collina, was superb. The atmosphere, electric at the start, exploded when Inter took an early lead. The game just got better and better from then on. Juve equalised shortly before half time but after the break could not stop the home side romping away to a 3 - 1 win.
Fearing a repeat of the trouble reported before the game my son and I left five minutes from the end, but our Danish room mates later told us that they saw no trouble.
To get to the stadium from the city centre it is easier to use public transport rather than the car. Using the Metro take line MM1 towards Molino Dorino and alight at Lotto-Fiera2. From there it takes ten minutes walking alongside the race course to get to the stadium. Alternatively, for a slightly more scenic mode of transport take the tram, Line 16 from Cathedral Square.
Overall, my son and I were left with unforgettable memories. Once I had done a bit of research I was surprised at just how easy it had been to get hold of tickets for a top Italian match. What with the cheap flights out to Milan I would certainly like to go again.
To any football fan reading this, I beg you to make the trip. It's so simple booking flight and match tickets and the city itself is well worth a visit, it having the sights, shopping and the night life. Above all though the atmosphere at the San Siro is quite something else.
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