Arrividerci Azzurri

Slovakia knocked Italy out of the World Cup yesterday. The loss was akin to a national disaster in Italy. It's hard to imagine here what impact a national soccer team has on a nation's psyche. I lived in Italy during a World Cup year, and I got a taste of the country's highly opinionated fervor for the Azzurri. The taste could be sweet or bitter, but it was always strong.

The closest American analogy is the state of Wisconsin's attachment to the Green Bay Packers. I went to college in Wisconsin, and during my time there, the state more or less came to a standstill when the Packers played. In those days, the Packers split their home games between Green Bay and Milwaukee. The theory was that the Packers were a state team, and the team wanted to include its southern residents in its home schedule.

Many years later, I went to Wisconsin for a vacation. I stayed in Green Bay, and went to a diner for breakfast. The waitress asked if and when I would be visiting the Packer Hall of Fame. From her tone and approach, it was clear the tour was something that one just simply did. I didn't intend to, and I told her in a nice way that my day's plan was to go to Washington Island, in Lake Michigan.

She looked at me as puzzled as any Italian would have if I had said I was going to a museum, rather than watching the Azzurri on the world stage.