Living in tokyo.: 06/16/08

Calcio Storico (historic Football)

The day finally arrived. I was rather anxious because I still hadn't figured out how to get tickets for this historic event. This event has been taking place in this piazza since the 1300's! and I didn't want to miss it. The entire neighborhood was buzzing starting about 3 pm. The police started showing up and slowly blocking all roads into the piazza. Jonathan warned me that it may be difficult to leave the area and come back but I didn't really believe him. I went down around 3 to try to find tickets. I met a woman from school whose husband is Italian and we figured out that we had to buy tickets at the Verdi Theater which is right next door to the piazza. We dashed over there and got our tickets. I was so relieved. While I was getting my tickets all roads back to the Piazza were closed. I tried every road and no one would let me in. Even when I told them I lived there I was not allowed in. Finally, I got frustrated and pleaded in my bad Italian and they finally ushered me all the way to my door. I'm not sure why security was so tight. I went up to the room and got Jonathan. I heard there was a parade at 4 but that never happened. at about 4:30 we went to our seats. I couldn't believe this was our little piazza. It now looked like a huge sports stadium. They have been putting this all together for several weeks. They even hauled a ton of sand to put down over the entire piazza. The event started around 4:45. The opening ceremony took an hour. Flag throwers, drummers, trumpeters and lots of people just marching in traditional costumes. The game started about 6:00. I didn't know what to expect but I didn't definatley didn't expect waht I saw. I don't really know how to explain this sport. It's definitely not soccer, it's not American football. I would call it a mix between rugby, boxing and wrestling. All over the field players were wrestling each other and just holding them there down on the sand. Once they had enough players down they would try to run the ball through and score. The entire end of the field was the net. There were very few rules. Hitting, kicking were allowed. The umpires did stop anything which was too violent. This event was so violent that a player bit off the ear of another player. This game was stopped by the police and completely canceled last year. I guess that 's why there was so much security around. Even the fans got wild in the past. This year was very tame in comparison. Thank goodness. The game lasted about 80 minutes. A very fascinating and bizarre experience.