Tony's Take-over ! ! ! ....................
'Gentlemen of Verona' – September 2005 (Wilkie Tour # 17)
Prior to the trip we had contacted Tim Parks, author of a 'Season with Verona' and a number of books on the Italian way of life and arranged to meet up with him in his adopted city. Tim is a season ticket holder at Verona (Hellas) historically the main team in the city, but now playing second fiddle to Chievo Verona, nicknamed the ‘Flying Donkeys’. Chievo had risen to Serie A on limited resources and having achieved higher league status played their home games at the stadium of Hellas Verona.
After a stroll around the old town, a brief look at the Roman Arena (reported to be the 3rd largest surviving Roman amphitheatre) and an energetic climb up the Tower dei Lamberti, we arrived at the impressive Stadio Bentegodi shortly before the Friday evening kick-off. The stadium had been refurbished for the 1990 World Cup and had a capacity of 42,000, however, we were not expecting a large crowd for a Serie B game, but were greeted with a chaotic scene as fans arriving to buy tickets had to produce their identity cards so that details could be recorded; the Italian authorities had just introduced a new system in order to clamp down on hooliganism. We had to complete a form giving our details, including a personal identity number before we could buy our tickets. Fortunately we had our passports with us and were able to secure tickets before rejoining the throng and took our seats high above the touchline in good time. The crowd was around 10,000 - the majority packed behind the goal to our right, with a very small group of Catanzaro fans from the south of Italy away to our left.
After Verona had won 1-0 with a late goal from the Brazilian Adailton we made our way to the Bentegotti Bar adjacent to the ground where we had arranged to meet up with the author for a beer.
We had a free Saturday as the Verona game had been moved to the Friday night so we took the bus up to Lake Garda, where we enjoyed a cable-car ascent into mountains above Malcesine on the eastern shore of the lake and then a ferry trip across the lake.
On Sunday morning we took the train south to Parma via Mantova. The ticket office at the Ennio Tardini stadium is adjacent to an impressive arch structure at the main entrance. Our details were duly entered into the computer at the ticket office and printed on our tickets for the afternoon game.
We visited an art gallery housed in the imposing Palazzo della Pilotta and the 12th Century octagonal Baptistry before returning to the stadium to see Parma take on newly promoted Empoli from Tuscany. We took our seats in the lower stand adjacent to the goal area. The home fans had draped banners across the terraces protesting at the new entry requirements; these were prominent until the game started when the banners were folded away and the crowd filled the large void behind the goal having registered their protest.
The experienced pair of ex-internationals Corradi and Del Vechio formed a powerful strike force and an early goal by the former (recently returned from Valencia) won the game for the home side despite the visitor’s enterprising play on the break. The protests combined with the fact that the current Parma side no longer enjoyed the successes of the 90s (and had sold star striker Gilardino to Milan in the summer) were key factors in an attendance of less than 15,000 in a 28,000 capacity stadium. The club no longer had the lucrative sponsorship of the dairy company Parmalat and appeared to be in decline.
Monday was spent back in Verona - with a couple of hours sight-seeing in the amphitheatre, where little imagination was required to visualise a 25,000 crowd seated around this magnificent arena enjoying their sport and exiting the stadium through the ‘vomitorium’ (as their descendants do in modern stadia around the world today) .
The trip was made even more memorable with the discovery of the Vesuvio Pizzaria near the River Adige – quoffable vino and excellent pizzas. Perfetto!
Prior to the trip we had contacted Tim Parks, author of a 'Season with Verona' and a number of books on the Italian way of life and arranged to meet up with him in his adopted city. Tim is a season ticket holder at Verona (Hellas) historically the main team in the city, but now playing second fiddle to Chievo Verona, nicknamed the ‘Flying Donkeys’. Chievo had risen to Serie A on limited resources and having achieved higher league status played their home games at the stadium of Hellas Verona.
After a stroll around the old town, a brief look at the Roman Arena (reported to be the 3rd largest surviving Roman amphitheatre) and an energetic climb up the Tower dei Lamberti, we arrived at the impressive Stadio Bentegodi shortly before the Friday evening kick-off. The stadium had been refurbished for the 1990 World Cup and had a capacity of 42,000, however, we were not expecting a large crowd for a Serie B game, but were greeted with a chaotic scene as fans arriving to buy tickets had to produce their identity cards so that details could be recorded; the Italian authorities had just introduced a new system in order to clamp down on hooliganism. We had to complete a form giving our details, including a personal identity number before we could buy our tickets. Fortunately we had our passports with us and were able to secure tickets before rejoining the throng and took our seats high above the touchline in good time. The crowd was around 10,000 - the majority packed behind the goal to our right, with a very small group of Catanzaro fans from the south of Italy away to our left.
After Verona had won 1-0 with a late goal from the Brazilian Adailton we made our way to the Bentegotti Bar adjacent to the ground where we had arranged to meet up with the author for a beer.
We had a free Saturday as the Verona game had been moved to the Friday night so we took the bus up to Lake Garda, where we enjoyed a cable-car ascent into mountains above Malcesine on the eastern shore of the lake and then a ferry trip across the lake.
On Sunday morning we took the train south to Parma via Mantova. The ticket office at the Ennio Tardini stadium is adjacent to an impressive arch structure at the main entrance. Our details were duly entered into the computer at the ticket office and printed on our tickets for the afternoon game.
We visited an art gallery housed in the imposing Palazzo della Pilotta and the 12th Century octagonal Baptistry before returning to the stadium to see Parma take on newly promoted Empoli from Tuscany. We took our seats in the lower stand adjacent to the goal area. The home fans had draped banners across the terraces protesting at the new entry requirements; these were prominent until the game started when the banners were folded away and the crowd filled the large void behind the goal having registered their protest.
The experienced pair of ex-internationals Corradi and Del Vechio formed a powerful strike force and an early goal by the former (recently returned from Valencia) won the game for the home side despite the visitor’s enterprising play on the break. The protests combined with the fact that the current Parma side no longer enjoyed the successes of the 90s (and had sold star striker Gilardino to Milan in the summer) were key factors in an attendance of less than 15,000 in a 28,000 capacity stadium. The club no longer had the lucrative sponsorship of the dairy company Parmalat and appeared to be in decline.
Monday was spent back in Verona - with a couple of hours sight-seeing in the amphitheatre, where little imagination was required to visualise a 25,000 crowd seated around this magnificent arena enjoying their sport and exiting the stadium through the ‘vomitorium’ (as their descendants do in modern stadia around the world today) .
The trip was made even more memorable with the discovery of the Vesuvio Pizzaria near the River Adige – quoffable vino and excellent pizzas. Perfetto!
