The British consul Montgomery Carmichael with all his love for Leghorn “la cara”, could not have imagined the impact of his son Giovanni Domenico on the life of the Livornesi.Giovanni Domenico already had an italian name but his friends called him “Ménio”, short for Domenico and obviously eating the “c”.
In 1904, on the grass on the side of Santa Maria del Soccorso (now Piazza della Vittoria), Ménio and his friends played the first ever football (soccer) game in town.
He had learned the rules of the game from the sailors of British ships playing on the docks and, with this historical game, sparkled what became in the years a real passion for the Livornesi.
Today, when the local team (A.S. Livorno) plays, streets are empty, the stadium is crammed and almost everybody is at home watching the game on TV.
19 comments:
very nice photo and commentary. I have been to soccer in Argentina and they are crazy for the soccer.
I can't take my eyes off daisies... :)
yes lovely daisies and thanks for the anecdote, always interesting!
Heavenly field...
Interesting story, Vogon! The other day I watched a
documentary on sky about a livornese football player: Lucarelli. It was really well made, you know, the kind of stories that "humanize" football. I enjoyed it a lot.
Livorno is doing very well!
A historic place indeed! ;-) It's a perfect meadow in the city!
Beautiful scean in spring!
Beautiful photo! Great perspective! Lovely meadow:)
Thank you for this very interesting story. Football/soccer is not yet as popular here as basketball — probably because the space needed for the field is so much bigger — and the fanaticism of Europeans for it boggles my mind.
Such a lovely field of daisies. I hope no one plays on it yet and crushes them!
I fell in love with football my first summer in Europe. I was at school in Sulmona. It was 1982 and Italy was winning the World Cup. I learned a lot of unorthodox Italian that summer and came away with a love for Italy that has never diminished.
@ martha - We were in Paris for the 2006 World Cup Final: I assure you that we learned a lot of unhortodox french then.
My daughters grew up playing soccer here in the U.S., although it wasn't as popular generally as some other sports.
Nice photo, Vogon Poet, and very interesting commentary.
Some people are as crazy about soccer as some of our folks about about American "football."
Such a nice post, like listening to a fairy tale!
Ohh yes I remmeber World Cup 2006! congratulations for Italy! Brazil was so...so...bad in fact! :-( But I don't understand about soccer and better talk about your pictures!
GREAT picture!
Many thanks for sharing this informations!
:-)
Léia
Interesting. We never had a Menio here which, in part, explains our disinterest in soccer.
Molto bello scoprire la storia di una città e gli usi degli abitanti...
Grazie, anche all'immagine si può dare un significato diverso...
I did not know that. Thanks for the info.
Wonderful photo & excellent story. It brings back two memories: I finished 1st grade living in Pula, Croatia with my grandmother. In early fall, I would meet her & my aunt at the seaside, where there were fields of little wild daisies like yours ('tratincice') and I'd make daisy chains. I have not seen them here in SoCal. 2nd is that in 1987, my husband and I were travelling from Paris to Pula by train - decided to spend a couple of days in Verona, I asked the taxi drivers if they could take me to a hotel/motel, they said "No camere, signora." There was the opera festival but more important, there was a big soccer game that evening (we did get the last room close to the train station). The streets that afternoon were COMPLETELY empty.
Does Livorno have an American-style football team? I know there is a few in Italy esp. Torino.
@ Tash - I think John Grisham describes quite well American Football in Italy in "Playing for pizza". I guess that the only football played in this area is at Camp Darby, the large US Army Base between Livorno and Pisa.
Great photo - our lawns too are covered with the tiny little daisies
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