Review: Visiting Firenze? Visited Firenze? Post your thoughts, hints, tips here.

Jesus, holmes. Nice job rounding all of that up.

 

For Texasoccer: If we finish fourth then our preliminary CL round matches will be the weekend of August 18-19 and then again the following weekend. Not sure which would be home and which would be away, though.

 

Excellent. Thanks for the tip. You guys are making me a real Fiorentina fan. And my wife even loves the fleur-de-lis (not sure how to say this in Italian) on the crest. Great stuff. If I can make this happen I'll definitely add whatever inside knowledge I acquire.

Best regards, Texasoccer (getting ready for the Dynamo game tonight!!).

 

Its been 10 years since I've been to Florence, but there was a great restaurant about 3 blocks west of the train station. I'm going to see if I can find my notes from that trip, but we ate like kings, got free refills on coke for about $9.00.

 

Thanks for the tips! I hope to head over on Jan. 10 to watch Florence-Bari.

 

I lied, I'm posting my experiences here since this is stickied and since the title is exactly what I'm doing!

So last year I studied abroad in Florence through my local community college. I departed from San Francisco on February 3, 2009 for Frankfurt, Germany. Then flew from Frankfurt to Florence. 15 hours of flying/layover/flying. It was my first time out of the country and the furthest east of my hometown I've ever been (the previous furthest east I travelled was Reno, NV, a one hour drive from my California hometown in the hills.) I lived right in the heart of Florence at Via Faenza 12 for 3 months. A quick look out my window and there was Basilica di San Lorenzo. Walk five minutes and I was on the steps of il Duomo. My first Fiorentina Game was the Derby della Toscana versus Siena at Florence on March 22, 2009. I crammed onto a bus labeled "Stadio" with my group of friends and after a short 20 minute bus ride and a quick walk we were at the Franchi.

I asked my Italian teacher how i would go about getting tickets and she said go to the stadium and that the pubs around the stadium sold the tickets. When I was in a line where I had to give my photo i.d. to a strange man through a hole in the wall I was a little skeptical. It all turned out for the best when he returned my i.d. and handed me a ticket. We had gotten the cheapest possible ticket (I wanted better but I didnt want to sit by myself) and sat in the general admission section opposite of Curva Fiesole.

Before the game even started the stadium was sheer pandemonium. The crowd was very active even though it was a low scoring affair. My hunch is because of the Derby implications...and wanting to make up for the previous matchups disappointing result. After Mutu's goal the place exploded like a powder keg. I almost lost my voice after Frey's save off of the back heel in the second half as it happened right in front of me.

The game, even though pretty uneventful besides a few plays, was amazing. I couldn't ask for more. They beat their local rivals at home. Pretty neat first game if you ask me.

 

Great stuff. Can you post some pictures?

 

Ya I was going to put some pictures in the multimedia tab. I'll have to do a couple posts though best they only allow 3 photos per post.

For the Roma game I convinced my friends that would should get better seats and just pay the 15 extra euro. Boy was it worth it too. We were right in line with where Vargas blasted his goal in the 7th minute. On the "Tribuna" according to my ticket. I was literally four rows back from the glass (out of choice, i wanted to be a little higher to see more of the field) and the only people who were sitting in front of me were my creative travel writing teacher and her family who randomly showed up at the game and walked right by us until i flagged them down. Her husband and son got intense into the game and i even caught her cheering pretty loudly. During halftime my friend and I dreamed of the hilarity of being an American Ref in the Italian league and how much it would piss players off. A choice move of ours was, when delivering a card to someone, pretednt to pull it out from behind their ear like a magic trick.

I've been to a lot of sporting events in the states. Football, Baseball, Basketball, and some MLS games. BY FAR, the Fiorentina-Roma game was the best sporting event I've ever been to. The intensity of the stadium was absolutely nuts. The Roma fans had the away section completely filled, their flags were flying hi and they were singing until they went down pretty bad. But the home fans were the real toast that night. The boys gave us all something to sing about, and boy did we. All game, all bus ride back to the city center, and in the streets, Fiorentina were the kings of the city.

 

You cut me deep... Thanks to Wolfpackallday, though. Good stuff.

 

It looks like I'll be making it to the Fiorentina-Bari match on Sunday. It also looks like I'll be taking 10 or so people with me.

Do you all have any suggestions about transportation? We'll be coming in by train from Montecatini. Should we switch lines at the main station in town and ride up to Fiorentina's stadium, or is there a shuttle?

Also, would you anticipate a sell out or any difficulty getting tickets?

Grazie!

 

from this website: http://www.footballinitaly.com/fiorentina.html

The stadium is close to Florence's second train station: Firenze Campo di Marte (head up Largo Gennarelli). From the main station, Santa Maria Novella, you can either take a train to Campo di Marte or take bus numbers 7, 17 or 20.

For these others lines that aren't label "stadio" I just waited at the bus stop and waited for all the old men that have fiorentina scarfs and hats to get on a bus and i trusted that they were going to the stadium and they always were haha.

You can wait at the train station bus stop for a bus that is labeled "stadio." It is bus #52. The bus station i know that it stops at is right in front of the Santa Maria Novella (its a big church right next to the train station).

http://www.ataf-linea.it/en-US/Time.../Line-52.aspx?LN=en-US&idC=180&idO=0&Linea=52

If you take the bus don't forget to get bus tickets because there are undercover agents who ride the buses and pull people off that don't have tickets and charge them a HUGE fine.

 

Thank you all for your help. Turns out I didn't really need it!

I was in Italy with a tour group, and our guide knew a guy (Riccardo), in Montecatini (where we were staying) who went way out of his way to help me and five friends enjoy the Fiorentina-Bari match. We took his bus and he got us our tickets in a ticket booth across the street from the stadium. He also showed us what gate to go into.

We sat (yes, unfortunately, sat) on the outer fringes of the Curva. Unlike D.C. United's supporters sections, the Curva sings more than "ohhh-ohhh-ooo-DC," making it hard for us to pick up on the cheers. But it was a good sized crowd for a cold match against an unpopular opponent. The Bari fans packed the away section and shot rockets at nearby Viola fans.

Fiorentina had some very skilled players down the middle, but the flank play was weak. Also, finishing was poor. The match was tied 1-1 at about the 58th minute when a Bari player got red-carded. Fiorentina took control of the match from there.

Great experience, we all had a lot of fun, and I'll treasure my fake Gilardino jersey for years to come!

 

Thats great man, I'm glad you had a good time!

 

Very cool thread. It is awesome to hear old stories along with getting information one needs to research trips.

 

I lived there 3/4 years from 01 til the end of 04.....first year next door to giardino bobboli, 2nd in the piazza signoria and the last years up at the piazzale michelangelo. In the end being from Northern California, it got a little old in the end and the dream was better than the reality but it was still cool to live and work there. The food , the girls, the women and the soccer have got to be the best in the world.....anyway, ask away......

 

I'm from Northern California too! haha

 

Go Quakes!

 

i lived there for 2 years right in the campo di marte area. i could hear the curva every sunday, it was amazing.

i lived there by mooching off of people though and after 2 years I had to come back to the US, I had no job.

falvo your one lucky guy. hook me up with a job there!

 

It was cool for a while, then it ended. don't fret though, you never know what the future holds. Finche c'e' vita c'e' speranza......