Viva Italia!

This has been one of the best weeks to be living in Boston. When I lived away I would often lament the types of events I have been able to attend this week.

On the 4th is hands down my favorite day of the year to be in the city. This town takes it’s history and it’s roll in it very seriously. All the stops come out when it comes to celebrating our countries independence. When I lived on the west coast every 4th I was home in time to see the broadcast of the Boston fireworks on A&E.

Today’s treat was something unexpected. I had lunch with a friend in Boston’s South End. Being a typical American I didn’t realize today was the Word Cup final between Italy and France. We had lunch in a small pub where we were lucky to get a table. Nether of us could figure out why they were as busy as they were, but about 10 minutes of us sitting down the game started. The people who came in after us were turned away.

The only things I know about soccer are thick legs are very hot and the rest of the world goes insane for it. Justin however had played all through high school. He explained the things that were happening while we watched and ate. After a couple of beers we the place was getting crowded we decided to take a walk.

We walked around for about an hour before we got a block away from City Hall Plaza. We could hear a large crowd and saw people start to run past us. When we got close enough see the plaza, we could see the jumbo screen showing the game with thousands of people watching like a giant open air pub. There were both French and Italian flags waving above the crowd. The crowd was cheering and yelling like we were in Berlin watching in person. We stayed and watched the last half hour to see Italy win it. During the game I yelled, I cheered, I clapped, but mostly because I was happy to see Boston at it’s best.