ROME- Football is deeply embedded in Italian culture- it is one of those things that demands loyalty that is handed down generations. It is a stream that if disrupted can tear apart families.

TV’s blare the match, the only thing to ruin the sanctity of family dinner hopefully resulting in the team’s win rather than an awkward end of a meal with babbo (dad). The anthropology is fascinating. Childhood friends stay united in a lifelong circle in their respective fan groups. While off-duty cops aren’t busting heads they are among their very counterparts. It only expands in contradiction and nuance as a cultural staple, inevitably garnering the curiosity of foreigners, particularly students studying abroad. The question is to what extent do you want to get down.

Here’s a breakdown of basics that can take you a long way.
The historic Rome-Lazio rivalry is very illustrative of a dynamic that permeates many cities around Europeand the world. The dichotomy nearly echoes the very tone of the fable of Romulusand Remus. Generally, Romeis acknowledged as the team of the inner-city working class, in many ways being the more friendly to immigrant labourers than their rivals. In Rome’s meandering alleyways allegiance is obvious and generally stadium territory is dominated by a smattering of fan crews that represent the diversity of the city’s many political, economic, and fashion strata. Across town on Sundays, you can often see city residents mobilizing along the TiberRiverand chanting out of buses and motorbikes, followed by flags all the way to the stadium. Flags guide a path to the stadium hanging off balconies with the day’s laundry.

Lazio’s ultras are content to self-identify as the more clean-cut of the two. The reasons for gravitating towards this aesthetic and attitude has been attributed to a variety of reasons you can imagine ranging from the vain to deeply cultural. Unlike Rome’s hooligans, Lazio’s firms are consolidated, and organised with near military precision which permeates nearly every facet of fandom ranging from radio shows, choreography and battle formation versus police. Many speculate this is widely indicative of their political leanings. They are polar opposites of Roma’s fans, and these long negotiated identities go back to near mythical beginnings which I encourage you to research alone. There’s a wealth of beautiful story behind it that will put the passion into perspective.

The theatre for all this is Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, which the two teams share, this stage has fuel the feud between the two parties. Rome’s ultras occupy the Southern curve of the oval (Curva Sud) which has its back to the city and the sun. Lazio fans are found in the Northern curve (Curva Nord). Being a stranger in the stadium is like arriving to the high school cafeteria with your lunch tray ‘new kid’. If you sit in the wrong place you will be systematically dealt with. Visiting fans generally occupy the Northern curve. So if you want the down-to-earth real look at the families of fans, go to the curves.

Generally risk is exaggerated in the media, so as long as you’re respectful it will be ok. Each is full of songs, flares, flags and overwhelmingly a good time. Its not assigned seating and basically ends up being standing room the entire game. Fear not because time will fly while you have fun.
If you’re a pansy I suggest you look for refuge on the flanks of the stadiums. Working inward to midfield you can find a plethora of escalating and overpriced seats where everyone is silent and Rome’s middle class brings their kids dressed from head to toe in posh overpriced-fan gear. Generally these sections are largely unpopulated. I assure you the most morbid time of your life, punctuated only by watching the literal riot of fun that will be the Curva occupants spilling into sections of riot cops as they taunt opposing hooligans across the sea of bleachers.

In terms of internal politics, Lazio and Rome each have their special language. A relationship hard for outsiders to understand. The Irriducibili, Lazio’s central firm, in their intense organization, have little to say about outsiders and are indifferent to tourists. The factionalized Curva Sud, hosting Rome’s hooligans are dominated by the larger monolithic fan structures (i.e. Boys 1972, Fedayn, etc.,) down to smaller neighbourhood contingents. This smattering of individual groups is largely defined by legacies of political inclinations and are decentralized.

If you’re in the wrong space you will either be absorbed until you feel so awkwardly surrounded that you leave, be asked to leave or just simply be stared at blankly by a man smoking a cigarette. Curva Sud sports hallmarks that are decades which linger despite systematic watering down of fan culture in Italy. The seemingly ancient guy who sells roasted nuts eccentrically accompanies the silhouette of ultra captains, each perched representing their respective fan group. They drive the concerto from the top of scaled fibreglass riot walls, directing choreography. Occasionally you’ll be asked to hold something or wave a piece of paper and realize that you are officially a participant in a choreography that might as well be larger than life that you’ll observe on the front page of the paper the next morning. Attend enough and you’ll learn the seasons roster of songs of rivalry.
If you’re the humble yet ballsy and the amicable type, you’ll make friends with Romans and be invited out with locals. Many of these seasoned guys will straight up run out of the stadium wrapping their faces in scarves and attempt to prod visiting opponents before the riot squad quickly attempts to escort them to their bus. A lot of the time they’ll be intercepted by cops who either are eager to bash skulls ( my friend has the scar down his skull to prove it) or both visiting and roman hooligans will briefly join forces to battle the larger foe; the police.
 

While this is a lot to memorize, I encourage anyone to check out a few games. Italian soccer has sociological underpinnings and complexity that defy external observation much of the time, which inevitably means a phenomenon butchered and perverted in the media. While this all sounds chaotic, you’re free to engage on whatever level you want. Overall, this is all governed by fairly rigid unspoken street law. Football violence rarely ventures outside of the stadium for instance, and occurs in specific places on stadium grounds.

I once found myself on the opposite side of the city in a piazza called Campo Dei Fiori, with a friend pointing out various clusters of young men in the piazza drinking. He explained how fans were easily distinguishable. He saw kids he knew who had ‘ventured to the dark side’, now Lazio fans and how they stood out aesthetically from Roman fans. At the end of the day, everyone mingles and differences are swept aside. Many you’ll find even grew up with each other or were friends from secondary school. If the stadium doesn’t sound like your style, the city is dotted in local bars exclusively claiming allegiance to A.S. Roma. Many of the folks found in these fan clubs have probably been going there the bulk of their lives. You’ll get stared at blankly if you don’t attempt to speak respectable Italian, but its as much a part of soccer culture as being at the stadium.

As the old men play cards, they love to tell stories so bring a Peroni. Football truly runs in Rome’s blood, and it serves as a microcosm of a greater national passion. The complexity extends on a nationwide level yielding in fruitful and intense relationships between neighbourhoods cities and provinces.