you win some...

As it turns out, my mission to see soccer today was a partial flop. When I told the woman at the front desk of the hotel this morning that 'I heard there was a soccer match of some regional importance today...' she immediately got excited. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go. Although there were around 1500 unsold tickets to Genova v. Sampdoria, they would not sell them on the day of the match because of the need to check individuals' identities beforehand due to concerns about violence between supporters. It makes me wonder a bit if Among the Thugs weren't at least a little wrong about the uniqueness of English boorishness. Who knows? Anyway, I opted to go and watch the game at a bar instead (uno, per pizza e partita?).

This bar seemed to be 97% full of Sampdoria supporters, based on their reactions to events in the match. Due to the close, but undramatic nature of the match this wasn't clear until about 25 minutes into the second half. The manager of the bar seems to have been a Genova supporter, based on the semi-consoling gestures and sounds the various people in the bar seemed to be making toward him. The pasta with pesto I had during the game was fine, but nothing spectacular. I think I'll probably need to go to a real restaurant to get the flavor of the local cuisine. Probably because everyone in the bar was watching the game, this was my first ever Italian-only language adventure... right up until the absolute last second. When the cashier took my money, stopped, looked at me and mumbled something incomprehensible, I punted. "I'm sorry, I didn't understand..."

Also, pretty much everything was closed today - no converters, no phone card, niente! Still, I found out where the Archivio di Stato is (it's located in a parking lot - hilarious!), found the street where the apartment I'll be living in as of tomorrow (God willing) is, and mostly figured out where the language school I'm taking classes at is - I found the street but couldn't for the life of me figure out where the actual institute resides. It's going to be a long and hungry night if I cna't find some place open for dinner...