Monday, July 10,

Italy World Cup Victory: In Montreal, Some Hearts Soar, Some Hearts Sink

The ANNOTICO Report

 

I could understand a wild Celebration in all the cities and towns of Italy, and maybe in certain places and homes all over the world, but little did I realize that there were so many large, and in some cased huge gatherings of Italians in various cities in the USA, Australia, United Kingdom, and Canada, among so many other  places all over the world. 

 

I was planning on giving a series of excerpts of such examples, but they became SO numerous, that it would have become so burdensome to compile, and probably very repetitive to read, that I have chosen ONE example that I thought was particularly interesting, because it dealt with a city outside of Italy that has a Substantial Italian and French influence , that is Montreal Canada.

 

Montreal is the World's second largest French-speaking city, and has 70,000 French expatriates and  hundreds of thousands of francophone supporters, and a 225,000-member Italian community, (which is barely half the size of Toronto's).

 

So it seems like the one unique place in the World where the two Cultures are sizable and fairly equal in numbers,

and they both were very vocal, very passionate, yet very civilized.

 

Rue St-Denis is the heart of "Little France" and  St-Laurent Boulevard is the heart of "Little Italy"in Montreal.

 

There was such an enormous outpouring of Italian National and Ethnic Pride expressed all over the World, in a contest that was viewed by 1 Billion people, that the conclusions in Professor Richard Alba's book "Twilight of Italian Ethnicity" must be severely questioned.

 

NOTE:  Please see article further below about  Azzurri Fans in unusual Places:

 "Tibetan Buddhist Monks Support Italy for Fair Play"  :)

 

 

WORLD'S SECOND LARGEST FRENCH SPEAKING CITY AWASH IN ITALIAN COLOURS

 

Alexander Panetta

July 9, 2006

 

MONTREAL (CP) - They danced the tarantella in the streets of Little Italy.

Male strangers hugged each other and exchanged spontaneous same-sex kisses on the cheek.

A clay Madonna was paraded through a crying, cheering, chanting mob with an Italian flag perched in her saintly hand.

This celebration of soccer supremacy took place right in the heart of the world's second-largest French speaking city: Montreal.

While the city's 70,000 French expatriates and their hundreds of thousands of francophone Quebec supporters were stunned by World Cup defeat, Italians in the city spoke of sweet redemption after a two-decade history of heartbreak.

"I've never been so happy in my life," said Agostino Del Coro. "This is as beautiful as the birth of my son."

His brother Ralph collapsed to the floor in tears and needed to be consoled by his fiancee.

Claudia Guanciale gave her husband a good-natured slap with a flag when he declared his plan to get inebriated.

A Roman Catholic priest strolling through the crowd summed up their sentiments: "Amen."

The jubilant scenes in La Piccola Italia played out just one geographic mile from the city's Latin Quarter - but the emotional chasm spanned a galaxy.

The study in contrasts couldn't be explained by old cliches about Montreal's two solitudes. This was instead a tale of two streets, a pair of adjacent arteries that reflect separate components of the city's soul.

French expats and their supporters dribbled dejectedly from the watering holes on Rue St-Denis - a thoroughfare synonymous with the city's francophone culture.

That sombre procession took place within earshot of thousands of cars blasting their horns en route to a victory celebration on St-Laurent Boulevard - the perennial home of Montreal immigrants, and of Little Italy.

The five-block Little Italy area has long been a rallying point for the city's 225,000-member Italian community, which is barely half the size of Toronto's.

Sunday's World Cup contest was no different as Montrealers of Italian descent travelled from across the island to the old neighbourhood that was home to their great-grandparents before new, Canadianized generations retreated to the suburbs.

A wave of panic crashed over the neighbourhood as TV screens suddenly went blank soon after Italy tied the score in the first half.

Hundreds of frantic soccer fans went scurrying through the streets in search of a functioning set during a 15-minute outage that struck patches of the neighbourhood.

It was markedly less chaotic for most of the afternoon as Italians watched their team tire and steeled themselves for yet another defeat.

But the neighbourhood - which was deflated by losses to the French in 1998 and 2000 - sprang to life after Sunday's penalty-kick win.

Tens of thousands spilled out of every nook of every bar and restaurant in the area, and from the parking lot of a trattoria that installed a giant screen above a makeshift public square.

Just a few decades ago on these streets, Italian housewives would stuff live chickens from the local market into paper bags and carry them - the fowl's feathers still flapping - on city buses for the bumpy ride home.

Their children and grandchildren partied into the night Sunday in this new land of $8 martinis and flavoured lattes, and they raised a glass to the old country.

 

 

Tibetan Buddhist monks support Italy for fair play

 

China Daily

Associated Press
2006-07-08

RUMTEK, India - When Italy takes the field in Sunday's World Cup final, it will have some unusual support - some 300 monks at one of Tibetan Buddhism's holiest monasteries will be praying and cheering for the Azzurri.

It's Italy's fair play during the tournament that has impressed the holy men at the Rumtek monastery, high in the Himalayan mountains, monks said.

"I am praying for Italy's victory like many of my colleagues here. The team has reached the finals after a long gap and (are) playing in a fair manner," said Tenzing Dorji, a 27 year-old monk.

However, he does concede that there may be one or two secret France fans there.

Most of the younger monks are keen soccer fans, said Karma Gyaltsen, a senior monk in charge of the monastery's administration.

"I'm sure they are going to break the stillness around here a bit with their shouts Sunday night," he said...

The monks at Rumtek, one of the holiest Tibetan Buddhism sites outside Tibet, will gather in a hall, braving the near freezing weather and staying up till the early hours of the morning Monday to watch the game.

And soccer fever won't abate after the World Cup, Dorji said. The monks are avid players too.

"Football is our favorite game. Wednesdays aside, we play the game during our lunch-break," he said.

Rumtek is 24 kilometers (15 miles) west of Gangtok, the capital of northeastern India's Sikkim state, which borders Tibet.

 

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