Do as the Florentines Do

With Spring well on its way, it was hard to go a day without some kind of event occurring in the city. Two of my favorite memories by far were attending a Fiorentina soccer game along with the Italian MTV Awards a couple days later. The day of the soccer game, Megan and I bought some gear to show off our hometown pride and made our way to the stadium. Fioretina was actually playing their rival team that day so the crowd was absolutely nuts. While I’m not a sports fanatic, it was easy to get swept into the fanaticism emanating from the crowd. My favorite cheer? Vaffanculo, Juvi, Juvi! FYI, Juvi is short for Juvitus, the name of the rival team. And well, vaffanculoroughly translates to “f**k you.” Glad Italian class paid off! The two teams ultimately tied but it was undoubtedly the most fun I’ve had getting a sunburn in quite sometime.

Later that week, it was time for the MTV Awards! There had been a lot of buzz going around Florence that there would be a super special celebrity guest arriving for the show! Lady Gaga, Beyonce, and Eminem seemed to be the most likely of bests but it wouldn’t be until that night that we found out. The awards show was actually a psuedo-Italian Coachella of sorts with live bands playing throughout the day. Now, between the Italian hipster bands (sooooo obscure, right?) and the Italian gangster rapers (so would Naples be the equivalent of South Central?) I had no idea what any of these people were singing about. But the festivities (held outside of Santa Croce) were a blast. Unfortunately, no appearance by Lady Gaga, although I did hear one song I kind of knew! Well, sort of. Anyway, I had a fantastic time at both events and it certainly made me glad to live in Florence. I love me some Renaissance art but it’s nice to spice it up every once and while.