Fiorentina

Ground: Stadio Artemio Franchi

Visits: 1

Date: 29th October 2014

Match: Fiorentina - Udinese 3-0 (Serie A)

Attendance: 27 016

I woke up on Wednesday morning in Reggio Emilia. As usual when I am abroad I looked at news from Sweden. This turned out to be a sad day for Swedish football. Klas Ingesson played 57 times for Sweden and was part of the Sweden team that won a bronze medal in the 1994 World Cup. He played several seasons in Italy (Bologna, Bari and Lecce). He died from cancer early this morning and his death was a big news story in Sweden as well as in Italy. As I made the short walk to the train station in Reggio Emilia I reminded myself to enjoy life as much as possible.

My destination today was Florence (Firenze in Italian) and after changing trains in Bologna I was in Florence by 12.40. Florence is the capital city of the region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. Florence is famous for its history: a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, it is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages". A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy.

After leaving my bag at my hotel I strolled around in the city centre for a few hours. The cathedral, Palazzo Vecchio, the Ponte Vecchio bridge etc (not to mention the city centre itself) were all very nice to visit. The weather was yet again fantastic and I used the opportunity to take some great pictures. Even if you are not interested in football I can warmly recommend a visit to Florence. If you are interested in football the place to visit is of course Stadio Artemio Franchi, the home of Fiorentina. Stadio Artemio Franchi was opened in 1931 (renovated for the 1990 World Cup) and has a capacity of 47 000. There is only one covered stand and many of the seats have a restricted view because of the plexiglass. There is a train station, Firenze Campo Marte, some 300 metres from Stadio Artemio Franchi and from Firenze Santa Maria Novella, the main train station in Florence, the journey time is only 5 minutes. I walked the usual lap around the ground but for the third day in a row I couldn´t find an open gate. After buying my ticket in the ticket office I had something to eat and drink at a restaurant near the ground. The restaurant walls were full of pictures of Fiorentina heroes from the past. Kurt Hamrin played 289 league matches (scoring 150 goals) for Fiorentina and is regarded as one of the club´s greatest ever players. Only Gabriel Batistuta has scored more goals for Fiorentina than Kurt Hamrin. Being from Sweden Hamrin was the player I looked for and I (of course) found him in several photos.

Kick-off this evening was at 20.45 and 19.00 I was yet again at Stadio Artemio Franchi. My seat was in row 21 of the Tribuna Maratona. From that seat I had an excellent view of the action. Next to me it was most elderly season ticket holders. They were true Italians and got very upset whatever happened on the pitch. Looking at and hearing them was almost as interesting as the match itself. Udinese only brought around 20 fans to this match and for them this was to be a disappointing evening. Fiorentina were by far the better team and won 3-0, much to the delight of Curva Ferrovia. I was expecting a very good atmosphere but that was not the case. Decent would be my description of the atmosphere at Stadio Artemio Franchi this evening. After the match I hurried back to Firenze Campo Marte and shortly after 11pm I was back at my hotel.

Pictures from Florence

cattedrale di santa maria del fiore