Hellas Verona

Ground: Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi

Visits: 1

Date: 30th October 2014

Match: Hellas Verona - Lazio 1-1 (Serie A)

Attendance: 17 760

The match between Hellas Verona and Lazio was moved to Thursday evening. That meant I could finish off the tour with yet another Serie A match and then fly home from Bologna on Friday morning. I woke up in Florence and 10.15 my train left Firenze Santa Maria Novella. After changing trains in Bologna I arrived in Verona shortly after noon. My hotel was only a 10-minute walk away from the train station. The weather in Verona was as nice as it had been all week. I left my bag at the hotel and headed towards Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi, the football stadium in Verona. The ground was a 25-minute walk for me and once there I went to the ticket point to buy my ticket for tonight´s match. I bought a ticket for Poltrone Est costing me 30 Euros. Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi was opened in 1963 and has a capacity of around 36 000. It was renovated for the 1990 World Cup and despite the running tracks the stadium is one of the better stadiums in Italy. Hellas Verona won Serie A in 1985 but between 2002 and 2013 the club played in the lower divisions. Chievo Verona also play at Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi but Hellas Verona will always be the number one club in the city. Even though they played in Serie B for many years Hellas Verona still had a better average attendance most seasons than Chievo Verona. For the fourth day in a row I couldn´t find an open gate and after a few exterior pictures I headed back towards the city centre.

Verona is a city straddling the Adige river in Veneto, northern Italy, with approximately 265 000 inhabitants. It is one of the main tourist destinations in northern Italy, owing to its artistic heritage, several annual fairs, shows, and operas, such as the lyrical season in the Arena, the ancient amphitheatre built by the Romans. The city has been awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO because of its urban structure and architecture. I had something to eat and drink before visiting Arena di Verona, the ancient amphitheatre. As always it is fascinating to visit something that old. From the top row of the Arena I had a great view of the city centre. One lady suddenly started to sing (it felt like I was at the opera) and when she finished she got a massive applaud. Casa Giulietta is one of the other main tourist attractions in Verona and is only a short walk from the Arena di Verona. In the nice weather I stopped at a Gelateria for some ice-cream first though. Outside Casa di Giulietta there were plenty of tourists and some of them entered the museum, including the balcony, as well. I stayed outside though. The house in Verona known as Juliet's house (Casa di Giulietta) was owned by the family dell Capello and was made famous by Shakespeare´s Romeo and Juliet. The house dates from the 13th century and the family coat of arms can still be seen on the wall. A slight problem is the balcony itself, which overlooks the courtyard – it was added in the 20th century. After all the walking I was a bit tired and I went back to my hotel for a short rest.

Shortly after 7pm I was back at Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi and the place was buzzing with fans looking forward to the match. My seat was in row two of the rightmost block of the East Stand. Some people in that block obviously didn´t want to sit during the match and there were a lot of fans standing throughout the match. That meant I had to move but I found an empty seat in row 11 and from there I had a good view of the action. Lazio brought around 200 fans to this match and they were seated at the top of Curva Nord. The hardcore fans of Hellas Verona are in Curva Sud and they created a very good atmosphere for most of the 90 minutes. Of the four matches I went to in Italy this week this was the match with the best atmosphere. Lazio were 1-0 up at half-time but a Hellas Verona penalty in the second half made it 1-1 and this was to be the final score. I was back t my hotel by 11pm and I could look back on a great week in Italy. The weather really couldn´t be better and the football was good too. At 11.05 on Friday morning my flight left Bologna at 15.30 I was back home in Kristianstad. Italy was my 16th country for football this year and hopefully Montenegro in two weeks time will be my 17th. After that trip I don´t have any more trips planned in 2014 but in early January 2015 I might go to England or Spain.

Pictures from Verona

city centre