World Cup Sunday

Today MB and I hung out in North Beach, San Francisco’s “Little Italy”. The World Cup final was on at 11am, between France and Italy, so we figured what better place could there be to spend the day? Worst case, if Italy were to lose, we could always walk over to Belden Place, where most of the French fans would be hanging out.
There were a lot of people milling about in North Beach, with a festive vibe in the air. Most of the people were crowded around big-screen TVs in bars of restaurants. People were even stacked deep on the opposite side of Columbus Street from one big-screen TV…

You’ve probably heard by now that Italy won, on penalty kicks. It was quite a game. And the celebration in North Beach was monumental! Where did all these people suddenly come from? I think most of the city came down to North Beach to help celebrate the victory in style!

Columbus Street was absolutely mobbed, with people cheering the Italy theme song (“Ole, ole ole ole…”), screaming out “Italiaaaaaaa…!”, and running a huge Italian flag up and down the street. I was amazed at how long the crowd kept cheering, and cheering, and cheering!

Eventually, MB and I decided to just kick back and watch, so we walked back to her place to pick up some wine, cheese, and other goodies. We spent a very pleasant few hours settled on a blanket in Washington Square, reading the paper, sunning ourselves, and watching the celebration. It was quite a wonderful way to spend a sunny Sunday in San Francisco.