Neat thing about Italy - I haven't had to tune into a sports channel once to know how the Azzurri was doing in the World Cup. As long as I was conscious, I knew how well Italy was doing.

During the quarter-final play we were in the commissary during one of the games and the entire place erupted in cheers when Italy scored to win.

During the semi-finals we were in the local town square getting gelato and a pub just down from the gelateria was packed to over-flowing out into the common area with people watching. Thanks to the screaming crowd, we knew Italy had scored when we were walking back to the car. We drove around a bit and then it was obvious Italy had won when we saw several young men coming through town on their mopeds honking and waving at everyone and waving HUGE Italian flags.

Last night, I actually watched the game, but it would have been obvious that Italy won since you could hear car horns for nearly an hour. And, everywhere you look today, the Italian flag is proudly displayed. The Italian gate guard even had to sing the Azzurri's praises as he checked my ID coming through the gate today.