Vuvuzelas...

I become a football fan every four years, when the World Cup arrives, no matter where I am... I remember watching Mexico's World Cup (1986) in the Dominican Republic, Italy's (1990) in the middle of the Kalahari desert (in fact, I must say I did not actually watch it, but heard it on a small radio), USA's (1994) on an island in the French Polynesia, France's (1998) in the French Riviera, Korea's (2002) in Paris and Germany's final match (2006) in New York, in the apartment of an Argentine friend of mine. That same night I took an Air France flight to Paris and the French wouldn't check me in when they saw my Italian passport... they were still sorry for the defeat...

Four years have gone by now and I follow all the matches with the same passion I inherited from my father, who used to play for Siena in his youth... I shout, suffer and cry and, in the end, I love all teams... for some reason or other. Italy is my birthplace, how can I not love it? Argentina is the passion, Maradona, the Argentine people that I know so well... I could imitate them, how they talk to each other after a goal or a special play in their exact accent!!! 

France gave me so much... And Uruguay... If I go on, I'll find reasons to cheer for South Korea too!

But what I will definitely remember of this World Cup 2010, in addition to all the things to come, is the sound of the vuvuzuelas, those stadium horns made of boiled cardboard that only SouthAfricans know how to blow "comme il faut" and that had already caught the attention of Winston Churchill during the Boer Wars. That obsessive noise, which reminds me of a bee swarm, bothered me from match number one and I will always associate it to this World Cup.

Mythology says that the people of Cape of Good Hope decided to honor bees as if they were Gods (if bees disapeared, men would soon perish... Albert Einstein). According to tradition, vuvuzelas remind us that we'll be reborn after our deaths... And at Cap Town Stadium, many will die and be reborn...

PS: Special remark for Roque Santa Cruz, from Paraguay... so good-looking!!!