If someone had said to me when the final whistle went at the magnificent Stadio Sinigaglia, Como in late January 2020, that it would take 26 months and a few days for me to be watching another game outside the UK, I would have done what the Romanians did to Ceaucescu! That would of course be too extreme, however a Monty Python fish slapping routine at Teddington Lock or any other body of water would surely have come into play.
Obviously if I wasn’t a carer for my dear old mother, opportunity might have allowed for an earlier return to Calcio, but the absence has just sharpened the senses that bit more. I will never take the right of travel, or indeed of football viewing anywhere for granted ever again.
The notion of starting back in Campania might seem a little random, but then again, if you have enjoyed my tales over the years in Football Weekends, you might know that I prefer the niche world. The fan bases, the passion and the cities are less well known, but they deserve a moment in the sun, and I am glad I have the opportunity to showcase smaller clubs.
So it was, on the 1st April I set off from my home in Edinburgh at 6,30am destination Benevento, and it wasn’t even an April’s Fool, this was happening. Benevento is 50 kilometres North East of Napoli as you head inland, and a two hour whizz on a fast train from Roma, which was the route that brought me down this way. The city has a population of just shy of 60,000, and it sits partly atop a hill at the confluence of two rivers that surrounded the older part of Benevento.
The most famous and historic site in Benevento hails from 114, yes that’s correct, an early one! Il Arco Traiano is an Arc de Triomphe-esque piece of archecture, erected in honour of Trajan (Traiano in Italian) by the Roman senate of all people. It once formed the entrance to the city, part of a bizarre short cut back in the day on the Via Traiana, built by the Spanish emperor on the Rome to Brindisi route!
Well my train to Benevento was bound, eventually for Brindisi, but it wasn’t called the Traiana Express, however as luck would have it, my abode for the night was the magnificently named Hotel Villa Traiano, perched right above the very old Arco, as well as affording fine views of the city and the distant glare of Benevento Calcio’s stadium lights burning brightly. Fret yee not, I hadn’t got the day wrong, but someone was putting in a shift on the eve of the game. Benevento also has a Roman Amphitheatre, not as grand as Verona for example, but still used a venue for plays and concerts.
When I worked in the centre of Edinburgh, two of my chums and I used to frequent an Italian restaurant whose origins were from Campania way, and our bottle of wine of choice was always Falanghina. This wine is Benevento’s produce, and purely on the research ticket you understand, I had to order a drop of the old fruity favourite in its home town. The very thought powered my long way down here!
The vast majority of my tales thus far in Football Weekends have hailed from the North of Italy, but these Covid times are seeing us all branch out, take nothing for granted and looking to experience new places. I could have written about the astonishingly beautiful city of Lecce, the furthest south I have ever been thus far in Italy, but alas, when you are heading into the away end, and the world hasn’t arrived yet at a point where a mere mobile phone has a camera that is as good as the real thing, I have no photos. The memory of yet another Ancona away day loss and the subsequent hour long detention in the ground for being naughty boys pre-match will remain just that, a memory.
Curiously here I am back writing about Italy in the ‘south’ as the northerners would have it, and at another club steeped, like Lecce, in the red and yellow colour scheme. Mind you, maroon is healthly represented in the South (and elsewhere too in Italy) along with a veritable festival of red and blue stripes that tick every box in my Inverness Caledonian Thistle world!
Benevento Calcio might be familiar to you these days, as twice this century already they have nibbled for one season at a time at the Italian top table. The second effort really did seem to be set for a third stint after a good start to the campaign, but a mini collapse during the second half of the ’20/21 campaign, coupled with more fight and belief from those who struggled early on, saw them back in B for the start of the current season.
Prior to these Serie A days, Benevento weren’t even really what you call an established Serie B club. They just crashed into that world in 2015/16 like whirling dervishes for the first ever time and like the red and yellow of Lecce, they have got a yo-yo thing going on, having zipped into A for the first time in ’17/18, which included a memorable 95th minute equaliser from the Benevento goalkeeper Alberto Brignoli for a famous 2,2 draw with AC Milan at the Stadio Ciro Vigorito. The stadium is named after the club President Oreste Vigorito’s brother Ciro, who is a hero in this Sorcerers domain (the club badge has a witch on a broom and the team are called Strega meaning witches), and also referred to as the king of wind! Handy when vento (wind) forms of the city’s name, but his world was wind power/renewables etc. A man ahead of his time.
The Ciro Vigorito is a classic middle/southern Italian concrete construction, with two viewing levels right around the ground, save the one tier, covered main stand. This style of stadium seems especially prevalent in Campania with Salernitana and Avellino having almost identical stadia, as well as further south at Foggia and Taranto, plus Campobasso in Molise and Ascoli in Marche. The Ciro has been buffed up in recent years with Serie A having been on the roster, and holds just short of 17,000. Its striking yellow and red seats added colour to the scene, especially on such a grey day. Considering the almost incessant rain, the surface never once showed any signs of potential flooding issues. The view from the top of the Gradinata Superiore opposite the main stand gives quite a stunning backdrop of snowy mountains to add to the live action.
Benevento literally translates as Good Wind, and by the most unfortunate of circumstances, not only was their a good wind to welcome me back to Calcio, but a constant stream of water from the sky. I had chosen a big old clash for my return too, with the Russian born, American owned Pisa, who were better placed than Benevento headed south for this one, with games running out. Indeed results earlier in the day had offered Pisa the chance to go top with a win.
Pisa were my guinea pigs for the new turnstile, ticketing regime in Italy in 2007, part of the notion was trying to stem the violence, and it has worked largely, but that day it was a no go. They only sold tickets via a Pisan Theatre miles from the game, and not likely to be open on match day, or so I was unenthusiastically told whilst briefly in what I thought, stupidly of course, was a queue for briefs. I was trying to be greedy that day, with an early kick off at Empoli before tripping along in the hope of seeing Pisa play Frosinone. It wasn’t to be, and I have never ventured back, leaving Pisa as a rare not yet visited venue for a game in Tuscany. However I have seen them away in two Tuscan derbies v Arezzo and Lucchese, both of which they won. It was going to be interesting to see how they faired out from the comfort of the Tuscan hills. Although the word comfort is rather an oxymoron here as Tuscany gives fiefdoms a bad name!
Benevento have in their ranks a World Cup hero, Giancarlo Lapadula, an Italian Peruvian who has chosen to play for his mother’s homeland of Peru. He scored the crucial goal versus Paraguay that saw them finish 5th in the South American World Cup qualifying marathon, earning his nation a crack at a play off route to the Finals versus an Asian 5th side. In honour of his efforts, and showing scars are finally healed from Argentina 1978 for a Scotland fan, I brought my newly acquired Peru shirt, but alas the weather would only see it fleetingly get a peek from at least two layers down. April in southern Italy will be balmy, so he thought, wrong! Alas with two big World Cup games under his belt, not to mention a lengthy flight back to Italy, Giancarlo was left out for this match.
I might have been away from calcio for too long, but with the clock merely rolling into the third minute, Strega (witches) hit the front with a fine first time shot from the penalty spot area. It came at the conclusion of a concerted attack, and set the tone for what would become one of the best games of the season, and amongst the best I have seen in Italy. The goal sparked cheers from every conceivable nook and cranny where people could shelter and watch the action unfold whilst staying dry. Conversely, the Pisani were largely toughing it out in the wet, and despite both a drenching and what would become a drubbing, they sang from start to finish.
Benevento had more at stake in this encounter, as a loss could have been fatal for any automatic promotion spot asperations. A second goal before the break eased Strega into a comfortable lead, but they do say a two goal lead is a dangerous one, especially against a Tuscan outfit with a habit of staging healthy comebacks. The answer to any such concerns is of course to double your advantage, and that is exactly what they did, with barely an hour played.
The home side were in irresistable form, the early goal had sent the confidence soaring, but to be fair to Pisa, they played a part in making this a very open and entertaining match. When they finally did score, VAR was needed to check it, and the sheer temerity merely poked the Benevento bear who waltzed forward to score almost straight from kick off to restore the four goal advantage. It could have been six, it might have been six, but despite a raft of substitutions, a couple of injuries and a VAR check, the ref added no time on at the end. Two soaked sets of players had entertained us royally and applause reflected their efforts, this had been a five star Benevento showing.
Benevento is a wonderful place. You get a feel for its ancient origins in the centre, The Roman Empire had it well ordered. The views of the surrounding snow capped mountains is a thing of beauty when the clouds relented long enough to enjoy the spectacle. The football team aren’t bad either, and if they keep up this level of performance in the coming weeks, Serie A for a third time remains a distinct possibility.
Getting There
The Ciro Vigorito stadium is a fair old jaunt from the railway station. If you were merely daytripping, I would source a taxi or enquire about buses. However, if you like walking, and time is on your side, by all means give it a whirl. You will need more than an hour though. The first stretch from the station to the first river is easy, as straight as they come. Once across, things start to get tricky and uphill. Old town Benevento wasn’t built with convenient cut through routes in mind, but if you do make it up and across, when you cross the second river, no matter at which of three bridges (one pedestrian only), turn immediately left and follow the river walking against its flow. As the curve of the river takes you slightly right, the apartments disappear and the floodlights are in view. You still have to warily negotiate an Emir Kustarica, Time of the Gypsies-esque fun park, pavement washing lines and gypsy caravans. Don’t walk under the bridge, as this could be dangerous depending the hour. I would take the road slightly right and you still arrive at the stadium.
Catering
There is nowhere even vaguely close to the stadium for a beer or good food. Maybe it was down to the inclement weather, but no outdoor catering vans were around either. Inside the stadium kiosks will sell you the usual fayre and beer, as well as vendors selling no end of variety of nut.
Sadly, the club had no souvenirs at the ground, but they do have a club shop in the city. As luck would have it, I was walking by en route from hotel to station after the game and it was still open after 7 on a Saturday night! I popped in, and soon popped back out, astonished to find they had no pin badge, pennant, scarf or home shirt! I know it is late in the season, but really!
Football Adventures with James Rendall 