Tuscany had been badly hit by flooding in the latter part of 2023. Just two weeks before arriving with my fiance to enjoy the delights of some of the classic towns and cities of the region, lives had been turned upside down by the impact of yet another storm surge. Those areas affected were away from places on our trip, little consolation to those who were affected, but it did inadvertently help bring a game into my view with the post flood clean-up being sighted as the rationale for delaying a scheduled Sunday fixture in Prato until the following Wednesday.
This unexpected twist played right into my hands, as lo and behold, on our first night of time in Firenze, just twenty minutes away was a derby match I had long dreamed of seeing. I guess most football fans would cite the Milan derby or the Roman derby as bucket list encounters in Italy. I couldn’t care less if I saw these matches, but having done Ancona v Ascoli (a rarely played affair these days sadly), and Novara v Pro Vercelli, the North-East Tuscan derby between Prato v Pistoiese would become the third of eight calcio “derbies” on my bucket list. Catanzaro v Cosenza and Bisceglie v Molfetta might both be a possibility in the next year or so, while the remaining trio haven’t been played (certainly with a crowd) for a very long time; Livorno v Pisa, Brescia v Atalanta and Triestina v Udinese.
Tuscany is the home of the original fiefdoms in Italy, where historically neighbouring cities would haul up the drawbridge of their walled city and allow rivalry to fester, which resulted more often than not in cities regularly being on a war footing. That deep rooted suspicion of your neighbouring dwelling was endemic and still exists to an extent these days, with football helping to play out these issues. The biggest rivalry came about following the Battle of Montaperti meaning the capital boys from Fiorentina will always have beef with Siena. Then the aforementioned Livorno v Pisa is also a huge rivalry, perhaps more world renown in footballing circles, where its notoriety even takes related graffiti to as far flung places such as Berlin, Tunisia, and Jericho! Largely people seem to side with the Livornesi, count me in! The question remains though, when will we see these sides going at it once more? Two leagues presently divide them. Arezzo v Siena also fits the bill of a real local Tuscan footballing feud.These two encounters are high alert match-ups for the police. However, scratch further beneath the surface and Lucchese v Pisa (I have seen this derby), Montevarchi v Arezzo or Grosseto v Siena (also viewed- where the nicking of a bell many a century ago was the centrepiece for provocation!) all fall into the same category, with the fans regaling tales via songs based on historical raids on each other’s territory!
Prato v Pistoiese is perhaps the lesser known affair of these smaller but intense rivalries. That doesn’t mean it isn’t without spice, quite the contrary in this region, where local bun fights always carry higher significance beyond normal realms, this is no piffling affair.The basis of the rivalry for these two cities 20 kilometres apart started off as industrial (Prato) versus peasant (Pistoia), and if Grosseto still had a grudge against Siena for stealing a bell many years ago, this derby has an even more hilarious back story. A bold man from Pistoia marched into Prato Cathedral and stole a belt! This was allegedly no ordinary belt, but one used by The Madonna (not the singer), donated to the church ahead of her Assumption to heaven. The legend has it, having scampered out of Prato he got lost in the fog. Believing he was back at Pistoia he banged on the city gates, only to discover he had inadvertently double backed on his tracks, and his plea “let me in, I have the belt of Prato” was greeted by great joy by the gatekeepers of, well Prato. He was captured, condemned, and sadly the rest of the story is too graphic as younger readers might have nightmares. The end game saw his ashes scattered in the Bisenzio River, a body of water that flows by the Prato stadium. Throughout the world, local rivalry matters, but in Tuscany, it is borne of more historical roots that go beyond merely a game of football as you can see.
The area around Pistoia (30 minutes north of Florence) had been badly hit by flooding, and the local team, US Pistoiese had downed boots and balls, to take up wellies and brushes to assist with the clear up. All the kudos to them for helping, and this might partly explain why Prato altered the game (in agreement with Pistoiese I am sure), but the politics that sat alongside it were, as I discovered, totally unacceptable. The Pratesi police and football authorities were about to ruin what should have been a fantastic occasion.
Unaware of any of these issues above, I set off for the 20 minute journey to Prato, where the Stadio Lungobisenzio is literally just two minutes from the station. Tickets for this game weren’t being sold online, but were available right up until kick off. There was no queue when I arrived, and I decided to go for a different perspective on the game from my previous visit, buying a ticket for the home Curva, having watched a game here from the main stand (Tribuna) previously. The stand would sell out anyway, but as the game kicked off, a significant number of Prato fans were still trying to get through security at the gate. Many of them missed the opening goal with a penalty award for handball against Prato within seconds of the start!
There were merely a handful of away fans in the visiting section, which seemed curious. I had seen these encounters online, and Pistoiese always travelled with good support. It then became apparent that the home Ultras were keeping their area behind the goal vacant, with some sort of silent protest ongoing. Prato has had a dreadful start to this fourth tier campaign, and I have seen these sort of protests before in Cesena and Florence. It usually is to let the team know they are unhappy with their performance, and on both those occasions, the aforementioned sides were winning, and the protest went on longer than here. Whether it was meant to last longer, I am unsure, but when the second Pistoiese goal went in with just ten minutes on the clock, the Ultras flooded into their space and started to chant.
It had the right effect as the home side stirred from their slumber and started to get into the game. In the meantime, the away end was still housing just 5 fans! Were the Ultras delayed? What was going on? A large banner was then held up by the Prato Ultras, which I couldn’t read as I was behind them, and minutes later, a handful of more Pistoiese fans appeared. They too started to unfurl a banner, but once they were finished, they talked to the small number already there, and one of the original 5 left with them!
When the dust settled on what should have been a cracking derby, won 3-1 by Pistoiese, with all goals in the first half, it transpires that the visiting fans had been restricted to 100 tickets, and they physically had to travel to Prato ahead of the match, with proof of residence to buy a ticket, so a boycott was instigated. The banners of both sets of fans were united in condemnation of an utterly mad and infuriating local police/footballing decision. What should have been one of the great derby occasions in the pantheon of my calcio viewing had been tempered, downgraded by the lunacy of this situation, although the actual game itself was consistently enthralling. You know a derby is ruined when both sets of fans are united. The silent protest at the start was a show of solidarity and disgruntlement with the situation. After all, the Pratesi will be hoping to be in Pistoia for the return match.
This is the problem with football in Italy, where bureaucracy and an almost excessive need to flex muscles by men in suits just because they can is endemic. This was a fourth tier match, and yes, a fierce rivalry exists, but it could have been managed and controlled, it has previously. Catanzaro and Cosenza played to a full house with a full away end the very next weekend, and with neither Prato or Pistoiese in brilliant form, this was never going to be a sell out or anything more than a game requiring vigilant stewarding to keep the fans apart. It gets even more stupid in Puglia, where Bisceglie, playing in the sixth tier, have three teams in their league from the local rival town of Molfetta. Two of these clubs have just a couple of hundred fans, yet, for all three away games, Bisceglie fans are banned! It is incomprehensible in this day and age, and once I learned the true reason for a lack of away fans at Prato, I was livid with Italian football! This happens often with my love affair with Italy, and usually, the old adage by Brian Clough works a treat, where he advocated sleeping on the issue and seeing how you feel in the morning. I have the ever growing feeling that Italian fans are being denied the true modern-day footballing experience, and it’s not getting any better. I have seen enough now to know that this is very much the case, and it makes me sad. For the record, neither Prato or Pistoiese have a violent reputation, they are merely being hampered by local political one-upmanship, pathetic when solidarity with flood victims might have allowed both sets of fans to genuinely show compassion.
Five days later I was headed ten minutes further out from Florence past Prato along the rail tracks headed in the direction of Lucca and Viareggio, alighting in Pistoia, where having just seen the local side win for the first time at the third time of viewing, could they make it a giddy double at home? Like the Lungobisenzio in Prato, this was a second visit to the Marcello Melani for a game, but both cities have very often acted as a base for my travels in and around North Tuscany. I have an inability to choose between the sides in this rivalry as I like them both, but I appreciate that local fans are steeped in all nuance of what sets them apart.
Borgo San Donnino were the visitors, headed across the mountains that separate Tuscany from Emilia Romagna. They are from Fidenza, a town near Parma, and lined up to take on gli Arancioni (Orange, the unique colour scheme of Pistoiese in Italy). San Donnino had no fans at this match, perhaps borne of struggling in the league, rather than any policing memo precluding their involvement, I certainly hope that is the case, but it was a pity. A match lacks something when it doesn’t have rival chants, which always adds to the full panoply of any given occasion.
The Melani pitch was showing all the scars of that heavy rain, being in the proximity of the area that had been seriously flooded. The surface, despite being soft, held up well, but grass was at a premium in certain sections, and I guess it won’t get any better until the spring now.
The teams did their best on a sticky surface, but the derby win had undoubtedly added confidence to the home side, and they looked more likely every time they went forward. A goal either side of half time, neither of which were memorable enough to bring to life here, was enough to claim the win. Both were worthy of giving scrappy a bad name, but everyone headed home chuffed with six points from a busy week. It helped propel Pistoiese back into the top five again.
It would be wonderful seeing both Pistoiese and Prato back in Serie C and back into what is coined “the professional” leagues, where, in my opinion, they belong. However, with Ravenna, Forli, Carpi and Fanfulla all in this league too, as well as Imolese (who featured in the accompanying article), Girone D has a lot of teams with pedigree, both recent and historical, and with just one promotion place, it is a tricky league to get out of for sure, and when you throw in to the mix those well organised lesser lights that reside in such leagues, showing sufficient ambition, it’s not easy, and doesn’t necessarily guarantee success.
Getting there
Prato
The Lungobisenzio is just to the left of Prato Centrale railway station, making it easy to gain access. There is a restaurant/bar just across from the station, and on the opposite of the stadium is a bar that doubles up as the Ultras home base for pre-match drinks. Any other requirements are across the river and in the centre, and that isn’t a great distance away
A stall was outside the stadium selling souvenirs behind the home Curva, but it isn’t anything official.
Pistoia
The stadium is a good 20/25 minute walk through the city from the station. Pistoia is a lovely town and arriving early will allow viewing its charms, as well as partaking of any food or drink requirements as the ground is in leafy suburbia with no bars anywhere nearby.
There has been a club shop in the stand, but it wasn’t open the day I was there, meaning no souvenirs were available.
Football Adventures with James Rendall 