Sanremese: High Notes — Terrace Edition

Words: Federico Farcomeni

Images: Federico Farcomeni

In Italy in February, Sanremo Festival represents the Holy Week of Music with nearly 40,000 visits and more than 200 million euros revenue.

Thirty artists join the Italian song contest, the precursor to Eurovision, with 14 million people watching on TV.

The Italian music competition has now reached its 76th edition and the host commune’s football club Sanremese, is looking to hit footballing high notes of its own.

Ultra stickers spread all around town are advocating for Sanremo to become the Regional Capital of Liguria.

©Federico Farcomeni/ Terrace Edition. SSD Sanremese Calcio.

In December, World Champion and Real Madrid legend Christian Karembeu acquired 37.5% of shares of the club and is now vice-president of the Serie D outfit.

Oan Djorkaeff (son of Youri, 8 goals and 6 assists) and Tobias Del Piero (son of Alex) have joined over the summer.

In the last few months, several illustrious names have taken seats in the stands of the old “Campo Sportivo” – namely Sebastien Frey, William Gallas, Aaron Winter, Clarence Seedorf and Marco Simone.

Ludovic Giuly, Claude Makelele and Moustafa Hadji attended the last home game against Asti with the French border a tempting 30km away.

The club’s eyes are firmly set on the playoffs and many are starting to refer to them “the new Como”, hinting at the celebrity status over the lake shore at the fashionable outfit near Milan.

Aptly, in 2019, Sanremese coach Marco Banchini led Como to promotion from Serie D.

However, given the close proximity of giants like Genoa and Sampdoria in the same region, and also Spezia and Entella attracting investments in Liguria, perhaps this is somewhat of a punt for this town of 55,000 inhabitants.

Sanremo is home to only one of four licensed casinos in the whole of Italy (the other three being Venice, Saint-Vincent and Campione d’Italia – an Italian enclave in Switzerland) – yet there’s the feeling that this project can be more than a gamble.

Sanremo is also the deathbed of athletics legend Dorando Pietri who famously fell five times at the London Olympics in 1908 and won the marathon but was later disqualified as the American team lodged a complaint because of the help the umpires gave him.

Pietri’s effort didn’t go unnoticed though, as Queen Alexandra presented him with a gilded silver cup and Daily Mail readers collected 300 pounds to help Pietri open a bakery in his native town, such was the admiration they felt for the losing athlete.

If anything, Sanremo keeps attracting money although not necessarily linked with success. The highest position achieved by the “matuziani” (named after Oppidum Matutianum, the name of the original Roman castrum) is the ninth place in Serie B in 1938 and the Coppa Italia Dilettanti won in 2016.

The psychedelic Ditonellapiaga song “Che fastidio” surprisingly finished third at this year’s music contest.

It includes a line which asks – “I don't know what's normal or a hallucination anymore” - which seems fitting for Sanremese.