Spezia: Only You
Words: Roba de Spéza
Cover Image: @Piniacca (Instagram)
Images: Various
In La Spezia, Liguria's Easternmost provincial capital, fans are accustomed to growing up with two questions (and giving the same answer):
Which team do you support?
Spezia
Yes, but which team do you really support?
Spezia.
© @Piniacca (Instagram). La Spezia.
Because Spezia is a provincial city, where two-thirds of its residents would like to teach you to support something else because the real teams are in other leagues and therefore in other cities.
But there's that third who dedicate their life to Spezia. Who spend their days waiting for the weekend.
That third lives every game as if it was their last. They feel at home only when they set foot on the steps of the Curva Ferrovia.
They're attached to that jersey as if nothing else existed. Because in the end, nothing else exists. Because Spezia is their life, summing up and representing their history, memories, and identity.
On January 27, 2007, at the end of a historic Spezia v Juventus, French striker David Trezeguet told reporters: "The Picco Stadium is the ugliest I've ever played at. Old, dirty, narrow, crowded with people and wild players, pushed by the fans. Anything can happen."
© @tso.laspezia. (Instagram). Spezia Calcio supporter.
Today, the Picco has changed, radically transformed in some of its central positions, but what was intended as an insult remains the highest compliment paid to Alberto Picco.
The stadium where anything can happen.
Named after the footballer and Alpine hero and inaugurated on December 7, 1919 against S.C. Genoa (8-0), the Picco initially had covered wooden stands, in the English style.
In the early 1930s, the monumental stone portal was built, later completed with sculptures by the sculptor Carmassi.
The more modern concrete grandstand dates back to 1933 (now completely redone), while the Curva Ferrovia, the current beating heart of organised support, was inaugurated on 6 January 1964.
The answer will always be Spezia.
© @ludovicavanelo. (Instagram) Curva Ferrovia. Spezia Calcio.
©Roba de Spéza/ Terrace Edition. Watching Spéza.
© @Piniacca (Instagram). Spezia Calcio supporter.
© @isabelterribilee (Instagram). Curva Ferrovia. Spezia Calcio.
© @cewiliaratz. (Instagram) Spezia Calcio supporters.
© @ludovicavanelo (Instagram). Spezia Calcio supporters.
© @gianmarco_salis. (Instagram) Stadio Alberto Picco.
© @cewiliaratz. (Instagram) Spezia Calcio supporters.
© @ireneborri. (Instagram) Spezia Calcio flags.
© @tso.laspezia. (Instagram). Spezia Calcio supporters.
© @isabelterribilee (Instagram). Curva Ferrovia. Spezia Calcio.
©Roba de Spéza/ Terrace Edition. Spezia Calcio flag.
© @piniacca (Instagram). Spezia Calcio pyro.
© @piniacca (Instagram). Spezia Calcio supporters.
©Roba de Spéza is on Instagram: @roba_despeza
Spezia Calcio’s website is www.speziacalcio.com
