Ago

[maro]

Great stuff, DCG; I didn't realise you had that Aussie connection too. I think I can just about forgive you - a half-Aussie Romanista is still a Romanista, I guess. Yes, Lupa, like you I came to Roma via Rome.

[DCGweez]

I had the same feelings. A Kiwi in Red and Yellow is palatable, if just barely When you start dressing in all-black,well, that's another matter....

[Italiamia]

[DCGweez]

Torre del Greco Italiamia.

[Italiamia]

[Italiamia]

[Bagg10]

http://www.corrieredellosport.it/edicol ... _252.shtml

[Italiamia]

I don't know Bungy. Maybe you are growing up, or have grown up. But posting that preview to 11 metri is something that I appreciate beyond words. I have not seen this film. Ago was my guy. He is my favorite athlete in the existence of athletes. I was in the presence of this great man many times. Over 50 times if I guesstimate because our boys were a significant part of our lives and our communities. He was actually in my house one time. 5 August 1977, a Friday. He was on via Morosini, not far from where I lived at that time. I was 14 years old. My Papa was at work, my Mother, who was just 33 at the time, welcomed him into our humble home. She gave him vino, from my Nonno in Calabria. We only had wine made in the home in those days. We did not have very much money. I presume it was the Galgioppo grape but what would I know as a 14 year old. You know why I remember this beyond the fact that this man was a Saint, humble and compassionate. My mother made bread every Friday. Jesus is my witness the aroma was beyond the beyond and I could not wait to get home on a Friday from school. On my way home, Ago.....di Bartolomei, my man, our guy, who was nothing to the world at that time, was simply standing on via Morosini. I don't know what the hell he was doing. We, me, and some friends walking home from school, saw him. We attacked him, touched him, and talked to him. Me, because I was always bothered and agitated, opened my fat mouth. I was a sick kid for the first 13 years of my life. Asthmatic, allergy suffering, and snot always running out of my nose. A pale, and sickly looking kid. Therefore, my friends pushed me to speak to Ago. I had never seen him up close before. Only on the field. I suppose, in retrospect, he could not refuse a pale boy with snot running down his nose who asked if he would meet his mother who was waiting for him to get home. There was no hesitation. "Where do you live", he said. 30 meters, 30 meters.....just a second away. The rest is history, and this is a moment that I cannot forget. He was only in the house...............................house, what kind of a house. We had very little in those days but so very much. And, for 10 minutes, I was in the presence of greatness. It was a communion with a legend, who was not a legend at that point in time. My mother gave him some bread and my Saint of a Grandfather's vino. Then he left.

On the souls of my Grandparents, my mother said, what a perfectly wonderful, humble, shy and very much a sad boy. 'This is a footballer, calciatore'? She said. He is too meek to be a calciatore. Honest to Christ or strike me dead where I sit. She said this is a very sad, sad boy. And, Ago was just a boy in 1977. Only 22 at that time if you all do the math. In just that minute in a half, if you look at him, hear him speak, this was a very tortured soul. I am not sure anybody but Tommaso gets this. It's Roma, and it is something I have tried to explain for a decade now. It's something that is extremely difficult to put into words. It's simply a different experience. A different mindset. Only Napoli fans can relate.

..............................finis

Bungy, my boy. Thanks a bunch. You Iranians just kill me. The best of the best, you faggot, assface. Bringing me to tears.

[RomaShield27]

Wonderful story, Giovanni, thanks for sharing.

[Bagg10]

Great story Gio, thanks for sharing it with us. Honestly I didn't even think twice about posting it here. Even before I watched it, I posted it here just because I'd seen this thread before. Now I'm happy that I did, you old prick.

[Lupa]

That's a great story, Gio. How perceptive your mother was, too, about his sadness.

[maro]

I think others do get it, gio; I'm just not quite sure they always appreciate how deep such feelings run - that is, it's almost impossible for anyone else to grasp quite what's at stake in the Romanitas of Roma for you and your ilk. Which isn't to say they don't understand the idea and share it - it's just they can't share the depth and intensity of the feeling. It's a great story and very fine reminder of just what football has lost in its move to big business, big wages, entertainment. What Ago went on to suffer makes it, of course, even more resonant and poignant. There are few virtues more profound than true humility.

[Italiamia]

[Italiamia]

****edit. I will not touch what I wrote, but there was no way I could have been walking home from school. For some reason, that is how I remember it. It was August and there was no way we were still in school. You figure it was almost ferragosto, so who knows. We were probably screwing around outside. Maybe I have the date wrong. It was 35 years go. But, it was a Friday for sure. My mother always baked bread on a Friday.

[ASR1927]

From alternativaromanista.com: It's a real letter a person named Tiziana Camillucci sent to a friend along with a copy of 11 Metri, the Agostino Di Bartolomei documentary . Enjoy.



Dear Friend,
here's Di Bartolomei's movie, enjoy!

Yesterday my husband asked me why. Why I had taken the trouble to send this movie to someone living on the other side of the world, someone I haven't even seen once... The answer may be simple: you are Romanista, like me, and every Roma fan should watch this movie. But it is not that simple... Not this time.

It's not your case, but those who turn up their nose to the arrival of the "Americans" should be the first to watch the movie about Ago, those who feared that a foreign ownership couldn't be attentive to the preservation of our "History". Well, Ago's story is emblematic, it makes you understand that not ONLY the Club should be attentive... but ALSO we supporters should.

The main culprits of Ago downward spiral are and will always be President Viola and President Sensi, but we supporters left them do it, we have allowed them to put in the corner an exceptional person and a player who represented us like no other.

Watching the movie, I was moved to think back over his football career, his great shot, his goals, his class, his role so innovative for those years... The Scudetto... and the Champions Cup Final.

Then comes the anger, he went to Milan and our reaction, our bad habit to label as a traitor whoever leaves us. We did it to him too.

The finale is uncommentable, my friend.

The more the movie goes on the more my anger grows... into sadness and guilt. Yes, I felt guilty, me, that twelve years-old girl who went around Rome, the Circus Maximus, to cheer and celebrate ... Me, who shouted his name high from the Olimpico stands, proudly calling him Captain...

How could I've forgot about him for 10 years?

I've whistled him, my friend. The day he returned at Olimpico with Milan's jersey I was in Curva Sud... and I whistled him.

The day he killed himself, I remember it as yesterday, I was at the beach and the radio spread the news... That morning, before the news, like every fucking 30 of May, I was back being the thirteen girl crying for the final lost. Like every year, my memory went to that evening. But that 30 of May, ten years later, it was quite different and so has been for years to come.

Losing that game, that way, was a very "Romanista" thing: under those condition, it could have only happened to us.
And only we could have had a Captain who had never forgotten that day...

HE had never forgotten US.
WE did forget about HIM.

And that's why I'm sending you this movie, we Romanisti are special... and this movie reminds us why.

http://www.alternativaromanista.com/ind ... e-agostino

[DavidP]

[Lupa]

[RomaShield27]

This was quite the lovely gesture. Ago has finally returned home. Bentornato Ago.



From front page.



http://www.romanews.eu/2012/02/24/luca- ... trequarti/

http://www.ilromanista.it/le-ultime-dai ... casar.html

http://www.corrieredellosport.it/calcio ... %25C2%25BB







More photos .

[Italiamia]

http://www.romanews.eu/2012/02/24/foton ... artolomei/

[Italiamia]