Recap

Let's go over a couple of things I've learned from this trip. We can start with some regrets that I have. I regret not bringing my Bluetooth speaker. I didn't bring it because I wouldn't have been able to use it at any of the hostels. But I definitely missed having it around when I was hanging out in my hotel room, chillin. It isn't that heavy and wouldn't have taken up much room at all.

I don't necessarily regret this, but this is something I would do differently. I really wanted to find a direct flight from San Diego to Europe. I wanted to see an airport that I haven't been to before. Going to a new airport in Europe that I haven't been to sounded much more appealing than going to an east coast American airport. Flying to Frankfurt then Milan sounded much more appealing than say Atlanta then Milan. But that 11 hour flight into a 1 hour flight to Milan could have been broken up into shorter flights. I've done the flagrantly long flight to Seoul/Incheon before so I figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal for me. I'm glad that I did it the way I did, but now I've learned that I'd very much prefer to break those flights up into shorter increments. Next time I'll fly to Milan from Atlanta or Miami or something.

I've recently gotten into credit cards. I want to become more financially literate and learning more about credit cards has been my first step. I'm hoping that with my next trip, I figure out how to transfer all of the credit card points that I've accumulated to transfer partners and use those points towards flights or hotels. It looks like flights to Europe from San Diego using credit card points isn't the easiest thing because the few airlines that have those flights have huge fuel surcharges that pretty much negate any benefit you get from using credit card points. Hopefully I can find an airline that will allow me to fly from Atlanta or Miami to Milan using credit card points in a way that is beneficial. Otherwise I could just use my credit card points for hotels.

Each hotel that I stayed at had a bidet. It made me wonder if I would ever use one. I feel like I should be comfortable enough with my sexuality that shooting water up my butthole to clean it shouldn't be a big deal, but it really is. Lol.

Italians smoke so many cigarettes. And just litter them on the ground. I didn't notice this in Germany or in Prague. It's also crazy seeing the cigarette packs that have the crazy pictures on them. They have pictures of people dying of cancer with captions describing how bad cigarettes are. It's kind of jarring.

The guy who checked me out of my Milan hotel was Filipino and recognized my Filipino last name. One thing I've noticed this trip is that us Filipinos are really out here! I've seen many more Filipinos than I anticipated. Random Aunties who are traveling and seeing the world. Random hotel workers. Cooks. I knew Filipinos are prevalent in the hotel business but I never knew we made our way to Europe like that. Let's go Filipinos!

Traveling solo is rewarding in a way that is kind of hard to describe. It's especially difficult to describe the appeal to someone who isn't comfortable being alone. But being alone afforded me the ability to truly dictate every aspect about this trip. If I wanted to go somewhere, I just went. When I wanted. I didn't have to argue over whether it was a good idea or not. I didn't have to work with someone else's wishlist or itinerary. I didn't have to wait for someone else to get ready. I had free reign over doing literally whatever the fuck I wanted, when I wanted. It was AMAZING.

Being alone, I got to pick and choose what I was interested in seeing. I've learned that I don't really care about museums. If it aint the Louvre, then I don't really care, lol. If that makes me uncultured, so be it. I was in a bunch of cities that had great museums, but I didn't care to go to a single one. I stopped by a few but immediately remembered why I don't really fuck with them.

This trip also reaffirmed that I love wonderful views. One of my favorite things to do is to find a dope view and spend an extended period of time hanging out there. I could listen to mood music while admiring the view and feel of the place. I could just listen and people watch. Futurebae better be into hanging out at dope view spots and people watching, cuz it's definitely one of my favorite things to do.

Layovers aren't necessarily a bad thing. I wish my layovers were actually longer than they were, which is funny considering how strongly I felt previously. I always thought that the shorter the layover the better, but it's really not the case. I've never really cared about lounge access (and still don't value them thatttt much), but I'm more open to the appeal now.

I've got a weird case of the travel bug. But I also wouldn't mind not traveling for a while. The only places left on my bucket list as of right now are going back to places that I've been to but didn't spend enough time at. This means going back to Barcelona and Prague. I also want to go to Zermatt, Switzerland. I was hoping to go on this trip. It's a ski resort that has the Matterhorn. But prices were ridiculously high. Hopefully my next trip to Milan will include going back to Barcelona, Prague, and seeing Zermatt for the first time.

Sunday, March 17th. Derby Della Madonnina

The day of the game I had to think about a lot of logistics.

• The kick off time was 8:30PM.
• I wanted to be there by 6:30PM-7:00PM to soak in the pregame shenanigans.
• I had been exchanging messages with one of the guys from my favorite soccer podcast and he would meet up with fans before the game.
• Italy's riposo (siesta) is from 3:00PM-7:00PM, so I wouldn't be able to get a decent meal before the game. Probably wouldn't be able to get one after the game either.
• Soccer games last two hours, so I wouldn't return to my hotel until 11:00PM at the earliest.

With all of these things considered, I got food at some shitty fried chicken spot at like 5:00PM. It was the only place that I could find that was open nearby. I started walking to the stadium and it was almost the exact same route that I had taken to get to the stadium two weeks prior for the Sassuolo game. It was crazy because it felt like there were three times as many people walking over to the stadium this time. And the Sassuolo game had 60,000 fans in attendance!

The energy was palpable. Almost everybody was wearing the red and black colors of AC Milan. There were a decent amount of people wearing the Blue and Black of Inter Milan, but it was definitely an AC Milan home game. Which makes sense because although both teams are based in Milan, this was technically a home game for AC Milan. That means all of the seats aside from one section of the stadium are meant for AC Milan fans. So it was definitely an overwhelmingly AC Milan crowd. As we got closer to the stadium you could hear the yelling and chanting of our rabid fan base. Our team is in the brightest spot in recent history, probably since 2013, and the level of support reflected that.

It was wild because I saw fathers taking their sons to the game and what it meant to them. Children annoying the shit out of their parents, walking on the street and getting scolded for not being on the sidewalk. Thinking about how meaningful these moments are for these people was trippy. These are the memories that people hold on to for their entire lives.

When I got to San Siro, I stopped to take a look at the park that the Curva Sud pregamed at. It was legitimately scary. They were shooting off flares and fireworks. There was just an endless sea of bodies covered in red and black. I played it safe and observed from a distance.

AC Milan recently switched sponsors from Adidas to Puma, and Puma illuminated the outside of the stadium with flashing red lights. It had been flashing red since the night prior. It was a sight to see.

I waited outside the stadium to just soak in the atmosphere and culture. It was super fucking hectic. Literally tens of thousands of people pouring into the stadium. Tourists like myself taking pictures and videos. Vendors selling beer and food. I wanted to see if that woman vendor who held on to my battery pack two weeks prior was there, but that line was like 30 people deep and I didn't care enough at that point, lol.

I wasn't able to meet up with the podcast guy because his friends pulled him inside the stadium. That was a little disappointing. But that aside, the whole pregame shenanigans outside the stadium was pretty crazy to see. I made my way into the stadium and struggled to find my seat. I had paid a shitload of money for the best seat that my money could buy and when I finally found my seat, I understood why they were so expensive.

These seats were elevated enough to see the entire pitch. For the Sassuolo game two weeks prior I had gotten a seat that was close to the pitch, which was cool because I was close enough to yell at the players. But these seats had the best view of the game. I'm really glad that I had picked this game to splurge on.

One cool thing about the Derby is that the whole city shuts down for this game. It's clearly the biggest thing going on that night. It felt like the whole city focused on what was going on with the game. Girls were dressed up, showing out for the night. Grandpas and Grandmas were rooting and shouting at the top of their lungs. Celebrities from across the world were there. I got some pictures and videos which was pretty cool.

Side note: The fact that you can't embed YouTube videos on Blogger anymore is TRASH. I wish I could transfer my blog content to another medium, but that's much more work than I care to do. Anyway, here's a video of the introductions for the game. It starts out with the introduction of the Inter Milan players and goes into the introduction of the AC Milan players. The Curva Nord (Inter Milan supporters) are to my left and the Curva Sud (AC Milan supporters) are to my right. When I recorded the video, I was focused solely on my phone, so at the end of the video when the camera pans to the right, I didn't know that that surprise would be there. It was kind of breathtaking how fast that whole thing happened. Also, excuse my yelling voice. Lol.

https://youtu.be/wlKP-0Xs-6E

It was WILD. It felt so appropriate that my trip was ending with this game. I've watched so many Derby Della Madonninas from home and being there in person was a million times wilder. It really is everything that they describe it to be. Seeing and hearing tens of thousands of people chant, sing, and gesture in unison gives off the wildest atmosphere. It really is indescribable.

The game kicked off and Inter scored in like the first 3 minutes. It felt surreal. It killed my high SO quickly. I immediately went into having a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. We were favored for this game! They always say that the team that is favored ends up losing each Derby Della Madonnina, but this was supposed to be DIFFERENT. I'm here to support the boys, and they're supposed to reward me with a fucking win!

In years past, conceding a goal this early meant that we would roll over and give up for the rest of the game. But ever since we hired Gennaro Gattuso, a club legend, as our coach, that's changed. We've come back and won a BUNCH of games. When you've supported a team for years that never comes back from deficits and wins, you kind of become resigned to losing once you go down early. But Gattuso has instilled a fighting spirit in our team that we haven't seen in soooo long.

The Curva Sud did their part and cheered and chanted for our boys to fight back. I'm glad that our supporters are much more loud and boisterous than other clubs. Some soccer clubs' supporters get made fun of (Barcelona and British clubs, for example) for being so quiet. Their stadiums are called "libraries" because of how quiet their fan bases are. On one hand, it's kind of cool because they reflect a more respectful, beautiful approach to supporting. On the other hand, I very much love the fact that you can feel the roar of our supporters in the stadium. They say that our support is world class, and having experienced, I can see why.

And I mean it too. These fuckers bring flares, bombs (not lethal bombs, but bombs nonetheless), smoke bombs, it's NUTS. And the Curva Sud wasn't pulling any stops. They let off countless amounts of flares and smoke bombs. The American in me wondered how Italians allow these sorts of things in their stadiums, lol.

So fuck it, I fully believed that we would fight back and equal the score. But our team remained nervous and flat! We're one of the youngest teams in Europe so we're sort of lacking the veteran leadership and savvy to make sure we stay composed in trying moments like these. And it showed. We remained flat and didn't take any initiative for the rest of the first half. We went into the half down 1-0.

We came out in the second half and looked much more composed. Unfortunately, Inter put a stop to that real quick and scored yet AGAIN just minutes after the second half kicked off.

Now I'm SICK. I came thousands of miles for THIS.

Thankfully the team responded immediately. Tiemoue Bakayoko, a cast off whose career has seen a resurgence this year now that he's joined our team, scored a header off a free kick. It was his first goal for our team. He's become a fan favorite due to his ability to do the dirty work and the Curva Sud even has a dedicated chant for him. I've seen them chant him name in the previous games, even when he didn't play. I'm so glad that it was him who scored. In the aftermath of the game, reporters said that lip readers said that when he celebrated his goal, he looked towards the Curva Sud and said "I did it for you." That's the kind of shit that gives supporters like me a hard on. If our management don't sign him to a long contract after this season, then I give up. Lol.

Later in the half, one of the Inter players earned a penalty (which was pretty soft). It damn near silenced the whole stadium. Inter's young prospect striker scored the penalty and we were back to being down two goals.

We pulled a goal back to bring it back to 3-2 but in the end it wasn't enough. I stayed in my seat for another 20 minutes, soaking in the feeling of losing to our rivals. This game would have been HUGE for our Champions League prospects, but it wasn't meant to be. We had just overtaken Inter in the league table and this loss brought them even closer to reclaiming their lead over us. Since the game, we've hit a bad run of form and they actually have overtaken us.

So yeah, it was a shitty feeling. It wasn't the end of the world, but damn did it hurt. The game itself was super entertaining. But the walk out of the stadium hurt. Seeing Inter fans mock me and the rest of the Milan faithful hurt. I saw some who were mocking our striker's famous gunslinger celebration. Not in a malicious way, but in a totally okay, good old-fashioned fun way. And I had no choice but to just watch and endure.

I walked back to my hotel along with a sea of other Milan fans. There wasn't much else to the night. I was just sad, lol. I knew that I didn't want to do much the following day aside from prepare for my early ass flight, so knowing that this trip was ending with a humiliating loss to Inter really stung.

But overall, my experience with the Derby Della Madonnina was a positive one. There are talks that they're going to demolish the San Siro Stadium. For good reason, too. It's one of the most famous soccer stadiums in the world and has held some of the most iconic games ever, but it's clearly dated. So I'm glad that I was able to visit it before they eventually tear it down or renovate it.

I'm taking with me so many things that I'll always remember. The sight of black and red smoke filling the stadium. Flares being lit. The way Curva Sud members were standing, back lit by the flares, made it feel like they were overlooking the team and supervising. Being there for one of the most fun Derby Della Madonninas we've seen in years is something I'll be able to take with me forever.

I know that I'll be back to see Milan play in my lifetime. But who knows if I'll be able to see them play another Derby Della Madonnina? My work schedule and financial situation might dictate that I'll have to see them play other games against other teams. Which is totally okay. We lost but I can finally cross the Derby Della Madonnina off of my bucket list. It would have been nice to have left with a win, but hey, such is life as a supporter of any sports team, right?