As an American who hasn’t been to Europe in over ten years, the dream to meander all over Europe for a month or two is a bucket list item that I would and could never cross off the list. To those Europeans reading, you don’t know how lucky you are to be afforded the luxury to country hop on a whim, and be in a new place with a new language, culture, cuisine, etc. in less than five hours! Taking a drive from Nashville to Louisville or Detroit to Chicago doesn’t have nearly the same ring as hopping on a train from Amsterdam to Paris or Prague to Budapest.
So allow me to be Rick Steeves for a bit, and plan a trip that scratches a few itches for me, that of course includes some ground hopping to some of Atalanta’s friends in Central Europe and Italy. Ultra’s affiliations with one and other is still a bit of a foreign concept to me. From the minimal information I could find on the web (which isn’t a whole lot), much of it seems to be connected by political ideologies (which seems to be par for the course across most of Europe), and random friendships that continue to manifest into outright support. Nonetheless these friendships have easily nailed down an itinerary for me in an endless sea of football options I could potentially choose from.
The Route
Flight: USA > Frankfurt, Germany
Frankfurt > Innsbruck, Austria
Innsbruck > Terni, Italy
Terni, Italy > Bergamo
Flight: Bergamo (Milan) > USA
1700+ kilometers, 18 hours of driving (but of course I’ll be taking trains on this hypothetical trip), and 4 stadiums. With fans finally being let back into grounds for the upcoming season, nothing feels more germane than planning an unforgettable trip of a lifetime. Although it feels implausible for a grown man with a full time job to take a month off to scratch an itch – come dream with me and hey who knows – one day it may happen!
