SPORT

Italy is one of the most sport obsessed countries in the world. While their number one passion is definitely soccer (or calcio), Italians are crazy for Formula 1 auto-racing (where the hometeam is Ferrari), basketball, volleyball, tennis, and all sorts of olympic sports. In this space, I’ll focus on all of the sports that Italians are talking about and keep you updated on the great achievements of Italian athletes and teams in the world of sport.

Here are resources that should help you follow sports in Italy, starting with general resources that cover multiple sports.

1. La Gazzetta dello Sport – This is the oldest and biggest of the Italian sports papers, and it also features the largest web presence. It is known for the pink paper it is printed on, and the pink background of its website, as well as the esteem that it receives from the public. La Gazzetta covers all sports (including American sports), but gives the most attention to soccer. There really isn’t an english language version, but it’s a great way to learn Italian (I probably owe 50% of my language skills to reading it), especially if you’re a sports fan. One downside is that they’ve been paywalling more articles lately, and the site is not very friendly to adblocking browsers.
2. Corriere dello Sport – The Rome based daily is similar in scope to Milan’s La Gazzetta, but a little less popular nationwide. CdS is probably a little more popular in central and south of the peninsula, and their website doesn’t feature premium content. Still no viable English version.
3. TuttoSport – In a sign of how crazy Italy is for sports, there are three daily national newspapers dedicated to it. TuttoSport is based in Turin, and it definitely focuses the most on Juventus and Torino, even though they do cover other teams and Formula 1. Once again, no great English options.

If you just want to focus on soccer, there are several more options to follow, and many of these resources are in English!

1. ESPN/ESPN+ – If you want to follow soccer in Italy, you might want to watch the games. Thankfully, since Juventus brought on Cristiano Ronaldo, the cachet of the league increased and ESPN picked up the rights to broadcast in english to the American audience. At least one of the matches in each round are broadcast on ESPN/ESPN2 or another of the family of cable channels. The rest of the matches (and usually the biggest matches), are broadcast on the pay service ESPN+.
2. Serie A on YouTube – After Ronaldo joined Serie A, the league upped it’s multimedia game, and they now regularly update their YouTube page with highlights for every Serie A match in English (unfortunately, the Italian highlights are no longer available in the US). The channel also includes interviews, press conferences, features, and even full showings of classic matches. If you’re looking for highlights from lower divisions, it’s a little more difficult. The Serie B website hosts highlights (and blocks anyone trying to upload them to YouTube), but there are some channels that you can find highlights on.
3. Football Italia – This is the gold standard of english language coverage of calcio. When I was first trying to find a resource to follow soccer in Italy and before I could read Italian well, I spent A LOT of time here. It originally started as the website for British network Channel 4’s television coverage, but it has far outlived that contract.
4. Gianluca Di Marzio – A newer update to Football Italia, the Sky-Sport affiliated website is the brainchild of sports journalist Gianluca Di Marzio. If you are interested in the latest rumblings on contracts and transfer rumors, nobody is more respected.