Itinerary for the Slow Foot tournament (4 September 2007)

 

Friday 21 September

15.00: Arrival from London at Torino Caselle. Minibus to our hotel, Le Torri in Castiglione Falletto, a beautiful hilltop village of 650 people. Our hotel is next to the 11th-century castle.

16.00–17.30: Freshen up. High altitude training (optional).

18.00: Aperitivo in Cantina Comunale

20.30: Dinner at Le Torri together with FC Levante (see draw below). this is a five-course Slow Food ‘degustazione’ tasting menu for 35 euros. Wine excluded. There are 500 wines to choose from and Filippo and I are currently working through them so that your high standards will be maintained. I have also invited John Irving and Giovanni Ruffa, the two editors of Slow (English and Italian editions), real ‘football intellectuals’ who have helped this event get off the ground and who today made the draw in Badellino’s restaurant over a long slow lunch. After an hour discussing the best method, four potatoes were sliced and inserted with yellow post-it notes.

Usual conviviality, presentations and eyeing up opponents.

 

Saturday 22 September

8.00–9.00: Breakfast.

9.00: Depart for Bra.

9.30–11.30: Tour of the Cheese 2007 expo and the small town of Bra, now the Gaffer’s Italian home.

11.30–13.00: Slow Foot: Why Football Should be Good, Clean and Fair’. Discussion with John Foot, Filippo, Ricci, Matteo Patrono, Gigi Garanzini and representatives from the teams.

13.00: Light lunch

14.30–19.00: Slow Foot Tournament at the Bra Stadium. Surface will be grass and they will be 45-minute matches.

        1st semi final: Philosophy Football v FC Levante

        2nd semi-final: Fetamania v Osvaldo Soriano

        Then 3rd and 4th place match and final.

19.00–20.00: Aperitivo at the stadium.

20.30: Dinner at Badellino’s for 32 Euros. This is my local and where the draw was made today.

Return to Castiglione Falletto.

 

Sunday 23 September

10.00 Visit to Turin. Film Museum and in the aftenoon Torino v Siena in Serie A. Not the greatest match but we should get tickets and Torino have just signed Recoba.

I know some are departing on Sunday afternoon. We can stay in Turin all day and return to Castiglione Falletto in the evening. I’ll confirm Sunday arrangement more fully later. Please email me if you want to go to the Torino match.

 

 

'Slow Foot' tournament, 21–24 September (9 August 2007)

Philosophy Football is participating in the Slow Foot tournament which will take place at the Cheese event in Bra, the home of Slow Food, in Piedmont, not far from Turin. We are playing in a four-team tournament which also includes FC Levante Wibi from Zurich (Stefan's team; stefanhowald.ch) Osvaldo Soriano, the Italian writers team we have played previously in Rome (osvaldosorianofc.it), and Fetamania FC (fetamania.gr), a team of Greek ex-professionals who are now Serie A Feta Cheese producers.

This is the biggest Cheese event in Europe and probably the world, with cheese producers descending on the town from all over. As part of the event we will be holding a press conference on Slow Foot: Why Football should be Good, Clean and Fair (i.e. adopting Slow Food's slogan) on the Saturday morning, with the tournament provisionally scheduled for the afternoon.

The plan is to arrive on Friday 21 September and depart on Monday 24 or Tuesday 25 Sept. The weekend will also include watching either Juventus or Torino, whichever is playing at home, and possibly a visit to the cinema museum in Turin. We will be staying in the Langhe, the beautiful hills of the region, where Barolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, Nebbiolo and Barbaresco, some of Italy's finest wines, are produced along with great cheeses; not forgetting, of course, the white truffles of Alba.

This trip will be the first of a new European network to involve like-minded teams. I have to tell you now that demand is very high and we will not be able to accommodate everyone who wants to go. We will therefore have to choose a squad balanced to take into account the nature of the event, the playing needs, the combination of legends and current team and the best combination of players. Filippo, Ally and myself are going to choose the squad with these factors in mind.

cheers

Gaffer

 

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