Mondiale - Seeing the World in Varese

(Alternatively titled) - How to Meet the Natives
(Alternative alternate title) - Why we Need to Change the Flag

Over the last week Varese has hosted the World Road Cycling Championships. There have been hordes of people from all over the world visiting here to support their teams. Couldn't find anything out here about a New Zealand team so eventually researched and found the bikeNZ website. They had a list of the cyclists competing in Varese. The challenge was then on - we had to be the best support team they could have - Didn't we????

Thursday saw the Men's time trials passing along the road just above us. We parked ourselves in the open gateway of a (Canadian) friend's house and drapped her fence with New Zealand and Canadian flags. And along came the locals...

"Ahhh" smiling and nodding at the flag. "Where were we from?"
Nuova Zelanda, we cheerfully respond.
"Ohhh!" knowing nod.
Many smiles and more nodding.
"We live across the road from you."
Yes, that's right, we agree.
"Ahhh" more smiling and nodding.

We had some funny conversations in 'Itanglish' - a mangled version of Italian and English - when we discovered that our house had been visited by robbers and we had had the police in. Nothing of the sort had happened but we now know who the looney in the street is! Apparently she told the neighbours some great tale about what had occured whilst they were on holiday over the previous two weeks.

Also met a lovely young Italian mum with her 9 month old baby, Archimede. Most Italians think she and her husband are crazy - they gave their child an unusual name - you don't do that in Italy. This explains why every second bloke you meet is called Massimiliano or Guiseppe or Marco.

On Saturday and Sunday we went up into the city and set up camp beside the track cheering first the women and then the men on the road races. The women complete 8 laps of a 17 km track and the men 15 laps. We waved our huge Kiwi flag and screamed ourselves hoarse. And we had a ball! Most people who stopped to chat thought we were Australians. They vaguely recognised the flag or had a relative in Aussie or had visited Aussie or... and had no idea what or where NZ was. The similarity of the flags required constant explanation. We need a new flag! Sometimes they would suddenly exclaim - "All Blacks!" and then we knew they'd got it. At least the Canadians and the Welsh we met knew a bit more.

Mid men's race on the Sunday we suddenly heard someone calling out "Kiwis!" and there across the road were the NZ women's cycling team. They recognised us from the previous day and wanted to say hello and thanks for the support. What a buzz!

So we may not have been the largest support crew, Or the most colourful, Or have the longest flag pole, Or the weirdest costumes ... But we had fun and our team appreciated it. I guess that is why I stood in one spot for seven hours - to meet the world AND to get a little touch of home.