In Rome and Beyond, Merriment Maximus

After Watching a Dramatic Win, Fans Fill Italy's Streets With Joy

ROME, July 9 -- A collective roar of joy erupted in piazzas, bars and living rooms in this soccer-crazed country as Italians watched their beloved Azzurri bring home the World Cup championship on Sunday in a dramatic overtime shootout against France.

Delirious fans in major cities and small hamlets poured into the streets with red, white and green flags, air horns and colored smoke bombs when Fabio Grosso put the decisive shootout kick into the net, clinching the 5-3 victory in Berlin.

In Rome, an estimated 200,000 people gathered in front of three giant television screens in the Circus Maximus, a lozenge-shaped grassy field where ancient Romans once raced chariots. As team members hugged one another on the screens, a sea of people shouting and singing moved toward the Colosseum and the nearby Piazza Venezia to continue the vast outdoor party.

Speeding cars honked as bare-chested fans leaned out the windows waving Italian flags. Revelers on foot crammed the streets around the center of the city. Within minutes of the game's conclusion, major arteries into the downtown were blocked by traffic.

In Naples, the fireworks capital of Europe, the Italian victory was celebrated by pyrotechnics rivaling a New Year's Eve celebration.

Partiers crammed Milan's Piazza del Duomo, and in Florence, the area around the Duomo and Piazza della Signoria were instantly packed as supporters joined in the celebration.

"I've waited for this since 1990," when Italy lost to Argentina in the semifinals, said Clelia Mattani, 29, of Sardinia. "We have suffered. But everyone must know we have the greatest goalie in the world," she said of Gianluigi Buffon, who allowed only two goals in 2006 World Cup competition.

As game time approached in Rome, spectators streamed in to the Circus Maximus, with the most die-hard fans cramming up close to the screens. The outer rim, just below the spectacularly lit ruins of the ancient Palatine Hill, was the chosen spot for the many foreigners who showed up to cheer on the Italians.

Many of them wore the blue shirt of the Italian team, available for about 10 euros -- about $13 -- from the many hawkers around the city. Jay and Michelle Glazer, newlyweds from New York, had been spending their honeymoon in Tuscany but decided they couldn't miss the festivities in Rome. "You can tell by my painted face that I'm an Italy fan," Jay Glazer said.

Italians take their game seriously, and if spectators were noisy before and after the game, they were a picture of concentration during play. A groan of agony met French captain Zinedine Zidane's score in the first few minutes. Roars of approval reverberated throughout the field when Marco Materazzi tied the French goal and when Buffon fended off attacks.

Howls of indignation spread throughout the field when Zidane gave a nasty head butt to Materazzi, a breach of etiquette that cost him the last 10 minutes of the game and his valued participation in the shootout.

"This is insane, phenomenal," said Jeffrey Danson, one in a group of Canadians from Toronto sporting the blue shirts with Totti (for Francesco Totti from the Roma squad) written on the back.

"There is nothing like this in North America. The whole impact of football here is just unexplainable," he said as he and his friends walked toward the Colosseum. "We're going to party now. We're just going to follow the crowd."

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, who attended the title game, told RAI state television after meeting with team members in the locker room, "This is a moment that reinforces our national identity and our national pride."

Tens of thousands of fans are expected to greet the team and its coach, Marcello Lippi, at a celebration Monday in Rome.