Four men on a boat (Villans in Italy)

[Archie]

PART ONE

Even if I was (and I am)  a fan of P.G. Wodehouse, the particular circumstances of the case - as you can see - induce me to take as a starting pint the title of the famous book of Jerome K. Jerome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Men_in_a_Boat) to tell the story of the trip to Italy of four proud villans, included the legend Ian Taylor, for the annual meeting of the Latin Lions, the Italian official fansclub.
I think that you can not but subscribe to this point of view. . .











After landing, the Villa delegation was  welcomed by the officials of Venezia (Venice) FC, a club that now languishes in the lower divisions, but that once was great (they won an Italian FA Cup and they nurtured Valentino Mazzola, the best Italian player ever, that died in the dramatic aerial crash of the Grande Torino at Superga, in 1949) and will come back to be great again, as they are owned by a Russian multibilionaire now.

Their training ground is modern and is as good as those of the clubs of the Italian serie A.
The media were alerted, but  Ian decided to mock at them, and had the good idea to declare that he was the new  English forward of Venezia. .






The Venezia old stadium is decadent, now, but beautiful, being located in the isle of St. Helen, one of the thousands isles of Venice, a city that is literally built on the water, and can be reached only by boat, that creates an incredible atmosphere around the game.
















(to be continued)

[Pete3206]

Nice pics mate.

[Dave]

Lovely stuff as ever Archie.

How is Ian's Italian?

[Tucson Villain]

Great pics.

[Archie]

Lovely stuff as ever Archie.

How is Ian's Italian?

He has learned the few essential words: ciao (hello), grazie (thank you) and. . . prosecco  (prosecco) .
But he wants to come back asap, so he has the time to improve it! 

[berneboy]

Thank you.

Four men - starting pint? Freudian slip?

[Tom Sawyer]

Do you think we could recreate this in Gas Street Basin?

[Archie]

PART TWO

After the visit of the old Venice stadium, starter in a tranquil corner in the isle of St. Helen, dinner in  a typical venetian tavern (baccaro) and many smiles in our heroes faces.

[Stu]

Well this has cheered me up. Nice pics Archie.

[Simon Ward]

Looks like happy days indeed!

[Virgil Caine]

Wish I had been there Archie, Venice is the most fantastic place I have had the good fortune to visit and seeing your photographs have bought back some very happy memories.

[Archie]

Wish I had been there Archie, Venice is the most fantastic place I have had the good fortune to visit and seeing your photographs have bought back some very happy memories.

I will post other pics fpr your joy, mate!

[richard moore]

Lovely Archie, you always bring a ray of sunshine to the site, though I only wish I had more appetite to appreciate your efforts at this particular time

[itbrvilla]

Love Taylor but never met him.  He's my biggest Villa hero.  Think I'd be stunned if I was to meet him .

[Archie]

Lovely Archie, you always bring a ray of sunshine to the site, though I only wish I had more appetite to appreciate your efforts at this particular time

I can understand your point, mate.
I also tend to be  demoralised when I see that a nice but very small club like Norwich, to say one, play an entertaining, attacking football winning in style at WHL, whereas us, the Mighty Villa, play negative football home and away and play in the starting XI a player like Richard Dunne that in Italy wouldn't play in Third Division.

But then I think that in 140 years of history one or two transitional seasons can be accepted.

Form is temporarily, after all, class is permanent.

And the class of our beloved club is demonstrated by the fact the Villa don't exitate to send in Italy a former player and three  representatives of it only to meet the fans. These are the things that make you feel part of a  family. A family to which belong  fans that share the same pride and values whatever the Country where they live. This is for me much more important than the results of the team on the pitch.