Every football club has its heart, and at AS Roma, that heart beats loudest in the Curva Sud. The stand behind the southern goal of the Stadio Olimpico. This is where the ultras gather, where the songs are loudest, where the flags merge in a sea of yellow and red, and where AS Roma identity is born. The curva sud isn’t just a section of seats, it’s a culture, an inherited love for a city, to be passed down generations, to be loved and lived together. For Romanisti, it’s home.
It certainly has been for me. Memories of being lifted on my father’s shoulders, rising above the chaos to witness a sea of emotion and togetherness. Before I understood what offside meant, before I could grasp the concept of sport, I understood the noise, the colours and the feeling of belonging to something greater than myself, something that unites people in an age of division. There I fell in love with the sport. Not the perfect, broadcast version of it, but the raw, communal version that lives and breathes the people of Rome.
So why Curva Rossi? Curva, for Roma – for the stand that emanates nostalgia – and Rossi, for my surname, for the generations that brought me here, for me who is writing. Though the stories you will read on this blog bear a different air, one of intense fandom across the Spanish capital of Madrid, where sport reaches the highest global stage, the name is a small tribute to where it all began.
That contrast is, honestly, part of the point. I’m a Roma fan studying journalism in the world of Real Madrid, learning the trade from the inside of a club I didn’t grow up supporting but have come to deeply respect. This blog is where those two worlds meet, the curva that made me a football fan, and the press box that’s teaching me to write about the game.
Welcome to Curva Rossi.