Italian Basketball Game: by Roger Van Cleve

We went to the Italian basketball game in Siena on Saturday, October 24, 2009. We were on a trip to Italy, and we heard about it from our son (the Ultimate Sports Fan) by email.

Tickets
To buy tickets we walked from our hotel, the Garden, about fifteen minutes from the stadium in Siena. The stadium is called Palasports. It is next to the train station outside of town on the north side. We arrived early at 7:10 PM, and the game started at 8:30 PM. We bought the seats high on the side for 19 Euros. The stadium is not as big as NBA stadiums, so the seats are close. We did not see any scalpers.

Dinner
We walked five minutes to a restaurant nearby for dinner. The restaurant was Il Cantastorie (located in a hotel at Via Achille Sclavo 33). As it was over an hour until the game’s start we could wait until it opened at 7:30 PM. We got pizza, salad, a bottle of water and a glass of wine for 16 Euros. We got back to the game by 8:10 PM.

The Game
Montepaschini (Siena) beat Teramo 94-70. Althouugh off to a slow start, the home team had a lead by the end of the first quarter. They continued to expand on it, so the result never seemed in doubt.

Coming from the US, the differences from the NBA were interesting. There seemed to be more penalties, the result of a rough style of play, and the visiting Teramo having trouble with the rules and officiating. There were fewer timeouts, and sometimes the teams seemed tired. Each quarter was only ten minutes.