The Power of Sport

One of the passions that drives me above all else is my love of sports (you may have noticed from the title of this blog). Despite being Canadian and loving my Toronto sports teams there is a special place in my heart for my favourite team Serie A's Juventus. I have been a fan since a I was a young lad and have followed the team in large part because it's my father's team. I have gone great lengths to see them, literally. Back in May on a long, grueling trip to visit my relatives in Italy I made an initial stop in Turin to watch the Derby Della Mole against city rivals Torino. It was an incredible experience that will be described in a future post. On this side of the Atlantic Juventus were preparing for their North American tour when I decided to join my friend Rocco on a road trip to Boston. Rocco and I are members of the Toronto Juventus Club DOC, one of two officially recognized supporter clubs in North America. With the membership we receive perks such as a

Originally published in Corriere Canadese newspaper on July 11, 2017. Translation by Joseph Ciraco Corso Italia St. Clair Ave W Toronto 1982 In 2017 we celebrate Canada’s 150 th birthday. There are many stories to tell, one of them being from the Italians.  Immigration isn’t something new to us. We Italians have been emigrating for hundreds of years and still continue to do so. Italian-Canadians have made an enormous contribution to Canada in its 150 year history. In 2017 the Italian community is respected and admired, but it wasn’t always this way. It took a soccer game and the party of the century to convince the broader Canadian population that we belonged.  For those unfamiliar, I’m talking about Italy’s 3-1 win over West Germany in the 1982 FIFA World Cup and the subsequent celebration on St. Clair Ave West, which at the time had the largest concentration of Italians in the city of Toronto. The celebration on the stretch of road between Dufferin St. and Caledonia was a