Canned Sardinia

Pro Vercelli v Novara

Livorno v Avellino

Sassari Torres v Olbia

Trip started on the last Eurostar of the day over to Paris. Of note was the new E320 E* train at St Pancras.

For once they had Leffe and mini Saucisson available in the bar, a good omen for food and booze for the trip.

An overnight in Paris then over to Gare de Lyon for a TGV to Basel in the new Lyria livery, which is the joint SNCF/SBB working.

At Basel, the move was onto an SBB service to Locarno, which was brought in by a Re 4/4II….

….and joy upon joy, had a panorama car in the consist.

These are specialist first class vehicles with massive windows which used to operate on the Trans-Alpin services but these have now gone over to OBB Rail Jets so they are now appearing as FC vehicles on Swiss internal services. This meant I could enjoy the run through the hills and lakes in full glory.

Overnight was in Lucerne, where a brewpub was found overlooking the famous bridge, which was closed as it was being re-tiled.

Next day was a move over to Milan but a pair of Re 4/4s on a Locarno services meant this was taken to Arth Goddau…

….where the Milan services was picked up which was a very cramped load 4.

Arrival into Milan after a loco change at Chiasso had brought on an FS E444R, the rebuild of the 1960s E444 for the high speed lines.

Next move was a push-pull E464 on a service to Vercelli.

This was the first football of the trip and an overnight. My room actually contained four beds, all with duvet covers with massive animal paintings on them.

After encountering a large police presence and a huge queue at the gates, I went round to the main stand to find a near deserted ticket office. I enquired about getting a ticket, and was told that there was a national membership scheme in place and tickets could only be sold to members. About 30 seconds later, I was a member after having my passport photocopied and paying 2 euroes. 



Pro Vercelli 0 v 1 Novara, Serie B

Vercelli were a major force in the origins of Italian football, winning the original Italian championship, seven times between 1900 and 1920. From then on they steadily declined, until going bust in 2010, however, the second team in the town took on their league position and also their name and stadium.

Novara have had Serie A experience, in the 1950s and then a surprise season in 2011, when they beat Inter, but only one other team.

Vercelli and Novara are only 13km apart so this was a local derby in the Milan hinterland. Imagine Rochdale v Oldham but with more easily penetrated accents.  

My 14 euro ticket was in a seated paddock infront of the main stand. The ground could only hold 6,500, and was not full.

The Vercelli ultras were in the small terrace behind one goal, with the away fans at the far end. The game was pretty woefull, with Novara scoring from a soft free kick mid-way through the first half, and that being the only goal of the game.

Next day was an early morning TGV into Milan….

…..for an FS IC service down to Genoa and along the coast to Pisa, and on to Livorno, in a compartment with knackered air con, shared with two Americans who assured me that despite coming from Arizona, this train was the hottest thing they had ever known.

Livorno 1 vs 1 Avellino, Serie B


Another day another dull Serie B game. 

Livorno were one of the original Serie A teams in the 1930s but dropped down to the lower leagues for the next 50 odd years before benefiting from the match fixing sanctions of 2004 when they were one of six teams promoted to Serie A, staying up for a couple of seasons. 

Avellino are from the mountains around Napoli and have always been a lower league team but have had a bit of success of late, but found themselves bottom of the league. 

The ground was originally named after Mussolini’s daughter. Avellino took the lead late in the first half, but Livorno equalised at the start of the second half, and that is how it stayed.



Livorno is the ferry terminal for the Moby lines service to Sardinia, so it was off to the port for the overnight ferry.

Ferry sails to Olbia, at the north east tip of Sardinia, arriving just as they sun was rising.

The reason for choosing Sardinia was news that the new railcars had had to be withdrawn for reasons unknown, so there was all sorts of ram-shackle rolling stock drafted onto the island to cover the services, most notable the D445 diesel locos. My joy was somewhat suppressed when I arrived at Olbia station to find that the 4.5 hour journey to Cagliari was to be on a trio of decrepit ALn668 railcars. These are 1960s offerings from Fiat and if you think they make bad cars, then these are even worse, summed up by the middle trio of ours catching fire at Giave, and being dumped in a siding, still smouldering.

However, on arrival at Cagliari, these little buggers were lined up ready to work suburban services, so game on.

Finally we arrived in Cagliari, minus our fire victim.

The station seems to be built around a steam train on the concourse.

A quick check in at the hotel and back to the station for the pre-siesta rush hour with four winning 445s scooped.

Next day was a trip down to the far south western corner of the island for some football ground exploring. First up was Carbonia, which was a coal mining town founded by Mussolini in the 1930s but the mines were closed by the 1970s.

Carbonia were formed by the miners when the town came into being in the 1930s. They has success in the 1950s, reaching Serie C, but the mines closing also saw the team plummet. They ow play in local Sardinian football, but are in the top division. The Carlo Zoboli ground was right by the station and an open gate gave easy access.

The stadium was originally also a cycling track and had an open terrace down one side and a seated main stand on the other.

The open terrace had steps a good couple of feet high so was a real feat to climb it.

With the cycling track behind, the area behind the goal had the rather unusual feature of a helicopter landing pad.

Though there was the more usual feature of a pile of stadium junk.

Next stop was the Museum of Sardinian Coal Mining. Except it wasn’t really a museum, more just that they had left the mine in situ when it was closed, and you could walk around it. But it was deserted. It was the sort of place you would expect Top Gear to use as a backdrop for test driving an Italian car; lots of arty shots of powerslides throwing up dust to cover the pit gear as one of them makes a comparison about handbag stealing moped riders. 

On the way back to the station, the question was finally answered of “How much gardening equipment can you get on the back of a Bedford Rascal flat-bed”?

Pulling out of Carbonia, was this bizarre track arrangement. These turning stars were used to turn steam locos instead of a turntable, and this is only one of three left in Italy.

A change was made at Villamassargia-Domusnovas, which as well as being pretty much unpronounceable, is also in the middle of no-where, coming to life once and hour when a trio of trains arrive and head off in different directions after exchanging passengers amongst them.

Destination was Inglesias, another ex mining town, but a little more diverse, with lead, zinc, and silver mined.

Stadium Monteponi, with it’s very attractive frontage to the main stand….

…..is home to the town’s football club is Monteponi Iglesias. They had a few stations in Serie D in the 1960s but now play in the Sardinian second division.

Once again, an open gate gave access to the ground.

After visiting a few more tourist sights in the town, churches and that, it was back to Cagliari, noting a couple of dumped steam locos on the way back.

First call of the night was on the newly converted Cagliari tram system…

….to the city’s only brewpub, situated on the outskirts.

All the five house brews were cleared for the half litre, as well as the local cheese selection.

Back to the tram station…

…where the trip’s first example of Gen-Italia was encountered. The Italians lead the way in spunking cock graffiti and have turned it into an art form. My mate Jacko the Liar has a considerable photo collection of them, and this one was duly submitted.

Back into the city, and next stop was Hop Corner, a craft ale bar.

Bizarely, they had Jaipur and also St Peters in bottles. Instead, it was onto the P3, a brewery in Sassari, in the north of the island. An absolute belter was found, in Riff, their white IPA.

Next day and it was off to Sassari, the islands second city, in the North East corner. It was a three hour train journey, but again in a railcar, this time a 1980s ALn663.

After an uneventful journey, we arrived into Sassari, with a quick spin on the narrow gauge railway. They do operate 1950s vintage railcars, but instead this rancid thing produced.

Back to the central station and the tram was taken into the city. Except checking the map found it just does a big loop and ends up a couple of hundred yards from the station.

Sassari Torres 2 v 1 Olbia, Serie D – Group G


A walk to the western outskirts arrived at Stadio Vanni Sanna, home of Sassari Torres. 



Torres are a long standing club, oh, apart from the three bankruptcies in the last few years. They have played as high as Serie C, and have had such luminaries as Gianfranco Zola and Adam Federici play for them.

Olbia are another club with a recent history of bankruptcy, and are only just regrouping after the most recent in 2010. 

  
The match was being played at 1500 on a Wednesday afternoon, but despite being a localish derby, the crowd was exceedingly sparse.

I’d wanted a ticket on the end terrace, but for reasons I couldn’t be bothered to argue, only the main stand was available. Within a few minutes I was grateful as torrential rain started.

The dressing rooms were situated via a sunken tunnel. The sort that are usually only seen in hilarious videos of players going for the ball and then falling down them, or Man United players getting kettled by Turkish police. Both are good.

As the game started, a small group of Torres ultras braved the elements.

Olbia took the lead a couple of minutes into the game, with the goal being celebrated by all the subs, as seems to be the way in Italy.

The rain continued to pour down, to the extent that at half time the subs chose to head to the dressing rooms rather than warm-up. This led to the ball boys having a game instead. Of note is the one on the right who was made to be ball boy in a game involving ball boys, the ultimate rejection.

Midway through the second half, Sassari equalised…

….then 45 seconds later scored what proved to be the winner.

As the game went into injury time, the rain suddenly stopped, and the sun came out, which was welcome because for the first time in five years, I had chosen to wear shorts for anything more than a wander to the shops.

As we wandered out, the proximity of the tunnel gave the home fans a perfect opportunity to give the Olbia players some useful advice.

And the police had carefully placed out all the umbrellas confiscated at the entrance.

So back to the tram station.

And with the train back to the capital not for another couple of hours, the final part of the islands standard gauge rail network was had with a run up to Porto Torres Maritimo, which is the port for ferries to Corsica and Spain/France.

Then back to Sassari, passing the collection of historic stock for the narrow gauge line.

Next day it was down to the city centre Republica terminus…

…..for one of the Skoda trams.

This was taken to the northern terminus in the rural hamlet of San Pietro. The tramway used to be a narrow gauge railway, which now runs from here, into the remote hills. There will soon be some deviations to the route, so the plan was to get the old route in.

This took me to Dolianova, which is an olive oil producing village.

There are two prominent churches in the village, but these were forsaken for the football grounds.

These are in the Sardinian regional leagues, and both state that the surface type, rather misleadingly, as ‘grass’.

Back to the station and the departure boards were of the manual type.

So back to Cagliari where a winning 445 was on the blocks.

This was taken and from which the next two Gen-Italia observations were made, on adjacent pieces of lineside equipment.

This was an Iglesias service so it was bailed at Decimomannu…

…..For another winner to San Gavino……

….for the final one to Oristano, but was dud, having had 1119 on the Monday.

From here, the evening train was had to Olbia, and what should produce? One of the new units that had been allowed back into service that afternoon, so the visit was just in time.

On to Olbia, and a stroll across town to the port for the overnight ferry to Civitavecchia.