Italy Sport
Popular sports include football, basketball (2nd national team sport since the 1950s), volleyball, waterpolo, fencing, rugby, cycling, ice hockey (mainly in Milan, Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto), roller hockey and F1 motor racing. Winter sports are most popular in the Northern regions, with Italians competing in international games and Olympic venues. Sports are incorporated into Italian festivities like Palio (see also Palio di Siena), and the Gondola race (regatta) that takes place in Venice on the first Sunday of September. Sports venues have extended from the Gladiatorial games of Ancient Rome in the Colosseum to the Stadio Olimpico of contemporary Rome, where football clubs compete. The most popular sport in Italy is football, the Serie A being one of the most famous competitions in the world. Italy’s national football team is the second most successful team in the world (with four world cup victories, the first one of which was in 1934) and the current FIFA world champion.
