klinsmann and his crew might have shown grace (and so do the german posters to the guardian blog), but there was blood on the streets in my town.
it was quite late after the final whistle so immediately my daughter and i left the venue on my vespa and drove the winding road home, criss-crossing from road block to road block. soon italians were doing the usual thing all about town: honking their horns, cheering, waving flags. it was slightly annoying but we said "it's ok, it's their damn right".
the atmosphere was different from other winner's celebrations though. some germans looked annoyed and some drunks even gave the italians the finger.
it got worse after a while. at a subway stop some young sad guys shouted insults at italians who were waiting/honking in their cars at a traffic light. one guy kicked the fender of one of the cars. big mistake. four bouncer-type guys quietly got out of their new e-class mercedes and beat one of the germans till he lay on the ground, motionless. they left before i was able to get through to the cops on my mobile. (call me chicken but sometimes i know when not to get into a fight).
on a national level, nothing really bad happened. police in dortmund, where the game took place, were actually baffled that no crimes whatsoever were reported -- even less than on a normal evening. so what i saw was a glimpse of something ugly but not probably representative, and i'm glad.