November 17th is the date all passionate fans of the oval ball must save, as the Stadio Olimpico of Rome will host a game that will be a real event – the competition Italy versus New Zealand.
The presence of the All Blacks at the Stadio Olimpico is certainly a sporting event of the highest level, as the New Zealand national team is the current world champion. The game is the most prestigious of the three Cariparma Test Matches that the Italian national Rugby team will compete in November. They will play against the national Rugby team of Tonga in Brescia on November 10th, and against the Australian national team in Florence on Saturday, November 24th.
In fact, the game on November 17th is expected to be all sold out, as it was in one of the first encounters between the Italian and the New Zealand national team on November 28, 1979 in Rovigo. On this occasion, even the fans without tickets had to be left in, as they were piling up behind the advertisement boards.
As is the case of the Six Nations of 2012, the encounter between the two nations in Rome has been made possible thanks to the close collaboration between Coni Servizi and the City of Rome. The wait for this game has been long for the Rugby fans, and this is reflected in the great results of ticket pre-sales: more than 50.000 tickets have already been sold for the game between the All Blacks. Considering that it is still a bit more than a month until the match, it is no exaggeration to hope for a sold-out stadium, as it was in March in the match against Scotland.
Pierluigi Bernabò, the FIR responsible of organization for international encounters in Rome has illustrated a couple of activities to promote the sportive culture and Italian excellence through international rugby: that’s why the schools of Latium are now touring the Stadio Olimpico promoted by the FIR and Coni Servizi and a series of gastronomical events in cooperation with the matches of the National team at the Olimpico. For the match Italy-New Zealand, the chef Anna Dente will astonish the palates of the guest of the Federation in a show-cooking event, obviously based on the Roman cuisine.