For any football fan, Sunday is a holy day, and I was determined to make the most of it while on this trip. But that proved to be quite puzzling. We were definitely catching Casertana’s home match in the evening, but I was set on squeezing in another game beforehand, even two, if possible (not). My friends wouldn’t be joining, as they wanted to visit the Caserta Palace instead, but having already been there last year, I was sticking to football.

Nola vs Paganese, played in Cardito (neutral ground), had been on my radar for a few days already and was an option that made me very excited, but it also posed a few problems. Cardito is a pain to get to from Naples and, although it lies on the way to Caserta, it wouldn’t allow me to make it to Casertana on time if I relied on the poor suburban public transport. At the same time, renting a car felt too scary in the chaos that Naples is. Information on tickets was also rather unclear and, with the match being of relatively high importance, it didn’t make sense to risk being turned away. As much as I wanted to see Paganese, I had to find an alternative.

I woke up early, going through every Eccellenza team on Tuttocampo that rang a bell, but nothing seemed to make sense. Every match felt either uninteresting, too difficult to reach, or scheduled for an inconvenient kick-off time. I was about to give up when, while browsing even lower divisions, I stumbled upon the name Sanità United. Rione Sanità was the area we were staying in. That can’t be far from where I am right now, I thought, and indeed, the ground was only a twenty-minute walk away. Is it any good though? After a quick look at Google Maps images, it actually seemed bloody nice. Almost too good to be true.

I wasted no time and set off on foot, grabbing a slice of pizza on the way. The deeper I walked into the neighbourhood, the fewer people there were, up to a point where I felt I could easily be robbed, though that was probably just because I had absolutely no idea where I was. The entrance to the stand was a bit confusing, involving different doors and passages, but a kind local guided me successfully.

Surreally enough, while walking to the stand — where there couldn’t have been more than forty spectators — I heard two young men next to me speaking German. I asked them where they were from and they said Dresden, supporting Dynamo. We sat next to each other during the game, chatting about groundhopping, ultras and all the usual things, while I tried to process how surreal this was. But to be honest, Dynamo Dresden fans are literally everywhere. Not that this isn’t surreal in itself, but that’s another story… Apparently, they had also found this fixture on Tuttocampo and had been at the Cavese game the day before, on top of going to Casertana later that same day!

In the meantime, the stadium itself was indeed really cool. In fact, it’s the backdrop that makes it so dramatic, as you can tell from the photos. There’s something fascinating about the contrast between the small, humble ground and the huge, imposing church which, rather unsurprisingly, gives its name to the pitch.

The match that day was between Sanità United 2019 and Lacco Ameno 2013, at what is the seventh level of the Italian football pyramid. I’m guessing the years in the names refer to the clubs’ foundations. Surprisingly, the visitors even had a small ultras group; six or seven youngsters with a flag. At the start of the match, they shouted the classic “Noi vogliamo questa vittoria” chant with a passion that resembled a proper ultras crowd and, fittingly, their team rewarded them with an early goal. They weren’t as vocal for the rest of the game, but who could blame them. The home side played better football and turned the match around, scoring twice and shaping a final score that felt very representative of the encounter.

The match was over, but the sun was shining and the main course was still to come. It was a good day. I befriended the two Dresden fans on Futbology and headed to the station to catch a train to Caserta, today’s next stop for all of us, it seemed.