You're reading: Italy staff make nocturnal pilgrimage to monastery

KRAKOW, Poland — Italy coach Cesare Prandelli isn't one to break a promise — especially one made with an order of monks.

Prandelli and his entire
staff embarked on a trek of 21 kilometers (13 miles) at 3 a.m. Tuesday
from the team hotel to a Camaldolese monastery.

Upon arriving in
Poland on June 5, Prandelli and Italian delegation chief Demetrio
Albertini had promised the monks that they would visit them by foot if
Italy advanced from the group stage.

After Italy beat Ireland 2-0
in Poznan, the squad flew back to its base in Wieliczka, outside Krakow.
After an early-morning dinner, players began joking with the staff that
they needed to keep up their part of the deal. So, as the players went
to bed, the 14-member staff set off on the 3½-hour journey.

The
younger members of the staff gained a half-hour lead on the older ones,
and applauded ironically when the second group reached the monastery.

They returned by car to the hotel at 7:15 a.m.

“If, by chance, we win the Euros, I’ll also do the 21-kilometer return trip,” Italy captain Gianluigi Buffon said.

Italy’s coaches are often religious or revert to superstition.

Former Azzurri boss and current Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni used to pour holy water on the pitch before matches.

Marcello
Lippi asked his friends back in his hometown of Viareggio to get his
boat ready before each match at the 2006 World Cup, so he could make a
quick getaway if Italy was eliminated. He never had to, though, as Italy
won its fourth title.

However, Lippi was seen on his boat soon after Italy was eliminated in the first round at the 2010 World Cup.

The
Camaldolese monks and nuns are part of the Benedictine family of
monastic communities. Their name is derived from the holy site of
Camaldoli in central Italy, near Arezzo.

Before the tournament
began, Italy’s entire squad visited the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death
camps that Nazi Germany operated during World War II.

Italy’s quarterfinal opponent in Kyiv on Sunday is England.