As a Pittsburgh sports fan and born yinzer, I’m always looking for slices of the Burgh in whatever city I’m in. I once found a dude wearing a Kordell Stewart jersey in Spain and gave him an unsolicited hug. He was very confused. Then, there are the numerous times I’ve embarrassed my friends by shouting to people wearing Steelers jerseys on game day in Chicago and causing a scene. I visited Italy this month, and nothing could have prepared this yinzer for what I found in Rome.
While my family and I were strolling through Piazza Navona a few weeks ago, we came upon a pub with a large Steelers logo in the window. Being the yinzers to the core, we had to go in and see what was up. To our utter delight, all we saw when we walked in was Steelers gear, including Terrible Towels, jerseys and a statue of Jesus wearing a Steelers helmet. I know Aaron Rodgers thinks God is a Packers fan and all, but I think this statue disproves his theory.
After taking a lap around the bar and snapping some photos, we wound up having a few drinks with the owner, Giovani, who’s a huge Steelers fan. He shows every single Steelers game, even opening the bar at weird hours to accommodate for the time difference. He is basically the coolest person ever.
Right before leaving, I decided I had to have the Colosseum Terrible Towel that he was selling, because when in Rome. See what I did there? Pretty proud of my Terrible Towel 1-2 punch now that I have the original and the Italian version. Myron Cope would be proud.
This just goes to show you that Steeler Nation is everywhere, even on the other side of the Atlantic. Football isn’t even that popular in Europe, but La Botticella, the Steelers bar of Rome, draws huge crowds for Steelers games. You can take the yinzer out of Pittsburgh, but you can’t take Pittsburgh out of the yinzer. Go Steelers!
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