Have you read "Playing for Pizza" by John Grisham? It's about American-style football in Italy. The main character is a washed up football quarterback hired to play with their local players. It takes place in and around Parma. It's not a very deep story, just fun. - This story has prompted us to visit the region and have one last adventure before we get too old to travel (never!- HA)-- We really look forward to it. I googled some of the bars and restaurants mentioned and a lot of them actually exist. What fun!

Indeed! Here is a related fun article with a Grisham tie in: The Italian Job: Former UVa player follows his passion to foreign lands | Charlottesville Daily Progress

Hi, - Thank you so much for the link to the article! I think the whole concept is such fun - what coincidence that Brennan Schmidt and John Grisham's son knew each other. Maybe this is sort of like the chicken-and-egg question: what came first, Grisham's idea or Schmidt's (sibling) playing in Italy. I grew up with soccer in Germany, but when I came to the US I immediately got caught up in American football, first the Miami Dolphins, now the Seminoles of FSU (Tallahassee, FL) -- Too bad we are going to be there after the season, would be fun to see an Italian football game...

Please check out this topic, we already had a thread on it. Grazie