Did I feel safe and was I kept safe? Yes. Full credit. The Italian police and club went to great lengths to ensure this. Thanks. Felt similar to Moscow. In the end so safe it ends up being the safest of them all.
But what concerns me is the narrative and all that. Got off the plane - police. Dogs. Plain clothes. People with cameras filming us wherever we went. Look around the plane - most people on that plane will have a boring 9-5 job, earn an average wage, go to the footy and have a clean criminal record - i.e just fairly normal people. You'd think we were a plane full of Britaain's worst criminals. And others see that and the pictures and think that too. It gets set in peoples minds - that's what concerns me - the narrative - you can't undo what people see that easily and their perception.
Yes - felt safe. Thanks. Didn't need to be made to feel like a criminal though. Others will look at that for a long time and take a viewpoint based upon that.
.....
Also what was with the 90minute SportOptions police escort? It's about 40minutes that journey! Just felt like the longest day for no reaAn l reason. Delays and hold ups everywhere.
Agree with this. Bloody media! An Irish couple were complaining that they couldn't get close to the Trevi fountain due to the barriers around and how it was OUT fault!! "It's to stop you from peeing in the fountain tonight!" A few Police could do that - like last time!
They had their view and it was set. "You don;t want to believe all you hear!"
The SO "tour" into tour was a joke! I fell asleep but woke up "Have we still not got there?"
Def went round in a circle! But apart from everything taking ages - the queue for the buses (some nice Italian copper told people to calm down and stop pushing as it was pointless and we were squashed against the police shields at the front to the side); to get in (thought each group did well - ticket checks, steward searches, then Police searches - common sense approaches all round and polite, unlike Seville or Porto), though the turnstiles were the main delay with some just trying to operate them faster than they could manage - our steward there had a system which worked luckily, but was slow compared to PL games. But credit to the crowd - patient, polite, people trying not to split groups up.... Think they all did well.
Absolutely shattered when we got home about 5.30am but MUCH better than we feared and looking forward to Kiev...