Meteorologist Filippo Thiery tells us about his endless passion for Roma

Meet Filippo Thiery, 53 years old. “I’ve been a Roma supporter for 54 years. After being asked so many times to talk about matters related to my line of work, I’m happy to do this interview with Roma, on Roma.”

He is both flattered and excited about the interview. He’s a hardcore Roma fan. He sometimes prepares breakfast by putting three different jams with different colours on his toast to recreate the Pouchain ice lolly (“ghiacciolo”) from the late 70s. “But I only do that on weekends.”

On 20 March he wrote a post on Twitter to mark the forty years since the first match he attended at the Olimpico. 1982/83 Serie A season, Roma v Udinese, final result 0-0.

40 years can be both a long and a short time for those who really love this team: “Roma isn’t simply a football team. Roma is a red thread of one’s life that intersects with the lives of other fans.” This is true regardless of a match result, a derby or a trophy that is won or lost.

It’s a passion. An endless passion. I went to the stadium for the first time 40 years ago. Since then, I’ve had a season ticket for 36 consecutive seasons. First in the Distinti section, and for some time now I’ve been in the Curva Sud Laterale. You have to experience a match at the stadium.”

“Roma is serious business,” you wrote in that post.

“Being a Roma fan is the most beautiful and serious thing in the world. It is the very definition of joy. As Damiano Tommasi once said, “Roma, no matter what.” It brings different generations together and connects the different periods of a person’s life. As the decades go by, everything changes, for better and for worse, everything but Roma.

“It helps you remember details of your life that you would normally forget. You’ll never forget whether it was sunny or hot on a particular day if you were at the stadium.

“You find yourself talking about Roma at times of your life that you would never expect, maybe because of a random reference made by someone. So even if you’re with a stranger, you exchange that look. That childlike experience of sharing something.

“Roma is a thought, an idea, a feeling, a way of living one’s life, in a visceral and sly way. It’s that ability that people from Rome and Roma fans have to be witty and sum up a concept in a few words. Or just in one word. A bit like Gigi Proietti masterfully did.”

What do you still remember about your first time at the stadium?

“I remember many things. I was 13 years old. I went with a classmate. I went with a little scarf with yellow and red stripes, in the style that was very popular back then. It was a Christmas gift from my father that he’d got at the market in Piazza Navona. I also had a flag I’d bought on that very same day near the stadium. I still take those two objects with me today.

“I’ve been wearing that scarf at every match for 40 years. I had my flag in the stands when we won our third Scudetto; now I keep it at home like a precious relic. That 20 March was wonderful. The sun was shining; it was a beautiful spring day. Roma drew 0-0, but so did Juventus, who had won against us 2-1 at the Olimpico a few weeks before. It was a good matchday, as we were one match closer to winning the league title. And I realised I’d want to go back to that place, the stadium, again and again.”

Roma won the Scudetto in May: that was the first time you saw your team win it.

“It was a huge joy. I got to see the city burst into mass celebrations and turn all yellow and red. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go to the stadium on the final matchday against Torino. But I did go in 2001 to watch Roma v Parma. And that day in a way made up for the one I’d missed 18 years before.

“Just like the night in Tirana: on that night we won what we failed to win in 1991, that year’s Coppa UEFA which we so much deserved to win after such an exciting campaign. And in a way we were there with all those people who in the meantime had passed away and those who are no longer with us today. But the strong feelings linked to Roma, if we only take into consideration what happens on the pitch, go beyond just a trophy being won.”

Explain what you mean.

There are roars and huge celebrations in our history that did not lead to us winning trophies or league titles. For example [Paulo Roberto] Falcao’s goal against Cologne. Or [Rudi] Voller’s goal in Roma v Brondby. Or – more recently – [Luca] Toni’s goal against [Jose] Mourinho’s Inter. 

Those were exciting moments that were not followed by anything outstanding or a successful campaign for the team. But it’s still beautiful. For example, one of the most exciting nights in my life was the 1984 Coppa Italia final against Verona. We won the trophy, but that match came after 30 May, as Roma captain [Agostino] Di Bartolomei was about to play for Roma for the last time. It was truly moving.”

Speaking of 20 March and specific moments: Foggia v Roma in 1994 was another key event in Roma history. Giuseppe Giannini’s goal, the tears, which meant not being relegated.

“I was at Zaccheria stadium that day. There was an incredibly intense, liberating roar. We were celebrating because we’d avoided potential relegation, after 14 matches without a win. We certainly weren’t playing to win any trophies or league titles.

“What I’m about to say is dedicated to those who carelessly use phrases like “all-time low” after the team lose a match or have a series of matches that are not very good. My father Antonio, who was born when Roma won their first Scudetto, witnessed Roma’s only year in Serie B when he was 10 years old. Now that was a difficult period. And yet, do you know he always described that season?”

How?

“With tears in his eyes, he’d get emotional. Just like when he talked about Giacomo Losi. He showed me what it was like through his own eyes. I witnessed it too.

“That year in Serie B, watching Roma’s matches live wasn’t easy, so he’d go to Bar Masetti in Largo Argentina. The owner was Guido Masetti. They’d display the match results there.”

Earlier you mentioned Mourinho when talking about that match between Roma and Inter in 2010. 11 years later, Mourinho came to Rome to coach Roma. He announced it on social media and it caught everyone by surprise. And you even talked about it on television.

“It was a crazy feeling; the news was totally unexpected. I was working at home, preparing the weather charts to take to the Rai studios in the afternoon. I was speechless and kept staring at the WhatsApp chat group I have with my friends.

“And while we were live, Sveva Sagramola brought up the topic with her usual grace, and we talked about it for a little bit. To me, as I said in front of the cameras, that was the only piece of news that was really important that day.”

It wasn’t an isolated case. There were a few references on other programmes too.

“That’s true. After the derby in 2021, which we won 2-0, I went on television with a red buttoned shirt and the lupetto around my neck. And after the match between Roma and Barcelona that ended 3-0, I showed up with a red tie with the lupetto on it and held up three fingers when talking about a third weather disturbance that was going to hit Spain.

“I tried to come up with all sorts of tricks to celebrate that historic, breathtaking comeback.”

You are also a big photography fan. You published an endless collection of pictures on a fan site about neighbourhoods covered in Roma’s signature colours in the summer of 2001.

“I kept the negatives for 20 years, telling myself that sooner or later I’d convert them into digital. Two years ago I told myself: “It’s either now, to celebrate the twenty-year anniversary, or never.”

“I had nearly one thousand pictures. I chose more than 500 of them to post online. And they are still online to this day.”

I was quite a feat, as well as a lasting memory of that historic moment.

“Again, to me Roma is serious business. And it will always be worth it, because being a Roma fan is a source of joy. No matter what.”