The eruption of pure joy, and the honking of the cars and the horn and the fireworks exploding and hugging, so much hugging, all over Italy on Sunday after their national men’s soccer team defeated England to win the Euro tournament 2020 marked an extraordinary change, not just for a recently besieged team, but also for a recently besieged country.
But if the feisty, indefatigable and improbably undefeated Italy team lifted the country’s spirits after multiple lockdowns and untold suffering sparked by a brutal pandemic, it was just the latest sign of a national resurgence. Also on Sunday, Matteo Berrettini became the first Italian to play for the men’s singles championship at Wimbledon.
