My Town, My Team – Pescara: A Local’s Guide to Calcio by the Adriatic

Juha Joensuu moved from Finland to Pescara a decade ago and is an amateur photographer covering football across Abruzzo. He is also a season ticket holder in the Curva Nord at the Stadio Adriatico. For the latest edition of our My Town, My Team series, he talked about what makes his adopted home so special – the deep connection between the locals and the club, Abruzzo’s rich culinary heritage and much, much more.

Why Pescara?

I came here in 2016, right at the time when Pescara were in Serie A as they had just been promoted. It was a beautiful experience for me to be able to see a football team so close to where I lived.

I came here for family reasons and to be able to have a local club playing in the top division in Italy was a dream come true. It was truly a wonderful discovery.

Personally, I think you support your home club. Living close to the stadium, living in the city of Pescara, you want to support the local team.

It doesn’t matter what league they are in, for me and for a lot of us. It doesn’t matter if they’re in Serie A, or if they’re in the fifth division. You go and watch Pescara, you go to the stadium, you support the team that’s next to where you live. The best way to describe what Pescara really means to the locals is that it is part of our daily lives. This truly makes me feel happy.

Tell us about the stadium

The first time that I stepped into the Stadio Adriatico was a beautiful experience. You see the green pitch, you see the fans, you see the flags. You start to realise what football really means to this city.

The Curva Nord is where the most passionate fans are on matchday and that’s the stand I’ve been going to since I started following Pescara. When you go to games season after season, you generally see the same people and you start conversations.

Pescara is a real football city and at the Adriatico you get all people from different walks of life. You have people who are lawyers, you have people who are construction workers, people who are unemployed… and everybody gathers to support the team, to support the shirt together.

Being in the Curva Nord means to be part of something bigger than what I am, to be together with people who are your neighbours. It doesn’t matter what my job is or what your job is. We all come together and we are for the same cause. We just want the best for Pescara, the best for the team and best for the colours.

Before a match the majority of the crowd have drinks right in front of Tribune Majella and the north terrace at the stadium on Viale Vittorio Pepe. There are a few places around that you can have a more relaxed setting, such as Jaysons Irish Bar on Viale Guglielmo Marconi and Area Bar & Bistro on Viale Vittorio Pepe.

What about Pescara the city?

It is traditionally a fisherman’s village and even today you see fishing boats and trawlers out by the port.

Up and down the Adriatic Sea you’ll see plenty of similar towns. They’re basically old fishing villages that have developed into cities and Pescara is one of the biggest in the area.

Pescara definitely is an overlooked region. From a tourism standpoint, it doesn’t really have the profile of places like Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Venice.

But Pescara and Abruzzo have a lot of beautiful things to offer. You have the sea and the mountains within a 40-minute drive of each other. You can be skiing in the morning in the Maiella mountains and be at the beach in the afternoon.

Our former manager Silvio Baldini perfectly summed up the city last year. He said: “Pescara is a place where if you are born poor, you’re happy. If you are born a farmer, you’re happy. If you’re born a fisherman, you’re happy. If you’re born an entrepreneur, you’re happy. Because Pescara is a beautiful city. There is a culture that no one can explain that makes things magical.”

Tell us about the food

If you love seafood there’s a lot on offer here. If you’re a tourist that has never been to Abruzzo you definitely want to try some local dishes. Fresh seafood is very common on plates, especially on a Sunday. Families get together, friends get together and they’ll tuck into fresh seafood.

New places have opened up in the recent years along the Lungomare Cristoforo Colombo, such as Doppio Malto & L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, originally famously in Naples.

Towards the centre of Pescara you will find the old city, near the river and the old bridge (Ponte Risorgimento). At night it is buzzing with bars, restaurants and venues with live bands.

If you head north, on Via Cesare Battisti you will find more nightlife, it gets busy and you can get local beer and wine or foreign choices. There’s everything from pizzerias and classic Italian cuisine to steak and burger restaurants. Fattoria Toccaferro is great and Frate Tac is also good. If I keep naming places the list could go on forever.

Montesilvano, Spoltore and Francavilla al Mare are towns that surround Pescara and they are also full of places to go.

Because we’re relatively close to Rome, the inland area of Abruzzo shares culinary traditions that are closer to those of Marche and Lazio. So you can expect to have a lot of meat and pasta.

Abruzzo is renowned for its arrosticini – small lamb skewers that are delicious with a bit of sea salt drizzled on top and great with a beer or a glass of red wine. This is a common matchday meal in Pescara, along with the pizzette – small round pizzas no bigger than a small tart.

And what about the people?

The people in Pescara have a strong identity and a strong sense of belonging to their local region and roots. The Pescaresi are friendly people.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a foreigner, like myself. If you speak Italian to these people and even if you have a limited vocabulary in Italian, you will find that plenty of locals will really enjoy speaking with you and you can make lifelong friends.

Football, of course, plays a part in that. When they see that you’re here to support the team, you’re immediately one of them.

How does the city change on machday?

Every time there’s a game on there is a good vibe in the city. You can sense the optimism in the air. Even those who don’t attend Pescara games want to know what’s going on and are very interested in the team.

When there’s a really big match, you can feel this vibe, especially the closer you are to the centre of town. When Pescara get promoted or win a big fixture, you can see the joy in all the faces.

The city is really living and enjoying football and it’s lovely being part of such a communal experience.