Marching through rainy Reggio Emilia and then standing outside a Serie B match is a day out that won’t be on many football bucket lists.

But for one Scotsman last weekend, there was nowhere else he would rather be.

Mark Touzeau, a 55-year-old Morton supporter, stood shoulder to shoulder with 3,000 of the Reggiana fans who refused to watch their side take on Sassuolo. But their gripe had nothing to do with the team, despite a seven-game winless run and the very real threat of slipping into calcio’s third tier. We’ll get to the why in a bit…

After travelling from Greenock to Edinburgh for a flight to Milan and then boarding a train to Reggio Emilia, around 12 hours after leaving his house, Mark was on familiar territory.

“This was my fifth trip over. It was my first protest though,” Mark told Destination Calcio. “The original plan was to go to the game but when we found out what was happening and there was talk of a boycott, I knew I would be standing with them.”

For Reggiana, Sassuolo ‘away’ was always going to be controversial. The teams have shared a stadium since 2013 but the ground used to be Reggiana’s. They left their old place, the Mirabello, in 1995 and opened their current home with a game against Juventus. 

Initially called the Stadio Giglio, it was part-funded by the fans but the club lost ownership following bankruptcy in 2005 and in 2012 the stadium was renamed the Citta del Tricolore, in honour of Reggio Emilia being the birthplace of the Italian flag in 1797.

But in 2013 Reggiana effectively became tenants when Mapei, who already owned Sassuolo, bought the ground at auction and rebranded it the Mapei Stadium. It is a name the Reggiana fans refuse to use, preferring to stick with Citta del Tricolore.

Fuel was added to this fire last week when Sassuolo refused to let the Reggiana fans take their usual areas of the stadium and instead offered them tickets for the away end.

Reggiana asked them to reconsider but their plea, backed by the mayor, Marco Massari, and members of the local council and supported by Sassuolo fan groups and rival teams including Modena, fell on deaf ears. So, the fans stayed away.

Mark continued: “There was about 10,000 fans boycotted and 3,000 joined the match.

“Being part of it was a shock to the system. They are so passionate and loud and dedicated to the songs. It’s orchestrated.

“I’m used to going to Scotland games and it can be drunken mayhem and a bit hit-and-miss in terms of the songs.

“But this is organised, with ultra groups in charge of what is getting sung. And there’s flares with so much smoke. It’s something we’re just not used to.

“You can see the pride in people. They’re all hugging each other, fist-bumping their hearts.

“Everybody is involved, from toddlers up to grannies with walking sticks. They’re all determined to do it.

“They’re determined to show their pride that this is their club and what has been done to them is not on. It’s an affront to the club and the city.”

That city, Reggio Emilia, is in the Emilia-Romagna region. It is home to 171,000 and sits 70km from Bologna, 155km from Milan and 25km from Sassuolo. It is also the place where Max Melloni grew up.

Max is one of the two Reggiana fans who kickstarted this unlikely alliance with Scottish Championship side Morton.

Max and his friend Alle were looking to get in touch with scooter enthusiasts in Scotland and having watched the 2002 movie Sweet Sixteen, pointed their handlebars towards Greenock – the town, famous for its shipbuilding past, where the film is set.

Max is in his early fifties, works as an architect in Reggio Emilia and sings in a punk band. He told Destination Calcio: “We first went (to Greenock) in 2008, just me and Alle. It was insane. Many tales can’t be told in public but we still try to return to catch up with the many friends we met. We bring Morton colours with us everywhere and our friends in Greenock do the same with ours.”

One of those friends is Mark.

“It can be easy to go on a football trip abroad, arrive one day and leave the next,” Mark says. “In and out without seeing much. But this is different. 

“Reggio Emilia, compared to the bigger cities in Italy, doesn’t have a lot of tourists. It’s more quiet and laid-back and there’s also a real interest from the locals in why you’re there, rather than visiting Bologna, Rome, Milan… They’re all beautiful cities but I prefer Reggio Emilia and that’s down to the people. They are very welcoming. And in terms of the football, it’s the same with the ultras, they are very accommodating.”

It was the ultras who gave Mark’s son, 17-year-old Cameron, the green light to break the boycott and attend the Sassuolo game.

“I’ve been talking about these trips for so many years, telling my wife (Brenda) and son, so this was their first time coming over. Cameron wanted to go to his first game in Italy. 

“The night before the game we went to the pub to meet one of the leaders of the ultras group Teste Quadre. I’ve met him a few times over the years and my friends in Italy spoke to the group before we arrived to explain the situation.

“I wanted to make sure everything was fine. They were great, they had absolutely no problem.

“On the day of march I spoke to one of the guys in the other ultras group, the Gruppo Vandelli. He said Cameron should definitely be at the game. Only 44 ‘away end’ tickets were sold. And about 400 fans – elderly or families – also went in, and that was fine with them too.

“Brenda is not really a football fan but she loved the whole day, everything about it. And Cameron was blown away by the genuine interest and attention from the locals, especially in the Morton flag.

“Later that night, long after the game and the protests had finished, we got taken to this building, owned by the Gruppo Vandelli. It has a bar, eating facilities, gym and pictures on the wall of games going back years.

“It’s a real hub of the community, in what is quite a poor area. They teach kids how to box, give them something to do and give them language lessons if they can’t speak Italian as there are African kids there too. The group fund and run the whole thing themselves.

“They invited us in and it felt like a real honour. They fed and watered us, too well.”

Like many locals, Mark has a soft spot for the Mirabello. “It’s fantastic,” he says.

The old ground is still there but only one stand remains after the terraces were knocked down. It is also the site of a memorial to the victims of the Heysel Stadium disaster. 

May this year will be the 40th anniversary of the tragic events in Belgium, where 39 fans lost their lives following trouble before the European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool.

The memorial was built in 1991 using crush barriers from the stadium in Brussels, which have been painted in the colours of the Italian flag and bear the names of the victims. One of them, a photographer called Claudio Zavaroni, was from Reggio Emilia. 

“It’s a special place,” Mark says. “Definitely worth seeing.”

A scooter rally in September is also a big draw and every year a crowd from Greenock travels to Reggio Emilia.

Mark says: “The relationship goes beyond football. The Reggiana boys are well known and well loved, not just at Morton but in Greenock the town.

“This is the best thing that has happened to me in a football sense. It allowed me to experience the culture in Italy and it has all been positive. It’s a beautiful country.”

Max agrees. He talks fondly about the “beautiful” nearby towns of Guastalla, Correggio, Gualtieri and Scandiano while the Canossa castles form part of a superb tour in the hills. “We have mountains more than 2000m high.”

If Max ever fancied a career change from architecture, and could find the time between gigs with his band The Bawbags (yes, the name is a nod to Scottish slang), he could probably do a magnificent job with his local tourist board.

“Reggio Emilia is a good place to visit,” he says. “The city centre is pretty and the Reggiani are good people – reliable and open minded.

“There is history here dating back to 187 BC but one of the main attractions is food. This is the birthplace of the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (what people who are not from Italy wrongly call Parmesan).

“You can also find the best Lambrusco wine here and we have a wonderful, and not well known, sparkling white called Spergola.”

But what about the music scene? How does an architect become a singer in a punk band – or vice versa?

“I got into punk when I was about 14. Then I studied in Florence and played several gigs there. In the 90s the scene in Florence was very active. 

“Despite our band’s name, which Scottish people love, we sing in the local Reggio dialect.

“There’s still a strong scene here. Reggio Emilia has always been a town deep into revolution. This is the city of the tricolor flag as Reggio Emilia hosted the first republican council of Italy in the late 18th century when the flag (as it is now) was born. 

“The punk scene is one of the best in the country. Last year there was an exhibition in Reggio for the 40th anniversary of the band CCCP. 

“Milan and Bologna in the 80s were great places for gigs. The first time The Ramones played in Italy was in Reggio in 1980 and The Police are remembered for an epic performance there as well. The Clash played a great live gig in Bologna. And there’s a small but important town in the north east of Italy called Pordenone that deserves a mention in any conversation about punk.” (Destination Calcio makes a note to pay a visit).

Max has been following his team since the 1980-81 season.

“I go everywhere Reggiana plays,” he says. “We have good away support. The derby games in the north are special but I like trips to the south – long trips with friends, seeing places you might not have seen before.”

There’s talk of a return to Cappielow to see Morton again next season. And loose plans are in place for more than 100 of the Italians to make a trip to England, to watch Port Vale in 2025-26. But that’s a story for another day…

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