Except for the occasional bit of wall writing--we found "Paparelli Vive!" on a wall in the neighborhood to the south of via Gallia in San Giovanni--the name Vincenzo Paparelli is now all but forgotten, his tragic story all but unknown.

for the annual "derby," the inner-city competition with arch-rival AS Roma. He was enjoying the game, and eating a panino, when a flare launched by a Roma fan from the Curva Sud--the South Curve at the opposite end of the stadium--hit him in the eye. He was DOA at Santo Spirito Hospital. He left behind a wife and two children.
The death was the first Italian soccer fatality due to violence. In 2001, his memory was honored with a plaque placed under the Curva Nord.
Bill
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