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ROMA KEEPS WINNING . A title won in football was not sufficient to appease an endemic hunger for victory. Numbers speak for themselves: Lazio had to wait for 27 years before winning its second title, while Roman volleyball had to wait for 23 years before one of its teams managed to break the supremacy of Emilian clubs. In fact, in the week that Lazio won its second trophy, i.e. Coppa Italia, Piaggio Roma also managed to win the last match, thus taking the volleyball title to Rome. In 1976/77 the team was called Federlazio, and today the club is named Roma Volley and is sponsored by a prestigious motorbike maker. The irony of fate, in this case, too, just like Lazio for football, the title was won at the expense of an Old Lady (as Juventus is nicknamed), given that Modena has always been considered Juventus of volleyball.  Like in all Capitoline triumphs, this exploit aroused an explosive enthusiasm. At the PalaEur, 13,000 supporters took the team trained by Montali to success, helping its players to catch up, after having been two sets behind their rivals. In only two years this club has managed to reach a target other teams have failed to achieve or still have to achieve. This is the case of basketball and the other football team of the capital, Roma, which now after Lazio victory will have to strive even further in order to build up a great winning group. Yet, inner rivalries are slowly disappearing, at least according to declarations, to leave room for another major goal. Indeed, the most important thing for Rome was to manage to deny the fact of not being able to achieve something destined to go down in history. Rome, but Southern Italy in general, has been often wrongly defined as a pleasure-loving and frivolous place, being not too prone to work and sacrifice. Sunshine, sea and good cuisine: this is the presumed deadly mixture that is poles apart from the formula of the perfect athlete and that prevented southern sport from reaching prestigious goals. Therefore southern supporters developed a particular critical mind and at the same time a slight inferiority complex faced with the northern sports environment: fog, cold and the historic influence, as far as discipline is concerned, of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, could account for the stronger commitment of northern athletes. Because of this, the enthusiasm and passion that overwhelmed Rome after the double triumph (a triple victory, when considering the Coppa Italia trophy), is really unique. After several years with no victories, people really wanted to revenge and free themselves from these unpleasant commonplaces.  The hard law of sport always underscores that only final results really count; it is thus not sufficient to win a battle, but one must be able to measure his strength for the whole war.  Strong motivation, together with self-sacrifice, have thus clearly demonstrated that there are not two winning races in Italy. Yet, now comes the next step, which is the most demanding one. A single victory can be a sporadic case, so one must be able to win again to start a new winning cycle. This is the next challenge for Rome, a city with many agonistic ambitions on the threshold of the new millennium.  Paolo Ghisoni

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