milan

Inter Milan win their 21st Scudetto, edging Napoli, with three matches remaining in the Italian football league season.

Celebrations have erupted across Milan after Inter clinched the Serie A title with a 2-0 victory over Parma, sending thousands of supporters into the streets.

The Piazza del Duomo was filled with fans clad in blue and black on Sunday, moments after the final whistle at the nearby San Siro, as flares and fireworks lit up the night sky.

Marcus Thuram opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time before Henrikh Mkhitaryan sealed the win 10 minutes from time. The winners moved up to 82 points and clinched their 21st Scudetto with three matches remaining in the campaign.

Inter entered the match knowing a point would be enough after second-placed Napoli were held to a 0-0 draw at Como on Saturday, and their own result the next day handed them an unbeatable 12-point lead at the top.

Despite the scarcity of clear-cut chances, Inter controlled much of the first half and established themselves deep in the Parma half.

The hosts came close in the 25th minute when a powerful close-range shot from Nicolo Barella struck the underside of the bar. The rebound then hit Parma goalkeeper Zion Suzuki on the back, but the Japan international reacted quickly to tip the ball away from near the line and out of danger.

Thuram sparked a frenzy among the home supporters in first-half stoppage time, slotting home after being found unmarked by a Piotr Zielinski through ball to put Inter ahead.

The second half followed a similar pattern with Inter remaining in control but failing to capitalise on their dominance as supporters inside the stadium grew increasingly focused on the clock ticking to 90 minutes.

Federico Dimarco delivered a near-perfect cross to Denzel Dumfries in the closing stages, but the defender failed to control his first touch, sending the close-range effort high over the bar and missing the chance to seal the match.

Mkhitaryan sealed the victory 10 minutes from time, tapping in a low cross from Lautaro Martinez to secure the points and spark title celebrations among Inter supporters.

For Inter, the triumph offered redemption after the heartbreak of last season when the club lost the Serie A title on the last match day before a 5-0 thrashing by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final.

“We feel so happy now. It was not easy to start again after a season where we lost all the competitions we were in right at the end, but I am very happy today with this achievement,” Martinez said.

“It was a very important objective for us, perhaps many didn’t see us being favourites considering what happened last term, but we worked so hard on and off the field.”

The atmosphere in the Italian metropolis stood in stark contrast to a year ago when supporters faced the combined heartbreak of losing the league title to Napoli on the final day and suffering defeat in the Champions League final.

“I have no words. In spite of everyone who jinxed us from start to finish. Go Inter, always,” Inter fan Fabio said. “Wonderful. Amazing. And compared to how it ended last year, this year we deserve everything.”

Many supporters were seen in tears at the celebrations.

“It was more than deserved. It was a difficult league season at the start because it was always there, neck and neck,” fellow Inter fan Federico said.

The festivities are expected to continue ahead of the Coppa Italia final on May 13 when Lazio stand in the way of a domestic double for Inter.

An estimated five million people travel from the UK to Italy on holiday each year – and chef Vincenzo Prosperi has named the one authentic city that should be on every traveller’s radar

An Italian chef has highlighted an “authentic” city worth visiting – and it’s not Milan, Venice or Florence. The recommendation comes as roughly five million Britons jet off to Italy for holidays each year.

While countless holidaymakers head for coastal spots like Puglia or Rimini, the nation is equally renowned for its stunning city escapes. According to chef Vincenzo Prosperi, known as Vincenzo Plates online, there’s one particular city that offers a genuine taste of Italy.

Vincenzo champions Bari on the Adriatic Sea as an “old town where the nonnas make pasta on the sea”. In a YouTube video, he said: “A really wonderful city.

“It has really improved in the last 10 years. It is one of the best places to see in the south of Italy. This is authentic, this is great.”

Boasting just over 315,000 residents, Bari ranks amongst the most significant cities in southern Italy. It serves as both a breathtaking Mediterranean port and a thriving university hub, reports the Express.

Bari divides into separate districts. The old town, known as Bari Vecchia, comprises a maze of ancient streets housing the historic Basilica of Saint Nicholas, which originates from the 11th century.

The delightful Piazza del Ferrarese gazes out over the Augusto Imperatore waterfront while its palm-lined avenues provide the ideal fusion of historic town and contemporary seafront. Its name derives from a Ferrara merchant who resided there during the 1600s and maintained his warehouses on the square.

Remnants of a Roman road stretching back to the 2nd century lie cordoned off on the piazza. Nowadays tourists can savour a peaceful moment while observing the vibrant boats gently rocking in the harbour.

Meanwhile, the Murak Quarter, constructed under Joachim Murat, serves as the pulsating centre of contemporary Bari. It’s renowned for its orderly grid pattern of streets, thriving retail area, and lively café scene.

Its energetic character stands in stark contrast to the ancient old town. Travel authority Mark Wolters advises that anyone visiting Bari must head to Strada Arco Bass where residents prepare orecchiette pasta right on the street.

In a YouTube video, he said: “When you come here, you’re going to see there’s a street where all these grandmas, all these ladies, are making orecchiette, they’re making a special kind of pasta from here.”

He added: “We bought two bags for like five euros and it was so worth it. We got to see the lady and she was making them and they had them out there, it was a really cool thing.”

Mark also urges travellers to Bari to try the focaccia barese – a bread crafted from mashed potato and semolina flour. He said: “Focaccia is like a really fluffy, almost like a pizza-bread dough bread, and in it they put tomatoes and olives and it is fantastic, it’s a really special one from here.”

The expert advises that anyone keen on embarking on a road trip around the wider Puglia region should pick up a hire car at Bari airport before exploring the surrounding area. He explains that you “don’t want to drive” in the city itself, particularly around the old town.

Flights from the UK to Bari start at around £70 on Skyscanner. During the summer months, temperatures can soar to as high as 30C, with May typically seeing highs of around 23C.

MILAN — Milan’s two first-division soccer teams share a stadium, the majestic San Siro, and the top two spots in the Serie A standings. They each have American owners and fanatically loyal supporters. And both are among the most iconic and successful teams in history.

But that’s where the similarities wane. Because while Inter Milan believes it has a story to tell, AC Milan has locked the doors, drawn the drapes and taken the phone off the hook.

I know this because ahead of last month’s Milan-Cortina Winter Games I reached out to both clubs and asked if they might have some time to visit. AC Milan proved too busy to chat, but Inter Milan invited me to its training center, hidden among farm fields and quiet pastures 45 minutes from the city. Those humble surroundings proved to be at odds with the lofty global reach the team is trying to build.

“I would say it’s leveraging more around Italian history and then the history of the club,” Giorgio Ricci, Inter Milan’s chief revenue officer, said of the image the club is trying to market. “A city like Milano is now a real ambassador of that Italian culture, from lifestyle to design to food and whatever. But we [also] have the authentic history around the foundation of this club. It’s a story not of globalization but of internationalization.

“So there is always this dualism between being very strong[ly] rooted in the city of Milan, in the real core, and having this international attitude. It’s quite a unique and winning combination.”

The Inter in Inter Milan, after all, is short for Internazionale, Italian for international.

“It shall be called Internazionale, because we are brothers of the world,” said Giorgio Muggiani when he helped start the team in 1908. He later lent his talents as an artist and illustrator to the fascist movement of Benito Mussolini.

Inter Milan is in the fifth year of its latest and boldest transition, one that is taking it from being just a soccer club into being a lifestyle and fashion-focused brand, a transition that, as Ricci said, will trade on its history as an international club and its location in one of the fashion capitals of the world.

It’s a model that was pioneered by French club Paris Saint-Germain, which nine years ago began partnering with Dior, Jordan Brand, Levi Strauss and others. Inter has teamed with Italian menswear brand Canali, created a new digital ecosystem that has won it a significant increase in video views and user engagement and has launched non-sporting merchandise such as streetwear accessories to accompany the rebrand.

“We are a football club,” Ricci said. “But in order to grow, we need to become a global football brand.”

And it has begun to do that. Deloitte, the British professional services company which does an annual ranking of soccer club revenues, says Inter brought in more than $620 million in 2024-25, the most recent season for which figures are available. That’s 11th best in the world and a jump of about 70% and eight places from where the club was a decade ago, when it was just the fourth-most-profitable club in Italy.

Inter Milan’s Hakan Calhanoglu celebrates after scoring on a penalty shot against Genoa on Feb. 28.

(Marco Luzzani / Getty Images)

In an effort to tell that story and continue that growth, Inter collaborated with Spike Lee on a short film titled “My Name Is My Story,” in which Lee narrated the club’s history and identity, introducing it to a U.S. audience during last summer’s Club World Cup.

Inter isn’t going it alone though. All of Italian football is in the midst of a long-needed overhaul.

A generation ago, Serie A was the best soccer league in the world. It had players like Roberto Baggio, Jurgen Klinsmann, Alessandro Del Piero, Ronaldo, George Weah and Diego Maradona and its wealthy, deep-pocketed owners sent Italian teams to nine Champions League finals between 1989-99.

Since then the league has struggled to market its product globally, lost many of its top players to better pay in other European leagues, found potential revenue streams closed off by aging, crumbling infrastructure, and saw its reputation and credibility damaged by the 2006 Calciopoli scandal, which centered on the manipulation of referee appointments to favor certain clubs.

An influx of U.S.-based owners is helping turn that around. Eight of Serie A’s 20 teams have American owners and Ricci says they have not only brought much-needed investment to the league but they’ve brought ideas on how to market Italian soccer.

“Some are only bringing money, yeah. Others are bringing also a vision and an ambition,” Ricci said. “Our ownership is exactly bringing that. Bringing the North American culture of not seeing only constraints and barriers in the development of a project [but] having the ambition, far-sighted[ness] and working on building a dream.

“That is exactly what Serie A needs: a bit of a dream and a bit of a vision to dare a bit more and not be too conservative. We need a few leading and having vision and bringing that dream.”

A big part of that dream and vision in Milan is a new stadium, one that will replace the century-old San Siro with a 71,500-seat arena at the center of a $1.4-billion urban-regeneration plan funded primarily by RedBird Capital, AC Milan’s New York-based owner, and Oaktree Capital Management, the Los Angeles-based company that owns Inter Milan.

For Inter Milan that investment, the club hopes, will transform the game-day experience not just for well-heeled corporate types but for the team’s diehard fans. I’m still waiting to hear what AC Milan’s plans are.

“I’m not only talking about corporate clients and things like that,” Ricci said. “That, of course, will benefit from a new state-of-the-art venue with the facilities, restaurants, whatever. But also for general [admission]. As soon as they step into a new venue with better seats, in terms of sound, in terms of video, audio and all the entertainment, we are going to increase the perception of each kind of spectator you have in the venue.”

Is it a gamble? Sure, but then very few things in sports are a sure bet. Yet for Inter Milan, at least, that vision and the story behind it are worth telling.

⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.