I’m a Juventus fan! And I’m lucky enough to watch them live on December last year. And here is the story of my trip to watch Juventus! This is the 1st part of 3-part story that I plan to write. The 1st part is about the preparation before the trip. The 2nd part is about the match that I attended, and the last part is about Juventus Stadium Tour. :). And without further ado, here they are.. the 1st part about the trip preparation!

[caption id=”” align=”aligncenter” width=”640”]In Front Of Juventus Musesum I didn[/caption]

The Tickets

These are essential things for the trip. There are two type of tickets, which should be searched concurrently or almost at the same time and don’t ask me why at this point. You’ll find out the answer in the end of this section ;).

  • Airplane Ticket

As we all know, Juventus is from Turin, Italy. If you are in Indonesia, first you need to get the ticket to Europe (you can plan for your Euro-trip as well!). Generally, tickets from Indonesia to Europe are relatively cheaper during off season, which is during winter and spring (January to early June). Try to look for Middle-East airlines such as Qatar Airways, Emirates, or Etihad. You can try KLM as well. For example, good ticket prices from Jakarta to Barcelona or Madrid are around 620 to 650 Euros during this period. Try to look for favorite tourist destination such as Paris, or Roma as your entry point to Europe instead of going directly to Turin.

Once you are in Europe (or if you stay in Europe), there are plenty of options. Look for flight from budget airlines such as RyanAir, Vueling, EasyJet, Transavia etc. For the destination, you can choose to fly directly to Turin, or alternatively you can go to Milan. From Milan, you can take train to Turin. No worries, the trains are available almost every hour, and the price is around 10 Euros (price in Dec 2011). Alternatively you can take bus or train. It really depends on where your starting point is :D

For my case, I took a flight from Girona (small city, 1 hour drive from Barcelona) to Turin, using RyanAir directly to Turin. When I came back, I took train to Milan, and from Milan continue with Vueling flight to Barcelona.

  • Juventus Match Ticket

This one is a bit tricky if you are not staying in Turin. Juventus sell their ticket through LisTicket. And usually ticket is released 2 to 3 weeks before the matches. You need Italian address to receive your ticket. (Maybe European address will work as well, CMIIW). The alternative for ticketing if the ticket in LisTicket sold out is to go to fan-to-fan ticket website such as seatwave. The price in seatwave is expensive, it’s like having online “calo” (calo is infamous in Indonesia for selling event or train ticket with super inflated price). I suggest you use Italian address as the recipient if you order ticket via seatwave. And, surprisingly, during my ticket hunting using seatwave, for Juventus match with medium or small team, ticket price will go down significantly about 4 to 3 days before the actual matchday and you can collect the ticket from seatwave office in Turin. Last time I obtained my ticket via seatwave with price around twice of the original price. I asked them to send the ticket into hotel where I stayed and here are the pics of the ticket and authorization letter to change the possession of the ticket from the previous owner to me. The authorization letter and our id card (which is passport) are needed to enter the stadium during matchday.

[caption id=”” align=”aligncenter” width=”720”]my ticket! Juventus vs Cesena ticket[/caption]

And here is the authorization letter

[caption id=”” align=”aligncenter” width=”720”]LisTicket authorization letter LisTicket authorization letter[/caption]

The Accomodation

As usual, I used hostelbookers or hostelworld to search for place to stay during my trip in Turin. I stayed at Hotel Campigdolio. It is the cheapest place in hostelbookers or hostelworld during my time there. I book shared room that has 4 beds and external bath room. The good thing about his hotel is the receptionist can speak English and it is near the tram stop for trams that go to Juventus stadium (tram no 9, special matchday service). Well, for this case, it really depends on how much budget that you have. :)

Conclusion

Let’s summarize what I’ve written here in term of cost…

  1. Ticket Jakarta - Europe = 600 to 700 Euros
  2. Accommodation in Turin = 20 Euros/night
  3. European Visa = 50 to 100 Euros (depends on the first country that you’ll visit in Europe)
  4. Matchday Ticket = 30 to 150 Euros (depends on the match and where do you get the ticket).
  5. Budget for eating = 10 to 15 Euros/day (not eating at the restaurant though, eat the kebab or pizza place)

Well well, I think that’s enough on this part. Comments and suggestions are welcomed! :D

See you on the 2nd part next week! and Forzaaaa Juveeee!!