SS Lazio

Lazio are the older of Rome's two big clubs, founded in 1900, and they share the Stadio Olimpico with AS Roma, their rivals since the first Derby della Capitale in 1929. The colors are sky blue and white, taken from the Greek flag in a nod to the Olympic ideal, and the symbol is the eagle, which is why the club are also the Aquile. For a Lazio game the home end at the Olimpico is the Curva Nord, the north curve, instead of Roma's south end, and the fans' neighborhood of choice is Ponte Milvio, a kilometer or so east of the stadium.

The club have won Serie A twice, in 1974 and 2000, and the second title came a year after they won the Cup Winners' Cup and beat Manchester United for the Super Cup. The coach of the first title, Tommaso Maestrelli, now has the south curve named after him for Lazio games.

Since January 2026 the organized supporters have been boycotting home games in a dispute with the club's president, Claudio Lotito, and the protest carried into the 2026/27 season, so the team is playing to small crowds at home.

Getting there

The Olimpico is a few kilometers north of the historic center, in the Foro Italico sports complex, and there's no metro station at the door. The standard route is Metro line A to Flaminio, then tram 2 up the Via Flaminia to its last stop, Piazza Mancini, and a short walk over the Ponte Duca d'Aosta footbridge to the stadium. Tram 2 was replaced by buses on that stretch over the summer of 2026, with trams returning gradually through the autumn, so take whichever is running from Flaminio. The other way in is Metro A to Ottaviano and bus 32 toward the Farnesina.

Check your ticket before you choose a route, because it names your entry point. For the Milan game in September 2026 the Curva Nord and the two Distinti Nord sections went in from Piazza Piero Dodi, the Tribuna Tevere from there or from Piazza Lauro De Bosis at the footbridge end, the Distinti Sud-Est from Lauro De Bosis, the Tribuna Monte Mario from Via dei Gladiatori, and the Curva Maestrelli from Viale delle Olimpiadi. A Curva Nord ticket holder who follows the footbridge arrives at the wrong end; the better route to Piazza Piero Dodi is to walk about ten minutes north from Piazza Mancini to Ponte Milvio and on to the stadium from there, another 20 minutes. Every spectator's ID is checked against the ticket, so reach your gate well before kickoff.

Plan the trip home before you go. The metro shuts around 23:30 from Sunday to Thursday and around 01:30 on Friday and Saturday, and it's a long way from the stadium, so after an evening kickoff from Sunday to Thursday you're looking at a night bus or a taxi. Rental e-scooters are all over Rome, but Italy has required a helmet for every rider since December 2024, the sharing apps don't supply one, and the fines are enforced.

Making a day of it

The Lazio pre-match lives at Ponte Milvio, the ancient bridge east of the stadium, where nearly every door on the piazza and the streets around it is a bar or a restaurant. Ask a Lazio fan where to have a beer before the game and that's the answer. Roma fans tend to give it a wide berth because it's Lazio territory, and during the boycott it's also where organized fans have gathered on matchdays instead of going in.

For a longer day, the center is the better base. The Pantheon and the old town are about an hour from the stadium by public transport, whatever the app tells you.

Inside, and where the noise is

A Lazio game starts with the eagle. Before kickoff the club's bird, Flaminia, flies laps of the Olimpico and lands on its perch by the center circle, a ritual it took over from its predecessor, Olimpia, and "Vola Lazio vola," the anthem, plays over the speakers before and after every home game. Be in your seat for both.

On a normal day the noise comes from the Curva Nord, the north curve, home of the organized support behind the Ultras Lazio banner. The side stands, the Tribuna Tevere on the east and the pricier Tribuna Monte Mario on the west, are the calmer seats with the better view, and the Distinti sections fill the corners between the curves and the side stands. Away fans are housed in the Distinti Sud-Ovest, the corner between the south curve and the Monte Mario stand, through gates 15 to 17. When a big club visits, its fans spill out of that sector into the side stands near the south end, so a "calm" seat there can put you among the visitors.

The boycott covers home league and cup games, and around 93% of season-ticket holders reportedly didn't renew for 2026/27. For the home opener against Genoa that August, only a few thousand people were inside, and when Milan visited in September, reports put the Milan crowd at close to 10,000, which may well have outnumbered Lazio's. In May 2026 the groups stayed away from the derby as well, a Roma home game, and gathered at Ponte Milvio. In June they said that for 2026/27 they would follow the team away and go to derbies, home and away. If it's the Curva Nord you want, a home derby is the likeliest bet and also the hardest ticket of the season, so confirm the groups' plans the week before.

This is Flaminia's flight before a home game against Inter in May 2026, over a thinned-out crowd:

Watch on YouTube ↗

The Curva Nord, and a careful word

The Curva Nord has a troubled record. For decades the dominant group was the Irriducibili, which dissolved in 2020 and was replaced by the single Ultras Lazio banner, and the end has a far-right element that has repeatedly drawn punishment. In January 2024, after racist abuse aimed at Roma's Romelu Lukaku during a cup derby, the Italian sports judge ordered the Curva Nord and the Distinti Nord closed for the next home game. Later that year UEFA shut two sectors of the curve for a Europa League match against Porto over racist chanting and fascist salutes at a game against Nice.

Partial closures can be ordered at short notice, and a ticket in a closed sector won't get you in, so check for sanctions the week of the game. If you'd rather not be around that element at all, the Tribuna Tevere is the comfortable choice, and if a big club is visiting, sit toward the middle of the stand. On derby day, keep your colors covered anywhere outside your own section.

The songs

"Vola Lazio vola" is the anthem, written and sung by Toni Malco in 1983 at the request of Giorgio Chinaglia, the striker from the 1974 title side, who was club president by then. It's the song on the speakers at the start and end of every home game, and the one to learn.

Merch

The club shops are called Lazio Style 1900. The most useful for a matchday is on Via Guglielmo Calderini, a few minutes from Piazza Mancini on the walk to the stadium, which opens five hours before kickoff for Sunday home games. There's also a central store on Via di Propaganda, near the Spanish Steps, open every day.

Getting a ticket

Lazio put each home game on sale about a week out, season-ticket holders first and then a general sale: for the Milan game on 12 September 2026, the general sale opened the Monday before the Saturday kickoff. The club website links to Vivaticket, which adds a 3.8% online fee, and Vivaticket's authorized outlets sell them too. For the Genoa game in August 2026, prices were €25 in the Curva Nord, €35 in the Distinti, €50 in the Tribuna Tevere and €100 in the Tribuna Monte Mario, with a limit of four tickets per person. With the boycott on, an ordinary home game is an easy ticket; the derby is the exception.

The Italian rules apply in full. Every ticket carries a name, ID is checked for every spectator including children, and a passport is the safest thing to bring. You can change the name on a ticket, except in the away sector. The local prefecture can also ban sales to residents of the visiting team's region, which is aimed at away fans and doesn't affect a foreign visitor, but it explains why some sectors close for some games.

Don't buy from resale sites. Reselling above face value is illegal in Italy, and a ticket in someone else's name can fail the check at the turnstile. How to get football tickets abroad covers why the club's own channel is the safe one, and planning an Italian trip explains the named-ticket system.

One last thing

In a normal season the Curva Nord carries the whole stadium. This season Flaminia still flies and "Vola Lazio vola" still plays, but the organized support is singing at away games, so an ordinary home game is a quiet one. Have your beer at Ponte Milvio anyway.

Ticket rules, sanctions and the state of the supporters' protest all change; check anything time-sensitive the week you travel, and only buy through the club or an authorized seller.