Attacked by soccer fans

Jeremy Roebuck has an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about an Italian bar fight:

Facing a mob of Italian soccer fans armed with cobblestones, knives, and bats, Swarthmore College student Nick Constantino reached for the first thing he could find to defend himself: a bar stool. His only instinct, he said recently, was to escape with his life. "These guys came in wearing masks, carrying weapons, and were intent on hurting or potentially killing people," Constantino said from Rome. "We were just basically in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Six days after a raucous brawl at a bar in Rome left him and two other Swarthmore students hospitalized, the twenty-year-old junior from Marlton recalled the chaotic scene. By the end of the fight, one of his classmates would be stabbed in the back, another would be bludgeoned with a beer pitcher, and Constantino himself would have a mild concussion; all innocently caught up in what Italian authorities described as a bloody explosion of soccer hooliganism.
Authorities continue to investigate and have charged at least two fans of the Italian soccer team Lazio with assault. The men stand accused of descending on the Drunken Ship, a pub popular with foreign students (photo), on the Campo de' Fiori just before 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday in search of fans of the rival Tottenham Hotspur team from England. The attack, which may have been motivated partly by anti-Semitism, preceded a Europa League match that ended in a scoreless draw. Lazio fans reportedly chanted slurs at the Spurs, who have a large Jewish fan base, and held a Free Palestine banner.
The Swarthmore students were expected to fully recover and complete their semester abroad next week, said Eryn Jelesiewicz, a spokeswoman for Temple University, which runs the program that sent Constantino and his classmates to Italy.
Nicholas Burnett, a Swarthmore junior from Anaheim, California, remained hospitalized recovering from a stab wound. Zachary Schaffer, a junior from Moreland Hills, Ohio, sustained bruising, university officials said.
Constantino said that he and his friends were not initially aware of the soccer fans drinking near them that night. "We had literally ordered our first round of drinks and hadn't even sat down when we saw this group of fifty or sixty guys coming," he said. "Some were wearing masks, some with full motorcycle helmets, and some with bandannas. Every single one of them had some sort of weapon." Chaos erupted within minutes. The crowd began smashing windows, indiscriminately punching patrons and hurling cobblestones at those sitting outside, Constantino said. He bolted inside from an outside patio, toppling tables and chairs behind him in hope of slowing down the pursuing mob. Others nearby grabbed serving trays, beer mugs, and broken-off table legs to defend themselves. "At one point, I was cornered with a bunch of people behind me," Constantino said. "I was trying to bat people away with a stool."
Burnett, meanwhile, glimpsed an opportunity to flee, and ran toward a nearby alley, he told the Daily Telegraph in London. "I tried to escape, but a guy hit me in the back," he said. "At first I thought it was a baseball bat, but then I felt the wound and it felt like a knife injury. I ran across the piazza to take refuge and realized I was bleeding profusely." Doctors would determine that Burnett's stabbing nicked a lung. But he quickly recovered from the injuries, Constantino said. He is expected to be released from the hospital soon. "He's in great spirits," said Constantino. "He really is a trouper."
In the days since the attack, Swarthmore officials have kept in close contact with the students' parents and re-emphasized safety guidelines for all students studying abroad, school officials said.
But Constantino is determined not to let the incident ruin his time in Rome. "It was really just a freak random act of violence," he said. "It doesn't change my opinion of Italy at all." His parents have expressed reservations, he added. But after a fall semester filled with first trips to Rome's ruins and museums, Constantino said, he can now add a third less auspicious first to the list. "I've never actually seen a legitimate bar fight before," he said. "Let alone something like this."

Rico says that he's never been in a bar fight, fortunately, not even in college, but likes the bar stool or broken table leg notion. (But only because the Italians wouldn't like him packing a gub, which would be his first choice...)