Serie A more popular than ever after a crazy summer

	Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of the many stars to leave Juve this summer, is one reason Inter is the favorite to win the scudetto. AP
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Cico the wedding singer was adamant, practically shouting into his mobile phone while scarfing down a quick plate of ravioli "How did Inter do?"

He did all of this while fixing his hair, of course. His hand-combing made him look like Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein. He was between sets. In the ballroom at this stunning Roman villa, the wedding guests, most of whom came from the Abruzzo region of Italy and were all oddly short, were dancing and singing Abruzzese-style. They had brought their own singer for this, because Cico and his partner-in-song, Francesco, didn't do Abruzzese tunes. They did the Beatles, Gloria Gaynor and Vasco Rossi.

Whoever was on the other end of Cico's mobile line, however, was obviously busy with his thing, because the answer wasn't forthcoming.

More ravioli. More hair-fixing. More Abruzzese songs from the other room.

"But Inter?!? How did Inter do?" Cico demanded again. "Ah, finalmente. 1-1? Uffa."

Uffa, indeed. Inter-Sampdoria finished 1-1. That's not supposed to happen. Sampdoria is not a bad side, but it's not supposed to earn a point at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza against an Inter team that has designs on the Scudetto and the Champions League. But there are lots of things happening that are not supposed to happen this season in Italy.

Before this season even started, things were topsy-turvy. Calciopoli, the match-fixing scandal that unraveled the status quo of Serie A, dragged Juventus down to Serie B and slapped AC Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina and Reggina with point reductions. Now, just two weeks into the season, everything is wackier. Palermo -- and its pink jerseys -- is in second place; Atalanta is third. David Trezeguet is playing in Serie B. Sampdoria is tying Inter at Giuseppe Meazza.

The biggest difference I've seen, though, is that, unbelievably, more people care about soccer than ever.

I've traveled to Italy regularly for years and although it always seemed like everyone was soccer-mad, the reality was that a huge portion of the population -- namely, women -- didn't care. These days, that's not true. And I'm talking about Francesco Totti-loving teenaged girls or leggy supermodels looking for their David Beckham. I'm talking about people who previously cared about soccer as much as I care about knitting.

Take Rossana, for example. Rossana is in her 60s, born and raised in Rome and married more than 40 years to Pietro, a now-retired vegetable-distribution king. Pietro never fell for soccer, always too busy moving veggies. But their daughter, Paola, somehow became a Lazio tifosa. Her parents never understood, passing it off as another air-pocket in the generation gap. Then last spring, lo scandalo broke and suddenly Rossana was hooked.