Written by Matteo Ciaramella
A story of hate riddled with jealousy and garnished with resentment.
Livorno and Pisa have no love to spare for each other, and their rivalry is a known phenomenon in every corner of the Italian nation—a fascinating tale.
The two cities, polar opposites, and yet similar in many ways, united in one of the Greatest Italian rivalries to ever exist.
BEGINNINGS
1284. Pisa is a flourishing port city, part of the 4 Repubbliche Marinare (‘Maritime Republics’). An important hub for commerce, exploration, and culture, Pisa’s influence and power could only be matched by one of the other 4 Maritime Republics – Genoa. Unsurprisingly, this grew into a strong rivalry for domination over the Tyrrhenian Sea, culminating in the Battle of Meloria on August 6th, 1284, just a few kilometers off the coast of the then-small and insignificant village Livorno. It had belonged to the Pisan Republic for nearly two centuries, and hosted a port known as Porto Pisano. This distant power imbalance is a source of pride among Pisans to this day.
The Battle of Meloria, however, resulted in a decisive Genoese victory. With its fleet destroyed, Pisa lost much prestige and strength, marking the end of the Republic in its previous grandeur. Livorno was also heavily damaged during the battle, and following stints under the rule of Milan and Genoa, the town was bought by the Republic of Florence in 1421. Pisa on the other hand, had tried to build its power back up several times over the course of the 14th century, frequently engaging in battles with Florence itself. These efforts were ultimately in vain, and Pisa fell under Florentine rule shortly before Livorno did, in 1405.
Starting in 1421, the two cities were once again part of the same rule, only this time the dynamics would shift massively. The powerful Medici and Lorraine families were determined to turn Livorno into a prospering city, so they made it the Florentine Republic’s main port and implemented several policies that allowed it to grow exponentially, so much so that it would soon earn the label of “ideal city”.
This enraged Pisa and its inhabitants, resentful for their lost status and importance, as well as Livorno’s rise from being a wildly unimportant location to key port in the booming and thriving Republic of Florence. Pisa was turned into a cultural center, so the locals made the best of it and maintained a snobby attitude towards Livorno, which they regarded as a simple-minded port town. The hostility was mutual, with many Livornians loathing Pisa’s pretentious mindset, citing it as a city of spoiled, wealthy buffoons. Thus, a true rivalry was born, and the two cities never looked back.
MODERN AGE
The first derby was played in 1919, with Pisa edging out a 5-0 win over their rivals on their home turf. Needless to say that such humiliation in this historic game only sparked even more hostility on both sides, and the derby quickly rose to prominence as one of the most intense, dangerous, and significant games in the Italian peninsula.
After that legendary debut, the rivalry endured a 14-year-long-hiatus, as Italian football went through immense changes and Serie A and Serie B were established in 1929. The two sides became regular features in the second division, and would play a number of derbies in Serie B throughout the 1930s, where Pisa would display generally better performances than Livorno throughout the decade. Despite that, Livorno would frequently climb up to the top division in that same period. As a result, this saw a reduced amount of derbies available for play and earned the latter team bragging rights over its rivals — especially when you consider that Pisa first played a Serie A game in 1968.
Much to the dismay of Pisan supporters, Livorno went into the 40s as a firm Serie A side, even finishing 2nd in 1943.
However, football teaches us to expect the unexpected every day we watch the beautiful game.
When everything seemed to be at its best for Livorno and its supporters, the situation drastically changed, and they plummeted to Serie C in the 1950s, while Pisa went as far as being relegated to the 5th tier and fell out of the professional football leagues altogether. Pisa eventually started to give the rivals a run for their money during the 1960s and even achieved Serie A promotion in 1968—the power balance was slowly but surely evening out. Nothing to be alarmed about for Livorno at first glance, but by the 1980s the rivalry would completely tip in Pisa’s favor.
At the end of the 1981-1982 season Pisa once again made their way back to the first tier, only this time, the club ascended into its golden age. Throughout the decade—despite some relegations—Pisa managed to play 5 total Serie A seasons, topped with an 11th place finish in 1983 and two Mitropa Cup wins in ‘86 and ‘88. The team also gained notoriety as a tough adversary for giants Inter, earning 3 victories and 2 draws against them over 10 games played, in what is now the most fondly remembered period for Pisan supporters. And while this was happening, 30 kilometers south, in Livorno, the other club in this rivalry yo-yoed between the 3rd and 4th Italian divisions. Financial issues plagued the club, with the already poor results getting worse with every passing game. This, among other things, set up Livorno for failure in 1991, forcing them to rebuild the team from the ground up and re-start in the 5th tier of Italian football. A devastating, painful blow.
Surprisingly, Pisa suffered the same fate only three years later, and the two found themselves in the mud, together. After the splendid 1980s on Pisa’s side and the struggling years in Livorno (during which they were often separated by 3 whole tiers of football), the teams faced each other for the first time in 17 years in the 1996-1997 Serie C2 (4th division) season.
The 21st century has been a back-and-forth ordeal so far. While the first ten years ruled heavily in favor of a memorable Livorno team that played 5 Serie A seasons and qualified for the UEFA Cup and 2006, the next ten point towards Pisa. After going bankrupt in 2009, the club went into yet another rebuild and is now, as of 2023, a serious contender for Serie A promotion. Livorno, on the other hand, did play one last Serie A season in 2013-2014, but quickly got relegated and failed in 2021. Today, they are a mid-table club in Serie D and the future looks as uncertain as ever.
INCIDENTS
A rivalry like this is simply destined to report violence, and there have been so many fights and altercations —but that’s another story in itself. In a 2001 game for example, fans on both sides dismantled the seats at the Pisan “Arena Garibaldi” and violently threw them onto the pitch—this resulted in a suspended game and ultimately a forfeit loss for the home team. But talking about stadium quarrels would be unfair to this rivalry, because it goes far beyond the restrictive perimeter of a football pitch. Whatever the context, if we are talking about Livorno and Pisa, hate runs free in the streets of both cities and covers hectares of Tuscan land. This is why, when Pisa club president Romeo Anconetani proposed a merging of the two teams in 1993, riots broke out instantly. In a time when both clubs were struggling, he wanted to see them join forces under the name Pisorno and bring back the glory days. But proposing the unification of these peoples is simply blasphemous, confirmed a mere 20 years later, when then PM Mario Monti wanted to make the provinces of Livorno and Pisa into one to “cut costs”. Needless to say, the idea was dropped the second that the Parliament got notice of Pisan and Livornian reactions. Centuries of loathing and constant competition where one city tried to outdo the other and prove that it was superior cannot be forgotten—ever. No matter the cost, no matter how dire a situation can be, ‘together’ cannot be an option. Besides, the two cities are far too different. Pisa is the refined, cultural center of Tuscany, boasting prestigious universities (the Univeristy of Pisa, the nationally-renowned Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies) and the famous landmarks we all know and love. Livorno on the other hand made its fortune as a diverse and modern, as well as gritty port city, leaving the high-end, comfortable jobs to their neighbors. They love this blue-collar connotation that they have earned over the years, and never fail to remind the Pisans of how different they are. The dynamic is pure contrast, all differences and no similarities. How could one ever propose the unification of such vastly dissimilar places, philosophies, and cultures? Make no mistake, if Pisa and Livorno were to every unite in any way, the rivalry would escalate beyond rationality.
These people hate each other, and there is nothing we can do about that.
BOTTOM LINE
The two teams, despite their proud rivalry that transcends football in every possible way, always seem to miss each other. To phrase this better, when one of them is in the gutter, the other one is usually playing their best football 2 or 3 leagues above, resulting in many missed occasions for a derby. So, it is hard to see a real winner here. It would be easy to side with the currently superior Pisa, but if this article had been written 15 years ago, the narrative could easily be the complete opposite. Interestingly enough, this may perhaps be for the best. The two cities and clubs embrace distinctly contrasting ways of living and being, so the fact that a firm balance reigns over this rivalry just adds to the tension. It is beautiful to know that somewhere out there, in the midst of Tuscan hills and beaches, there is a team backed by a haughty, historically intellectual and sophisticated city, battling it out with another team that represents blue-collar communities built on tough, manual labor—and they still have not settled on who is better.
So, the recent lack of derbies is a blessing in disguise. Most rivalries would not survive a similar issue, losing friction and intensity over time. But this is no ordinary rivalry: this is Livorno versus Pisa. Football is but a small speck of the history of hate and animosity between these two cities, and the rivalry will keep on living with or without the sport. It may not be the most prestigious game, nor the most frequent or entertaining, and surely not the most famous. Yet, if the unofficial motto of this derby is “everyday is a derby”, you simply cannot label it as anything other than a Great Italian rivalry.
References
https://www.tuscanypeople.com/perche-livornesi-e-pisani-si-odiano/
https://web.archive.org/web/20150402123300/http://www.radici-press.net/eterne-rivali/#
https://gianlucadimarzio.com/it/livorno-pisa-storia-curiosit%C3%A0-derby