After attending two games - Germany/France and Denmark/Czechia - in the (in)famous Santagiulia arena, here are my non hockey related thoughts:
Everyone was super nice. Other fans, staff and volunteers in and around the arena, the carabinieri, the people working the shuttles. Only good things to say
Surprisingly good. There's no parking or regular public transport like a metro at the Arena so you had to go via shuttles. To the first game at 12:10 it was no issue at all, plenty buses, no waiting.
For the second game back there was a huge queue for the buses, but everyone was chill waiting, they had volunteers regulating when to go/stop. No pushing or agression, it didn't take as long as I feared. Well done.
We were at the arena from roughly 10:30 am to 7:30 pm, so we had to eat.
Options: Sandwiches or Burgers/Fries/Chicken Nuggets.
In and around the arena they accepted ONLY Visa as card payment which is ridiculous. No mastercsrd or the Standard non debit cards. There was ONE line, and only for burgers , where you could pay with cash. There you could get drinks too, all other drink Stations: Visa. Merch: Visa. Fuck you, i don't have Visa.
So for the first game I wasn't sitting sith my husband who has visa, so I only could use the one cash line. I didn't buy anything.
Second game we were all together, so: Visa! Yay! food and drinks! We had the most astonishing experience here. There was a food corner, you Had to scan your visa so that you even could get in. It charged 25 Euros. Inside you just could grab anything yourself. So we had 3 burgers (9 Euros each), Fries and Chicken Nuggets (i think 7 each) ice tea and gatorate (four each), water (2 Euros each, absolutely a fair price), two popcorns (No idea about the price). And then we Just walked out??? We as so many others were so confused but they said it's how it works. So ee had all that food for 25???? They said it charges on top of the csrd but there were no codes in the food, we were four people with stuff and only onecard.... We checked, we weren't charged more. So basically all you can eat for 25.
First tickets were in the lower area, all was completely fine. Wouldn't have thought it was just build. Beautiful arena Overall.
First Game: toilets clean, soap, paper towels, toilet paper: all there.
Second game: Well. Everything ran out 😂😅
We had Tickets in the upper area and here you could see the that it's not fully ready. The walls not clean etc, but once you sit down everything was ok. Seats even cozier than lower Level. Not much food space but fine. Great View.
Between the games we could stay in a special area thankfully (had to go outside though), but it was great: warm and Sunny, sadly no food but at least drinks. With Visa :)
Ticket prices: we paid 30 Euros per ticket for the six in the upper area, and 80 per ticket for the two in the lower (late addition because that was the Germany game).
So Overall amazing experience, 10/10 would do again.