Italy in the World Cup Finals

Italy qualified for the 2006 World Cup Finals on October 8th, 2005.

World Cup Appearances:
Germany 2006 is Italy's 16th appearance in the World Cup Finals.

Best World Cup Performance:
Winning the trophy three times -- Italy 1934, France 1938 and Spain 82.

Italy World Cup Preparations

Italy begin their World Cup training preparations in Florence before flying to Switzerland for a couple of friendly matches in Geneva.

Italy Team Hotel
Landhaus Milser in Duisburg:
It's not hard to understand why Italy chose this hotel. The Da Vinci Ristorante has the competition beat in Duisburg, when it comes to home-made pasta and wines from Tuscany.

Hotels in Duisburg:
Italian fans wanting to stay near their beloved Azzuri, have a pleasant choice of hotels in Duisburg.

Italy Friendly Matches
Beat Germany (4-1), Wednesday 1st March. (Florence)
Goals from: Alberto Gilardino (5), Luca Toni (7), Daniele De Rossi (39) and Alessandro Del Piero (57).

Switzerland, Wednesday 31st May. (Geneva)

Ukraine, Friday 2nd June. (Lausanne)

Italy in the 2006 World Cup
Group E
Monday, 12th June
Italy vs Ghana
Hannover -- (21:00)

Saturday, 17th June
Italy vs USA
Kaiserslautern -- (21:00)

Thursday, 22nd June
Czech Republic vs Italy
Hamburg -- (16:00)

Knockout Stage
Group E winner travels to Kaiserslautern and the runner-up goes to Dortmund.

Italy World Cup Squad 2006
Azzuri

Goalkeepers:
1 Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus)
12 Angelo Peruzzi (Lazio)
14 Marco Amelia (Livorno)

Defenders:
2 Cristian Zaccardo (Palermo)
3 Fabio Grosso (Palermo)
5 Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus)
6 Andrea Barzagli (Palermo)
13 Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan)
19 Gianluca Zambrotta (Juventus)
22 Massimo Oddo (Lazio)
23 Marco Materazzi (Inter Milan)

Midfielders:
4 Daniele De Rossi (Roma)
8 Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan)
10 Francesco Totti (Roma)
16 Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus)
17 Simone Barone (Palermo)
20 Simone Perrotta (Roma)
21 Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan)

Forwards:
7 Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus)
9 Luca Toni (Fiorentina)
11 Alberto Gilardino (AC Milan)
15 Vincenzo Iaquinta (Udinese)
18 Filippo Inzaghi (AC Milan)

Trainer:
Marcello Lippi.

Players to watch:
9 Luca Toni (Fiorentina)

Destination Italy

Italy Travel Notes:
Find out more about Italy @ Travel Notes.