It somehow feels fitting that Italy are the first finalist in Euro 2020, as the tournament goes some way to redeeming normal life after nearly two years of claustrophobia and fear.
It was Italy that was at the forefront of the COVID-19 in a European sense; the images and videos coming from the likes of Bergamo were hideous portents of what was to come elsewhere.
A country so wedded to family, whose grandparents often lived with their children and grandchildren, they were perversely endangered by those returning from football in cities like Milan and Bergamo through no fault of the fans.
Romance pours from every aspect of this Italy side. The country deserves a side like this, and it somehow feels like football is being remoulded in front of our eyes. The observer effect is changing how football is now, and it feels more than before.
For Roberto Mancini's side, the concept of extended family seems somehow apt.
His is a big tent, he has fostered a sense of such joy and verve among not just the 11 but the squad and the coaches. From match one of this tournament, they set a bar that has yet to be touched by another. Not just sartorially.
Italy v Spain
The game ebbed and flowed with brilliant intent, the deadlock was broken by Federico Chiesa with one of those curling shots he loves so much. In fact, it seemed like he celebrated in the same corner, in the same way, having scored the same goal against Austria at Wembley.
Spain grasped the possession with incisive passing often finding a gap up front; Alvaro Morata having one of those matches until such a time that he didn't.
That it was penalties was a cruelty of a different kind.
After misses from Dani Olmo and, with an almost Shakespearean twist of the knife, Alvaro Morata, Jorginho finished with a coolness matched by only Mancini's blazer.
The celebrations that followed remembered one of the family who couldn't be there, in Leo Spinazzola.
They are welcome finalists, now attention turns to which other weavers of narrative will join them.
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