Calcio Storico
UPDATE: Here are the pictures of the parade.
There is a traditional soccer match in Florence in June. The city is divided into four quadrants by the major churches: Santa Maria Novella on the west, Santa Croce on the east, Santo Spirito south of the Arno River, and San Giovani (the Duomo church) is the central "old" part of the city. On Saturday two teams played and the other two play on Sunday. The two winning teams play for the city championship on the festival of San Giovani, June 24th.
There is a parade in authentic costumes through the city and the match is played on a "field" that is created by putting a layer of dirt over the piazza in front of Santa Croce (there were some pictures of the seats being set up around the field in a previous post). The dirt is loose, like a track for a horse race, so the players can't run as fast, but also aren't hurt as badly when tackled.
Soccer? Tackled?
Well, the soccer here is an old style that is really more like rugby than soccer. The ball can be carried, thrown (in any direction) or kicked - I'm not sure there are rules like offsides and such. The match starts with the two teams lined up in the center of the field and the referee throws the ball high into the air and each team tries to catch it.
Some of them do, anyway. The rest start grabbing, tackling, punching, kicking and wrestling with players from the other team. After a few minutes, about half of each team is laying in the dirt wrestling in piles. Occasionally they break up and stand up, and there are 'medics' who check on the piles to make sure no one is being hurt too badly. These fights go on during the entire match.
Those who are playing throw the ball to teammates, while the opposing team tries to steal the ball. When a player with the ball gets close enough to the end of the field, they try to throw it over the wall at the end. It appears that the team gets a point (or something) when that happens, as they all congratulate each other and the ball is retrieved and the referee restarts the match by throwing the ball into the air. Most of the people fighting and wrestling continue to do that even though a goal has been scored.
There is a small tent at either end of the field, and I imagine that throwing the ball into that might result in more points, but I never saw anyone really try. Players who are hurt during fights or by being tackled running with the ball, are taken off the field by the medics, but play does not stop while this is happening. The TV cameras have a difficult time trying to decide what to focus on, as do the fans in the stands.
Many of the students have tickets for tonight's game, but I will not be going...
