World’s most violent sport? Italy’s brutal 54-man game of football – the Calcio Storico Fiorentino
- Held annually in Florence, the Calcio Storico Fiorentino combines football, rugby, wrestling and bare-knuckle boxing in a 50-minute, no-holds-barred brawl
- Few tourists can be found among the 4,000 fanatical supporters, but it is easy to snap up a ticket to watch the event via online ticket sales
The scene resembles the awesome contests held 2,000 years ago in Rome’s Colosseum.
Fifty-four modern gladiators enter a sandy arena, most stripped to the waist to display bulging muscles, fearsome scars and warlike tattoos.
They are prepared for a no-holds-barred, 50-minute skirmish that combines the sports of football and rugby with the darker arts of wrestling, bare-knuckle street fighting and MMA combat.
But rather than ancient Rome, this is present-day Florence, and the day is June 24, a public holiday honouring the Italian city’s patron saint, San Giovanni.
Any tourist planning to visit the otherwise romantic Piazza di Santa Croce on this day should be prepared for surprises. The sleepy square is emptied of tour groups and reclaimed by Florentines, who transform it into the seething venue of the annual Calcio Storico Fiorentino, or Giuoco del Calcio Fiorentino, a game of football dating back to the Middle Ages.
