Calcio Storico

• Photographer
  Stephen Ambrose, United Kingdom
• Studio
  Stephen Ambrose

Calcio Storico is a game fought between the four districts of Florence Italy every year. Twenty Seven men in each team play a fifty minute game. Two semi finals on the third weekend in June and then the final always played on the 24th June, La Festa di San Giovanni (the feast of John the Baptist). The game has been played since the sixteenth century in the Piazza Santa Croce. Passions run high. They do it for the love of their districts. No money is involved. The rules are no sucker punches and only one on one fighting but apart from this pretty much anything goes.