The Last Gladiators
Esquire Singapore|September 2019

It’s been called the most brutal sport on Earth, but it’s also a tradition that characterises Florence more than any other.

Giuseppe Maitino
The Last Gladiators

INTRODUCTION BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER

My interest in Calcio Storico Fiorentino is not in violence. Nor is it in athleticism. It is solely in the eyes of the men before the arena, before the start, the first blow. These are not the eyes of professional athletes, but of tobacco clerks, mechanics, baristas and Michelin-starred chefs. I see fear, doubt, commitment, prayer and most of all love. I cannot tell you what all these men see, but I can say the champions see themselves and the amateurs see their opponent. All see their teammates, families and neighbourhoods.

For this project I took five trips to Florence across six months of extensive interviews, training sessions and photography following the Rossi team, none of which would be possible without friend, scholar and Florentine Giuseppe Maitino, who had introduced me to Calcio Storico Fiorentino and its Calcianti fighters. Between his introduction below and my images we hope to make the human themes of a little-known Florentine tradition universal.

CALCIO STORICO

Henry III of France described Calcio Storico as “too small to be real war, too cruel to be a game”.

Four colours, four churches, four teams, 27 players (calcianti) per team, 50 minutes without pause, an arena set under Santa Croce Basilica. Forty degrees, 360 days of physical and psychological training, broken bones, broken noses, brain traumas, insults, jubilation, comas, death, glory. Two semi-finals, with the final held on 24 June, Saint John, patron of Florence’s day, pray for us.

This story is from the September 2019 edition of Esquire Singapore.

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This story is from the September 2019 edition of Esquire Singapore.

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