Calcio Storico Fiorentino combines the lateral passing of rugby, the violence of a cage fight and the costumes of a Renaissance fair, and the winning team's prize is a free dinner. This episode traces the game from the Roman military drill Harpastum through its adoption by Florentine aristocrats as a showcase of martial virility, culminating in the legendary match of February 17, 1530, played in Piazza Santa Croce in full view of Charles V's besieging army as an act of psychological defiance.

The conversation follows the game's decline in the 17th century, its 1930 revival under Mussolini's regime, and its transformation into a working-class neighborhood sport played by the four historic quarters of Florence each June. It details the sand-covered pitch, the 27-a-side teams with no substitutions, the cannon that starts play, the opening braw ...