Calcio Fiorentino (also known as calcio storico “historic football”) is an early form of football (soccer and rugby) that originated during the Middle Ages in Italy.[1] Once widely played, the sport is thought to have started in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence.
There it became known as the giuoco del calcio fiorentino (“Florentine kick game”) or simply calcio, which is now also the name for association football in the Italian language. The game may have started as a revival of the Roman sport of harpastum.