They may look like Swiss Guards, but they are not. They're actually part of the so called 'Calcio Fiorentino' or Florence Soccer. It's a style that dates back to the 16th century and on special occasions, like this one, it comes back to life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And even though their uniforms may seem rather uncomfortable, they made it a point to wear them during the Pope's general audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
'We are happy that we came... It was an honor for us being so close to the Holy Father.\u00e2?\u009d<\/p>\n
The vivid colors represent a glorious past. In the 16th century, troops of Charles V wanted to attack Florence. But soldiers defeated them. Now years later, these costumes honor that battle.<\/p>\n
'Back then in Florence there were two sets of troops: the city's regular soldiers and the \u00a0mercenaries. So the green band was a way to distinguish troops from Florence.\u00e2?\u009d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every June, to mark the Feast Day of their patron Saint- St. John, they celebrate their city's victory, by playing a soccer match. They prize is quite unique.<\/p>\n
'The award is actually a calf. Back then when the first match was played, it was wartime, so there was no food. Winning a calf was a great honor.\u00e2?\u009d<\/p>\n
When it was all said and done, they got to see Pope Francis. The annual tournament of 'calcio fiorentino' will soon take place and with it, the revival of a long standing tradition.<\/p>\n
YJA\/PM\/KLH\u00a0
\nAA\u00a0
\nVM
\n-BN
\nUp: YJA\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
June 2, 2014. Find out the connection between a famous Florentine battle and a soccer match. ;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":29367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[214],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"http:\/\/youtu.be\/tURqu-vpHig","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/","international_url":"http:\/\/romereports.com.edgesuite.net\/news\/brandommedioevoint.mov","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}