Calcio Fiorentino is an early form of football that originated in 16th century in Florence, Italy. Today Calcio Fiorentino is still played in Florence. The matches used to take place in Piazza Santa Croce, and still do, every third week of June.

In this game are used both feet and hands, it’s a kind of mix between soccer, rugby and Greco-roman wrestling. Goals can be scored by throwing the ball over a designated spot on the perimeter of the field. The playing field is a giant sand pit with a goal running the width of each end.

Four historical neighbourhoods of the city, represented from their main church and a colour (Santa Croce is blue, San Giovanni is green, Santo Spirito is white, and Santa Maria Novella is red), fight against each other to win.
The modern version allows tactics such as head-butting, punching, elbowing, and choking, but forbids sucker-punching and kicks to the head.

It’s a very violent sport but also spectacular, especially because of the pre-game parade with historically accurate Renaissance costumes, and sure, for the fights!!!
If you’re going to visit Florence in late June don’t miss the Calcio Fiorentino Match!

the historical parade before the matches

fights!

the play ground in Piazza Santa Croce

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This is one of my favourite traditional dishes of Florence, the Florentine tripe (Trippa alla Fiorentina). It’s incredibly tasty, made with “poor” ingredients and it's a big part of the Tuscany popular and ancient tradional cusine.

Ingredients:
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
extra-virgin olive oil
3 pounds tripe, blanched and boiled
1 pound canned peeled tomatoes.
Salt
Pepper
Parmigiano cheese

Use only the best parts of the tripe, and cut it into very thin strips.
Clean, wash and chop the onion, carrot and celery and put into a metal pan with olive oil. Cook well, then add the tripe.
When tripe gets golden in colour, add the tomatoes, chopped very finely.
Add salt and pepper, then cook over a very low heat for about half an hour, until the sauce has reduced almost completely, stirring frequently to prevent sticking.
The tripe may be served immediately when is still hot, sprinkled with some grated Parmigiano over.
Tripe is usually served with boiled or mashed potatoes or, if preferred, with cannellini beans and olive oil.

You can try this unique speciality in one of the several tripe stands (trippai) in the streets of the city.
Tripe stands are generally open from 8:30 or 9 a.m. to 6:30 or 7:30 p.m. some of them even on Saturdays.

Some addresses:
Mario Albergucci, Piazzale di Porta Romana.
Sergio Pollini, Via dei Macci (near Borgo La Croce).
Il Trippaio di Firenze, Via Maso Finiguerra.
Marco Bolognesi, Via Gioberti.
Trippaio, Via Dante Alighieri.
Nerbone (inside San Lorenzo Market, 011-39- 055-219-949).

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Today it’s Valentine day so my post is dedicated to all the loving people of the world!

A Romantic wedding in Florence is a dream, and a lot of people come from all over the world to get married here.
There are several agencies that offer a complete wedding-planner service: you can get married in the suggestive Sala Rossa, the “red room” of the town-hall (Palazzo Vecchio), or in a church of any religion: Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and more.

Surely the most perfect place to have a romantic wedding in Florence is the church of San Miniato al Monte, an ancient Romanic church on the top of the green hills around the city, just a few meters away from Piazzale Michelangelo, where you can have a breath-taking view of the whole city.

Those agencies offers complete packages containing wedding, documents, interpreter, flowers, makeup and hairstyle for the bride, transportation, professional photographers, wedding reception, special travels for the couple, etc, etc…

Here are some useful links if you’re dreaming to get married in Florence:

http://www.weddingflorence.com/
http://www.weddingandflorence.com/
http://www.florence-weddings.com/

http://www.weddingsitaly.com/

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Trippa (tripe) and Lampredotto are two dishes that perfectly represent the Florence popular culinary traditions, eating them is an experience you can’t miss.
Born from the street foods of artisans and workmen, tripe and lampredotto have been an important part of the Florentine tradition for almost one thousand years. Florence and Tuscany are famous for the meat, that is an important part of traditional cousine, and innards are very common, as in the past every piece of the animal was precious, even stomach, liver and stuff like that.

lampredotto sandwich

For those who might not have ever thought that these innards of the animal could even be eaten, the two most popular dishes are explained.
La trippa (tripe), is the part of the digestive organ found between the esophagus and the stomach of the cows. It can be prepared in many different ways, even if in Florence city it is mainly found cooked with tomato sauce (trippa alla fiorentina, you can find the recipe I usually use in this post), but I use to cook it also with mushrooms, with or without tomato sauce, or with tomato sauce and parmigiano reggiano cheese.

Tripe (Trippa)

Lampredotto (offal) also comes from the stomach of a bovine, but is more tender, thin and flat, and it’s not white, but light brown.

Lampredotto

The meat is boiled in a broth of herbs and vegetables, then finely sliced and as served inside a sandwich. Salt and pepper, green sauce and hot sauce are the traditional toppings, and a glass of red wine is the perfect drink to match with lampredotto. You can also ask for “lampredotto bagnato”: a piece of the bread is soaked in the broth.
Lampredotto is sold in some typical lampredotto-stands, small wheeled-kiosks placed in the streets, where you can stop, take your sandwich and wine (in a plastic cup) and step away, we call this kind of stand “lampredottaio” or “trippaio”.

one of the lampredotto kiosks

The best lampredottaio in Florence are:

- Piazza de’ Cerchi (near Piazza della Signoria)
- Via Gioberti (near Piazza Beccaria)
- Piazza del Mercato Nuovo (Mercato del Porcellino)
- San Lorenzo Market (the stand is called “Nerbone”)
- Via del Verrocchio (behind Sant’Ambrogio market)

An anonymous reader of this blog suggests also those ones:

- piazza Tanucci (I agree!)
- via Benedetto Dei

A second anonymous reader suggested other good lampredotto kiosks:

- viale Giannotti (in front of the Coop supermarket)
- piazza delle Cure

Thanks to both those readers for the precious suggestions!

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