Calcio Fiorentino - a Bruising, Anarchic and Exhilarating Spectacle of Sport.

Calcio Fiorentino certainly didn't ring any bells with me as a sport - I thought it might be some sort of Italian cheese that Harrods had started to stock. 

Yet this is an old sport, going back to the sixteenth century and comes across as an uber violent hybrid of football and rugby.  The rules are simple (there aren't many) and the game mainly consists of 27 men on either side beating the holy crap out of each other.  It might even be described as the original extreme sport. Great stuff!

World in Sport has the low down on this unusual and exciting sport.

Image Credit Flickr User lorZ