Florence's rich but rough Renaissance soccer pageant may be back on the field next year after a year's ban for dangerous violence.
Organisers of the Calcio Storico ('historic soccer') tournament said they had come up with new rules aimed at stamping out foul play and would hold a friendly match this weekend to test them out.
Among other things, the rules require teams to enlist all their players from the historic districts which take part, "people with a close link to their community" - rather than drafting in professional bruisers from outside.
Unlike in the past, the teams will be asked to train together for periods long enough to instill "a love for sport and fair play," organisers say.
The rules also toughen penalties for "deliberate and excessive use of force".
"Saturday's match will be a first step back into play," said the president of the Calcio Storico association, Elisabetta Meucci.
"We want to relaunch this important Florentine tradition by boosting its positive aspects, which were unfortunately overshadowed by the negative ones in the past few years".
Calcio Storico, also known as 'soccer in livery', is a fixture in Florence's holiday season.
But it got a red card last summer after two years of bloody brawls.
In 2005, police opened probes against more than 40 players, with two of them accused of grievous bodily harm.
Last year more than 50 were taken to court after a huge brawl out broke at the start of the first match, leading to the suspension of the tournament.
It turned out that more than 20 had been badly hurt and one had suffered a severe head injury.
After thinking it over for months, officials called off this year's edition altogether.
But now it could be back on the cards.
"We'll have to see how things go," Meucci said.
"Saturday's match will be played between mixed teams of players who have all trained together - and that's already an important signal for the city," she said.
The tournament, a rival in pomp and passion to Siena's Palio, takes place each June around the feast of the city's patron John the Baptist.
ROMAN, GREEK, OR JUST WRESTLING?.
A mix of soccer, rugby, Greco-Roman wrestling and bare-knuckle fighting, Calcio Storico is not for the squeamish.
Like the Siena bare-back horse race, grand ceremony and glorious staging are the backdrop to a contest of almost primal ferocity.
The people of the different neighbourhoods dress up in replica Renaissance finery - perfect down to the last detail - and parade through the city before the match.
The referees are dressed just as nicely in velvet jackets and pantaloons, their purple velvet hats topped by ostrich feathers. The leading referee raises a magnificent sword every time a goal - called a 'caccia' - is scored.
The players, too, sport traditional jerkins and breeches in the colours of the city's main historic churches - the Sky Blues (Santa Croce), the Whites (Santo Spirito), the Greens (St John) and the Reds (Santa Maria Novella).
But these fancy togs usually end up ripped and blood-sodden
Some say the sport comes from a particularly violent Roman game called harpastum, using a small hard ball, played by the legionnaires who established the colony of Florentia in 59 BC.
Others say it was adapted from a game called 'sferomachia' played in Ancient Greece, which Rome conquered in 146 BC.
Others still say it developed in the city streets and was later adopted by noblemen who used it to settle disputes.
Everyone seems to agree that it is a precursor to modern soccer.
