The final match is usually held on June 24th (last year it was moved up a bit due to an election). The event takes place in Florence's Piazza Santa Croce, where the piazza is transformed into a playing field with a thick layer of sand under the players and bleacher-style stands for the spectators.

An ancient plaque on the wall of Palazzo Antellesi marks the middle of the playing field in Piazza Santa Croce

The exact origins of the game are unclear, but some believe it began as a way to keep military troops in shape while waiting to go to battle. Later, it became more of a competitive sport for young Florentine aristocrats. The first official rules for the Calcio Storico were written by Florentine Count Giovanni de'Bardi di Vernio in 1580. Each game of the Calcio Storico has 54 players divided into two teams of 27 which are lined up in three rows. After that, it seems there are no real guidelines - just the final objective of making a goal. The round ball is tossed around the field while the players do anything in their power to stop their opponents from scoring. Punching, tackling, kicking and clawing are all acceptable tactics to stop the opponent (we also saw biting and sand throwing one year!). A goal is made by throwing the ball over a 4 foot high wooden wall that runs the length of the field.

Photo showing the location of the plaque mentioned above

You can see the location of the above plaque on the wall of Palazzo Antellesi.

The four teams consist of players from four areas of the city: Santa Croce ("Azzurri" or Blues); Santa Maria Novella ("Rossi" or Reds); Santo Spirito ("Bianchi" or Whites); and San Giovanni ("Verdi" or Greens). Needless to say, passionate loyalties fuel the ruthlessness of the tournament.

Before each game, a long procession of the players, flag throwers, drummers, and other Florentine citizens all dressed in historical costumes starts from Piazza Santa Maria Novella and slowly makes its way to Piazza della Signoria, down Via de'Neri, and then up Via dei Benci until it finally reaches Piazza Santa Croce. The comradery, pageantry, costumes and trumpets are quite impressive and worth watching even if you don't have the stomach (or tickets - which are usually very hard to come by) to watch the actual game.

An update on Calcio Storico tickets for 2026:

It is very difficult to find an "official" website for this so I default to the Comune of Florence: https://cultura.comune.fi.it/calcio-storico-fiorentino. They have links to tickets if available, etc.

The other major end of June event is the "Fuochi di San Giovanni" or "Fire of St. John", one of Florence's patron saints (yes, this being Florence they have two). The event is held on the evening of the Feast of St. John, which is June 24th each year, and is yet another centuries old tradition, and the final part of the day long celebration. The traditional spot to watch the fireworks is from one of Florence's amazing bridges. The official website is at https://www.sangiovannifirenze.it.

The famous road race (which is more of a road show nowadays) "1000 Miglia" or Mille Miglia (the 1,000 miles) also takes place in June (the 9th to the 13th), but this year the race is not scheduled to come through the center of Florence as it has in the past. Instead it is a figure 8 starting and ending in Brescia - but if you are in Tuscany there should be several chances to see it if you are interested.

Of course there are many other things to do and see in June but these two annual events should be on the top of your list!

While there are a few timely exhibitions to see (details below), there really are no major events for tourists scheduled for May as there have been in the past. One of my favorites used to be the Mille Miglia, that would come right through the center of town - across the Ponte alla Carraia and through Piazza Signoria. This year the race goes around and not through Florence - bummer!

And then there is the mystery of the Gelato Festival - that was also a May event when it started in the mid-2000s, then moved to the fall, but now I don't see any events at all scheduled on their website.

But don't worry - you are in Florence, the sun is out, and there is still plenty to see if you need more beyond the usual riches of Florence's churches and museums.

Here are some exhibits to check out before they end:

• "Rothko in Florence" at the Palazzo Strozzi is a mesmerizing exhibit that really should be seen if you are visiting this spring (ends August 23)
• The Museo Novecento in Florence is presenting "Baselitz AVANTI!", a major exhibition dedicated to one of the undisputed protagonists of contemporary art, developed in close collaboration with the artist's studio.
• The Festival del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino runs all month long and into the summer.
• Visit the Florence Iris Garden (open until May 20th! The Rose Garden is also open in May but we're having a hard time confirming the specific days)
• There is also the Plant & Flower Fair at the Giardino dell'Orticoltura from Saturday, 25 April to Sunday, 3 May 2026.

So take a stroll through centro storico, sit outside at a cafè, maybe take a walk up to San Miniato al Monte for the views and gardens, but most of all - enjoy Florence in the Spring!

So when Toscana Aeroporti announced plans for an entirely new terminal designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, featuring a 19-acre working vineyard on the roof (!) the reaction was predictable: excitement, skepticism, and the quiet Italian shrug that accompanies most ambitious public projects. Vedremo. We'll see.

To be fair, the plans are striking. The concept is to drape a 50,000-square-meter terminal beneath a gently sloping vineyard roof -- 38 rows of vines, harvested by a leading Tuscan vintner, with wine aged in cellars directly beneath the passenger hall. The architects describe it as peeling the Tuscan landscape up from the ground and sliding an airport underneath. The roofline is carefully engineered so that the building is invisible from Brunelleschi's Duomo. In a city as protective of its skyline as Florence, that is a meaningful gesture.

A rendering of the proposed airport terminal interior

The runway, too, would be transformed: reoriented 90 degrees to run parallel to the A11 autostrada, finally clearing the approach path that has kept larger aircraft away for decades. If that happens, Florence becomes a meaningfully different hub -- one that might eventually attract long-haul routes rather than funneling visitors through Rome or Milan.

The current master plan builds on a framework that dates to 2014. Early projections called for phase one completion by 2026 -- a date that has come and gone without a shovel in the ground. In November 2025, the project cleared a genuine milestone when Italy's Ministry for the Environment published its Environmental Impact Assessment decree, confirming the runway alignment and blessing the mitigation measures. Progress, real progress.

What remains is the multi-agency Services Conference -- the final authorization step before construction can begin. This had not concluded as of early 2026. A reasonable estimate for phase one, covering the new runway and initial terminal, is sometime in the late 2020s. The full project runs to 2035.

Readers who have spent any time in Italy will recognize this rhythm. The environmental decree took over a decade. The conference is next. Then come the contracts, the appeals, the revised contracts. The vineyard will be planted when it's planted.

What this means for your trip

If you're visiting Florence in the next few years, nothing on the ground has changed for arriving passengers -- you'll still take the T2 tram from the terminal into the city center and be in Piazza Santa Maria Novella in about twenty minutes. That's €1.70 and one of the better airport commutes in Italy. Pisa's Galileo Galilei Airport remains the stronger option for budget carriers and routes not served by FLR. The new Florence airport, like many beautiful things in this country, will arrive in its own time.

Rothko first visited Florence in 1950 with his wife Mell, and the city left a permanent mark on him. He was deeply moved by Fra Angelico's frescoes at the Convent of San Marco, and by Michelangelo's architectural vision in the Vestibule of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana -- experiences that would directly inspire the Seagram Murals he painted in the late 1950s. He returned to Florence in 1966, and the city remained a touchstone for him until his death. The exhibition makes this connection explicit and visceral.

The retrospective traces Rothko's entire career chronologically across the Piano Nobile of Palazzo Strozzi, from his early figurative works of the 1930s and 40s -- shaped by Expressionism and Surrealism -- through to the monumental color field canvases of the 1950s and 60s that made him one of the towering figures of American modern art. More than 70 works are on loan from some of the world's greatest institutions, including MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

What makes this exhibition genuinely special -- and worth going out of your way for -- is that it extends beyond Palazzo Strozzi into the city itself. A selection of five Rothko works has been installed in the monks' cells at the Museo di San Marco, in direct dialogue with Fra Angelico's frescoes. The pairing is extraordinary: both artists shared a desire to evoke transcendence through color, and seeing them together in those small, intimate cells is one of those rare museum experiences that genuinely stops you in your tracks. Two additional works are installed in the Vestibule of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, in conversation with Michelangelo's architecture -- the very space that Rothko said had "exactly the feeling that I wanted."

If you're in Florence before August 23rd, this is not optional.

Dates: March 14 - August 23, 2026
Hours: Daily 10am - 8pm, Thursdays until 11pm
Venues: Palazzo Strozzi (main exhibition), Museo di San Marco, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana

Historical Context: The Italian Campaign

To understand the cemetery, you need to understand what happened on the ground in Italy during the Second World War. After the Allied landings in Sicily in 1943, the campaign to push northward through the Italian peninsula proved brutally slow. The terrain — mountains, river crossings, narrow valleys — gave the defending Germans every advantage.

The cemetery covers what is called the Northern Campaign, encompassing all battles from the Liberation of Rome on June 5, 1944, through the brutal fighting in the Apennine Mountains until the final German surrender in northern Italy on May 2, 1945. The area that now hosts the cemetery was liberated by the South African 6th Armoured Division on August 3, 1944, before falling under the operational zone of the U.S. Fifth Army.

Mosaic of the Northern Campaign during World War II

Why Here?

After the war ended, the many temporary battlefield cemeteries scattered across central and northern Italy were deemed unsuitable as permanent resting places. The site near the Greve River was chosen as a permanent cemetery because of its centralized location relative to those 20 temporary cemeteries. The Florence American Cemetery is one of only fourteen permanent American World War II military cemetery memorials outside the United States — the only other one in Italy is at Anzio.

Design and Architecture

The cemetery was designed by the renowned New York architecture firm McKim, Mead & White, while landscape architects Clarke and Rapuano designed the grounds. It was formally dedicated in 1960.

The layout is both solemn and stunning. Between the two entrance buildings, a bridge leads across the Greve River to the burial area, where headstones are arrayed in symmetrical curved rows across the hillside. A long straight avenue divides the grounds into two large green meadows. Among the markers, 76 are Stars of David and 4,322 are Latin crosses — a quiet reminder of the diversity of those who served.

The Memorial

The Memorial column at the Florence American Cemetery

At the center stands a tall pylon surmounted by a sculpture representing the Spirit of Peace. The surrounding walls bear not only the names of the missing, but also the military insignia of the various branches and specialties: Infantry, Army Air Corps, Medical Corps, Corps of Engineers, Field Artillery, Signal Corps, and many more.

The atrium at the south end serves as a forecourt to the chapel, decorated with marble and mosaic. On the chapel door, a carved figure represents “The Spirit of American Youth,” alongside an American Eagle. The north atrium contains marble operations maps recording the achievements of American armed forces throughout the region.

Medals of Honor

Among those buried and memorialized here are recipients of the nation’s highest military decoration. Two Medal of Honor recipients — Roy W. Harmon and George D. Keathley — are interred in the cemetery. A third, Lt. Col. Addison Baker of the Army Air Corps, is memorialized here by cenotaph. Baker earned his medal during a legendary low-level bombing raid on the oil refineries at Ploșeşti, Romania in August 1943, and has no known grave.

The Human Scale

The average age of the service members buried here was just 20 years old — young men who left their homes and loved ones to fight fascism and who made the ultimate sacrifice. Walking among the rows of white markers, that statistic becomes something more than a number. There are 4,392 individual stories here, each one a life interrupted.

The cemetery is impeccably maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission, and it is open to the public 363 days a year, closing only on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. When open, a staff member is always on duty to answer questions and escort relatives to gravesites. Visitors are also welcome to place flowers at individual gravesites.

Getting There from Florence

The cemetery is far more accessible than most visitors realize. By bus, the Autolinee Toscane lines 365A, 368A, or 370A all stop right at the cemetery gate along the Via Cassia — tell the driver you want Cimitero degli Americani. The ride from central Florence takes roughly 25 minutes. By car, take the Certosa exit off the A1 autostrada and head south on the Via Cassia for about two miles. Taxis are also readily available from the Santa Maria Novella train station.

The cemetery is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (except December 25 and January 1). Admission is free.

A Place Worth Visiting

In a city overflowing with Renaissance art and ancient beauty, the Florence American Cemetery offers something different — a reminder that the freedom to wander those famous streets and piazze came at an enormous cost, paid in part by young Americans buried beneath Tuscan soil, far from home. It is a powerful, affecting experience, and well worth the short journey south from the city.

Florence American Cemetery and Memorial
Via Cassia S.N., 50023 Tavarnuzze (Firenze), Impruneta
Tel: +39 055 202 0020
Open daily 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. | Closed December 25 & January 1
Administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission