Rugby union in Italy called trigon, which involved three players passing a ball to one another by hand. The ball was usually small and hard, but occasionally it was a "follis" or large bladder-ball. Italy is home to a number of forms of traditional football, some of which have features which are more similar to rugby, than to association football, such as handling the ball. A prime example of this is "calcio fiorentino" played in Florence. The "Piazza Santa Croce" of Florence is the cradle of this sport, that became known as "giuoco del calcio fiorentino" ("Florentine kick game") or simply "calcio" ("kick"). The
Brescia Calcio Lega Calcio (A and B) only four years: under this aspect, only 11 clubs in all Italy marked a better performance. Brescia won the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1994, the biggest notable achievement in their entire history to date. Brescia actually came to the footballing forefront only in 2000, when the previously-unfancied club signed former FIFA World Player of the Year Roberto Baggio, who led Brescia to a seventh-place finish in the 2000–01 season, thus qualifying for the UEFA Intertoto Cup. Successively, Brescia reached the Intertoto Cup finals, then lost to Paris Saint-Germain according to the away goals rule after achieving