Under the scorching sun of Italy’s Adriatic coast, a group of friends from Bangladesh are practicing cricket in a small concrete area.
They have been effectively banned by the mayor from playing in the town, so are playing in the suburb of Monfalcone, close to Trieste airport.
Anyone who attempts it could be fined up to 100 euros (84 pounds).
“If we had played in Monfalcone, the police would have already arrived and stopped us,” says team captain Mia Bappi.
He gives the example of a group of Bengali teenagers who were “caught” playing the national sport in a local park, unaware they were being filmed on security cameras, only to be stopped and fined by patrolling police officers.
“They say cricket isn’t for Italy, but the truth is, it’s because we are foreigners,” Mia says.
The cricket ban has come to symbolize the deep-rooted tensions flaring up in Monfalcone.
The town’s ethnic makeup is unusual for Italy: Nearly a third of its 30,000-strong population are foreigners, mostly Bangladeshi Muslims who moved there in the late 1990s to work on the construction of giant cruise ships.
The mayor, Anna Maria Cisinto, from the far-right League party, said the cultural essence of Monfalcone was being put at risk as a result.
She rose to power on the back of anti-immigrant sentiment and made it her mission to “protect” her city and uphold Christian values.
“Our history is being erased,” she told me. “It feels like it doesn’t matter anymore. Everything is only getting worse.”
In Monfalcone, Western-dressed Italians mingle with Bangladeshis in shalwar kameez and hijabs, and the area has Bangladeshi restaurants, halal shops and a network of bike paths used mainly by the South Asian community.
During his two terms in office, Mr Sisinto removed benches in the town square where Bangladeshis sat and condemned the way Muslim women dressed on beaches.
“Islamic fundamentalism is very strong here,” she said, “and there’s a culture where women are mistreated and oppressed by men.”
As for the cricket ban, the mayor claims there is neither the space nor the funds to build a new stadium and that cricket balls are dangerous.
She told the BBC that she had refused to give Bangladeshis the privilege of playing their national sport, claiming that they had “offered nothing in return”.
“They’ve given nothing to this city, to our community – zero,” she said. “They have the freedom to play cricket somewhere other than Monfalcone.”
The mayor has received death threats because of his views on Muslims and now receives 24-hour police protection.
Mia Bappy and his fellow cricketers moved to Italy to build ships at Fincantieri shipyard, the largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world.
The mayor has accused the company of “wage dumping” – the practice of paying foreign workers below market wages – and argued that the company’s wages are so low that no Italian would want to do the same work for the same pay.
But the shipyard’s director, Cristiano Bazzara, is adamant that the salaries paid by his company and its contractors comply with Italian law.
“We can’t find trained workers. It’s very difficult in Europe to find young people who want to work in shipyards,” he told me.
Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe: just 379,000 babies were born in Italy last year, an average of 1.2 children per woman.
Italy is also facing a labor shortage, with researchers estimating it will need 280,000 foreign workers per year by 2050 to make up for its shrinking workforce.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who leads the far-right Brothers of Italy party, has increased the number of entry permits for workers from outside the EU, despite previously saying he wanted to reduce immigration.
But Anna Maria Sisinto firmly believes that the lifestyle of the Bangladeshi Muslim community is “incompatible” with that of people of Italian origin.
Tensions flared in Monfalcone after the mayor effectively banned mass prayers at two Islamic centers in the city.
“Residents of the town have sent us shocking photos and videos of huge numbers of people praying in two Islamic centers, with as many as 1,900 people praying in one building alone,” the mayor said.
“There are a lot of bikes left on the sidewalks and prayers are said out loud five times a day, even at night.”
Mayor Sicinto says this is unfair to local residents and that the ban on congregational prayer is a matter of urban planning regulations: the Islamic center is not designated for religious worship, and it is not the mayor’s job to provide it, he said.
Islam is not among the 13 religions with formal status under Italian law, complicating efforts to build houses of worship.
Bangladeshis in Monfalcone say the mayor’s decision has had a huge impact on the Muslim community.
“The mayor thinks Bengalis are trying to Islamise Italy, but we are just focusing on ourselves,” said Meheri, 19, who is originally from Dhaka, Bangladesh but grew up in Italy, wears Western clothes and speaks fluent Italian.
She said she was taunted and harassed on the streets because of her Bengali descent.
Mia Bappi is due to receive her Italian passport this year, but is unsure whether she will continue to live in Monfalcone.
“We’re not causing any problems, we pay our taxes,” the shipyard worker said, “but they don’t want us here.”
The mayor believes the Bangladeshi community’s lifestyle is “incompatible” with that of Italian-born people.
But Mia Bappi points out that if they all returned home tomorrow, “it would take a shipyard five years to build a single ship.”
In the summer, a local court ruled in favor of two Islamic centers, annulling city council orders banning collective prayer.
But Mayor Monfalcone vowed to continue his campaign against the “Islamization of Europe” outside Italy.
She has now been elected as a Member of the European Parliament and will soon have the opportunity to take her message to Brussels.
Additional reporting by Bob Howard