Bocci Ball or Bocce Ball (seems to be spelled both ways, more on this here.)
Bocci is from the Italian verb bocciare: to strike or cast out (for example, to be expelled from school). Bocci is an emotional bowling game that goes back to Roman times. It was taken to England, where it is now bowling on the green, and to most parts of Europe and the United States. Bocci is a serious game in Italy, where it has been controlled since 1895 by the Unione Federazione Bocci.
As a boy in East Boston, I remember the old men playing the game in the evenings under lights, and this was long before night baseball. They would drink wine and make a lot of noise and use a lot of body gestures to get their bocci balls to behave.
The standard bocci court is 75 feet long and 12 feet wide, and it is surrounded by a foot high wall (to keep the balls within the court). The game is played with a pallino (small ball), called a jackball in the United States, and 8 larger balls, four plain and four striped. A coin determines who will throw the pallino. It must go at least half way and be at least one foot from the backstop. A team can be two or four persons. The person throwing the pallino can throw the first large ball. The object of the game, like in horseshoes, is to get as close to the small ball as possible.
The skill in this game is to knock away opponents balls and replace them with your own by using backspin. Skillful players will also use bank shots to their advantage. Players often came in behind an opponent’s ball to shelter his ball. A point is given for each ball nearest the pallino, and a total of 12 wins a game. But a side must win by at least two points.
Recently my family spent Christmas in San Antonio, TX. When I was there, we played a great game of Bocce Ball! Really a fun game. I highly recommend it. It's' been an Italian game for years! Read more about it here. I just got a new Bocce ball set for my birthday, very happy about that! :-) When I get a moment, I will add a photo of my new Bocce Ball set.Notice the glass of wine. Really helps if you are drinking sone good Italian red wine while playing.
Here is some insane Bocce ball playing. These guys are amazing!
Scopa (As told by my cousin Gus)
Scopa means sweep, and it is the Italian card game. To play, you first remove the 7s, 8s, and 9s. There are four players, two to a side. When cards are dealt, each player receives three cards and four cards are placed face up on the table. Each player picks up a card if he or she can match it or if the cards can be summed to make your card holding. For example: a 5 can pick up a 2 and a 3. Face cards are 8, 9, and 10 (queen, jack and king), so a king can pick up a 7 and a 3. Scoring is complicated. When the entire deck is dealt, a total of four points is possible. The 7 of diamonds is a point, and the team with the most diamonds receives a point. The team with the most cards also earns a point. The last point is the setanta (a combination of sevens or lower cards). A team with four sevens wins this point, but where the sevens are shared, then the best combination of 7, 6, 5, or face card wins the point. But only the highest card in each suit is counted to reach the team total.
My dad and uncles played scopa for years. I was allowed to be in the room, but to show the seriousness of the occasion, I was not allowed to speak. It was not until years later that my dad allowed me to play with him. By then he was desperate for partners.
Here is a good video showing you how Scopa is played
...And here are some nice Italian guys playing the game :-)
This is another good video with Scopa Instructions
Italian Game Resources This is a nice Italian Games site talking more about Italian Games and specifically about Bocce Ball and Scopa! I love the photo of the Pope playing Bocce ball. Priceless!
