A great sport, minus the sweating.
As a young boy I remember going to the park off Jerome Avenue on Sunday afternoons in the post war Bronx, to play baseball or basket ball or ring-a-levio, with my cronies. Over on the other side of the park were a dozen or so older men smoking small cigars and speaking Italian while one of them rolled a ball down a dirt alley hitting other balls, to the delight and loud screams of his compatriots. We didn’t pay it much mind at first, but after a while even the young became curious.
Bocce (Bot-Chè) is an ancient game, started during the time of the Roman Empire, quickly spreading throughout Europe and in several places around Scandinavia.