Bocce alla Milanese

Marco Biancardi, a physician living in Milan, is a good ol' friend of 591. I'm a constant follower of his personal blog "Photographo Ergo Sum". When I saw these documentary pictures, last summer, I couldn't resist to ask him to share them with us. Thanks Marco!

Tiberio

 

 

 

The game of "bocce" (note: not to be misunderstood with its relatives "bowls" and "pétanque") looks like having its origins back to the age of the Roman Empire, of Greece, if not even of the age of Pharaohs. In Italy it's being played almost everywhere, on a rectangular field (bocciodromo) about 28 meters long and 4 meters wide. It's an officially recognized sport, not only a activity for retired.

Yet, in Milan, as many other things, there's a special "rito Ambrosiano" ruling that demands for the field to be almost rectangular and formed by several parallel official fields, separated by just a low bump. Player have to throw the bowls accros the field, along diagonal lines and passing over the bumps. Just to make things less "easier", as everything else in Milan.

Marco Biancardi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 All photographs, (C) Marco Biancardi