During the festa, the bar will host various tournaments to raise a small amount of revenue for the town. In past years they have held a Billiardo tournament, Foosball tournament, and Briscola tournament. This year there is a Burraco tournament. It costs €5 to enter. The tournament was to begin at 4pm today, but when I arrive at the piazzetta I join other players sitting around waiting on Carlo and Patrizia to open the bar. They arrive 15 minutes after the official tournament start time, but that was okay as several of the players have yet to arrive. Michele, Antonella, Maria, and Maria Giulia slowly make their way there until all 8 entrants were present. Slips of paper were produced, names were written, and several drawings were made to determine pairings and brackets. This didn’t take too long, but as I pointed out to Michele, we have 108 pieces of paper already in front of us (the double decks of cards). Oh well, it’s the Italian way.
Maria Giulia was paired with Antonella – the worse and the best. While burraco contains a large percentage of luck, any small mistakes are magnified, so a pair of average players will defeat a team consisting of a very good player and a very poor player in the long run. Antonella knew she was doomed. My name was drawn, and I announced “Michele” as they drew my partner and confirmed my prediction. We would play Gianna’s team. She’s the 3rd best female player and her partner, who I haven’t played with often, can be described as sneaky – often holding her cards below the table and making comments about her hand when she sees fit. I asked Michele to allow me to have Gianna on my left, so I could play defensively by denying her cards. The game is played to 2,005 points. Two full decks of U.S. playing cards are used, so there are 4 jokers and the deuces are wild as well. You can now see why the game is mostly luck. Our opponents are flush with wild cards and jump to a 600-200 lead in the first hand (I’m rounding all of these numbers as I don’t remember them exactly). We cut into the lead during the second hand and the take a small lead at the end of the third hand after Gianna makes a rare mistake. The score is 1,200 to 1,100. By the end of the end of the fourth hand we’re virtually tied, so whoever wins the fifth hand will win the match. Our cards are brute (ugly) and we’re left playing for 3rd place against Antonella and Maria Giulia.
I tell Antonella that she now knows how I felt last night with Maria Giulia as my partner. Again, I ask Michele to allow me to sit on Antonella’s right. Once we’re seated the cards are fanned out and players begin by drawing a single card to determine who deals. Maria Giulia draws the high card, but before she deals she decides to switch seats for better luck (she had lost the previous match from that seat, so obviously it was the unlucky seat that cursed her). Michele looks at me, but we don’t bother switching seats. Maria Giulia continues her ways and Antonella grimaces once more. Even when all 3 of us suggest she pick up the discard pile, she opts to draw. She is beyond being able to learn. Burraco is a game with an extra hand, called a mazzetta, to be played once the first player from each team is able to close out their initial hand. Our opponents lose 3 hands in a row – each time never able to pick up their mazzetta. Antonella begs for mercy and we agree to end the game ahead 1,800 to 200.
With 8 players paying a €5 entry fee, the prize pool is €40, but the festa is expected to make some money by hosting the event, yet after we secure our 3rd place finish, Michele and I are both given a slip of paper good for €5 worth of food/drink from the bettolaccia – a small concessions tent set up in the main piazza which sells a variety of items. I’m still not sure how they make money. Maybe they just collected the €40 and put it towards the small cost of the homemade bomboloni and crostata we’ll redeem our ticket for at the bettolaccia.
After the tournament we stick around as they will be selling pizza along the Borgo for dinner. I had asked Maria Giulia if we needed to pay someone now or do we just pay as we go. She said we can pay later. With that she’s ready for more burraco and we play the two-handed version. Once again she makes the identical mistake from a few days ago, allowing me to score the entire deck. I relent after she sees that I have over 1,400 points laid out in front of me. As pizza time grows closer, she calls for Leonadro who tells her that reservations were required for the pizza and unfortunately they are sold out. She starts to assert herself, as only Maria Giulia can, saying that if she starves to death it will be Leonardo’s fault. Cinzia and I tell her not to make a fuss. It’s fine. We’ll make dinner in our apartment. I suspect that the pizza they make will not be the usual Margherita style, but will be the style without cheese and little tomato sauce. We make the walk back home to Il Colle and make spaghettini carbonara at the usual 8pm dinner time.
After piling the dishes in the sink, we head back into town for tonight’s festa event – a talent show. They have hired a guy who has Karaoke music and projection screen, speakers, light show, smoke machine, and even a camera to shoot the event. He’s one busy guy! Many of the acts are individuals or groups singing Karaoke, but not all. One “act” was a small play, set to music, of 4 young guys, dressed like old men, playing cards when an argument breaks out and one of them is shot. Judging by the crowd’s reaction is was hilarious. Another act featured one of the older men, probably in his early 90’s, standing at the microphone telling a funny story. Daniele’s 17 year old daughter, Valentina, performed a sexy samba-like dance with her 23 year old boyfriend. I cringed a bit, but no one else seemed put off. She was such a cute little girl 7 years ago!
During the evening’s entertainment we sat with David and Laura and visited with many of our family and friends as they wandered about. Our cousin Graziano and his family drove over from Arrone. He’s all smiles and hugs, and we were able to meet little Mia who was born just after we departed Torre Orsina in 2015. He and Simona will return on Sunday with Sofia and Greta for the final mass of the festa. We’ll give the girls their gifts then. As the night closed, Elda invited us to lunch the following day. We had planned on making the trek into Terni to do our grocery shopping at Coop, but that would have to be put off. Cinzia, having been round me too long, made a point to mention this little problem to Laura, knowing that she and David have a rental car. Laura suggested that David could drive us to the SuperConti. How does 9:30am sound? Perfect. Buonanotte a tutti.
I tell Antonella that she now knows how I felt last night with Maria Giulia as my partner. Again, I ask Michele to allow me to sit on Antonella’s right. Once we’re seated the cards are fanned out and players begin by drawing a single card to determine who deals. Maria Giulia draws the high card, but before she deals she decides to switch seats for better luck (she had lost the previous match from that seat, so obviously it was the unlucky seat that cursed her). Michele looks at me, but we don’t bother switching seats. Maria Giulia continues her ways and Antonella grimaces once more. Even when all 3 of us suggest she pick up the discard pile, she opts to draw. She is beyond being able to learn. Burraco is a game with an extra hand, called a mazzetta, to be played once the first player from each team is able to close out their initial hand. Our opponents lose 3 hands in a row – each time never able to pick up their mazzetta. Antonella begs for mercy and we agree to end the game ahead 1,800 to 200.
With 8 players paying a €5 entry fee, the prize pool is €40, but the festa is expected to make some money by hosting the event, yet after we secure our 3rd place finish, Michele and I are both given a slip of paper good for €5 worth of food/drink from the bettolaccia – a small concessions tent set up in the main piazza which sells a variety of items. I’m still not sure how they make money. Maybe they just collected the €40 and put it towards the small cost of the homemade bomboloni and crostata we’ll redeem our ticket for at the bettolaccia.
After the tournament we stick around as they will be selling pizza along the Borgo for dinner. I had asked Maria Giulia if we needed to pay someone now or do we just pay as we go. She said we can pay later. With that she’s ready for more burraco and we play the two-handed version. Once again she makes the identical mistake from a few days ago, allowing me to score the entire deck. I relent after she sees that I have over 1,400 points laid out in front of me. As pizza time grows closer, she calls for Leonadro who tells her that reservations were required for the pizza and unfortunately they are sold out. She starts to assert herself, as only Maria Giulia can, saying that if she starves to death it will be Leonardo’s fault. Cinzia and I tell her not to make a fuss. It’s fine. We’ll make dinner in our apartment. I suspect that the pizza they make will not be the usual Margherita style, but will be the style without cheese and little tomato sauce. We make the walk back home to Il Colle and make spaghettini carbonara at the usual 8pm dinner time.
After piling the dishes in the sink, we head back into town for tonight’s festa event – a talent show. They have hired a guy who has Karaoke music and projection screen, speakers, light show, smoke machine, and even a camera to shoot the event. He’s one busy guy! Many of the acts are individuals or groups singing Karaoke, but not all. One “act” was a small play, set to music, of 4 young guys, dressed like old men, playing cards when an argument breaks out and one of them is shot. Judging by the crowd’s reaction is was hilarious. Another act featured one of the older men, probably in his early 90’s, standing at the microphone telling a funny story. Daniele’s 17 year old daughter, Valentina, performed a sexy samba-like dance with her 23 year old boyfriend. I cringed a bit, but no one else seemed put off. She was such a cute little girl 7 years ago!
During the evening’s entertainment we sat with David and Laura and visited with many of our family and friends as they wandered about. Our cousin Graziano and his family drove over from Arrone. He’s all smiles and hugs, and we were able to meet little Mia who was born just after we departed Torre Orsina in 2015. He and Simona will return on Sunday with Sofia and Greta for the final mass of the festa. We’ll give the girls their gifts then. As the night closed, Elda invited us to lunch the following day. We had planned on making the trek into Terni to do our grocery shopping at Coop, but that would have to be put off. Cinzia, having been round me too long, made a point to mention this little problem to Laura, knowing that she and David have a rental car. Laura suggested that David could drive us to the SuperConti. How does 9:30am sound? Perfect. Buonanotte a tutti.