Once we were settled back in our room at Elda’s, her grandson Paulo popped in and wanted to play cards. So, while we played, Cinzia and Elda sat on the couch, talked, and watched some television. After suffering two resounding defeat at “500 Rummy”, or “Burraco Americano” as I called it, Paulo wanted to switch to Briscola. His English isn’t good enough to explain the rules or the scoring, so I muddled my way through ten hands before ending in a 5-5 tie.
Cinzia had left at this point, so I headed to the bar as it was after 4pm. Some of the usual cast of characters had started to arrive. Virgilio was playing Briscola on a card table outside the bar with a few friends. We were told that the evening before, on September 2nd, they all toasted him to celebrate this 99th birthday. He's still sharp enough to play cards and dexterous enough to shuffle and deal.
Maurizio organized 2-man teams with me and Michele vs Maurizio and Giacomo. After being down over 100 points we raced back and won. We were not as fortunate the next two games. By then it was 2am and we decided to call it a night.