25

During October 2016 I was in Verona, Italy. I visited the Torre dei Lamberti. Within the square there was a game, perhaps a tournament as there was two matches going on at once.

What is this game?

It was hard to tell exactly what was going on, but I remember these details.

  • It appeared to be 4 a side.
  • Within a single round there was 4 'fielders' versus 1 'batter', with rotations between rounds.
  • The batter has a wooden bat, and starts with a wooden peg. They are stood next to a large round stone. The batter tosses wooden peg into the air and attempts to hit it as far as they can with the bat.
  • The fielders take up 'fielding' positions to either catch or block the peg. The fielders also appear to try and distract the batter.
  • In some instances the batter then gets to hit the peg again. In which case they have to first make the peg jump off the ground but hitting one end of it, and then attempt to hit it whilst it's in the air.
  • In some instances one of the fielders will attempt to throw the peg back at the large stone. The batter will attempt the defend the stone with their bat.
  • The game playing area was surrounded by talls nets.
  • Two games took up the whole square with each game having roughly half of the square. The pitch was rectangluar.
  • The players were dressed in normal clothing, but all had a matching scarf.
  • The peg was a cylinder with tappered ends so it never sat flat on the ground.

Torre die Lamberti

Charo
  • 798
  • 5
  • 20
James Wood
  • 353
  • 4
  • 9

3 Answers3

31

As described by the Associazione Giochi Antichi, the association of ancient games which, in Verona, is called s-cianco:

A BIT OF HISTORY

S-Cianco , the shorter of the two tools with which you play, it is [also] known in Italian as the lippa.

The game has very ancient origins, as evidenced by the discovery of the late Verona researcher Marco Fittà, who in 2003 identified at the Petrie Museum in London some finds dating back to the XI / XII Dynasty [2134 - 1806 BC] categorized as lippe.

This [means] that the game's practice was already widespread at least 4000 years ago.

The game is widely practiced in many areas of Europe, North Africa and Asia, such as Spain, France, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, India, Sri Lanka.

In Italy the game is practiced in many regions, [and referred to by different names]: Rella in Milan, Nice, Rome; and Mazza Pivezo in Naples; Ciaramela in Pavia, etc ...

enter image description here

  • The batsman states the score of bats at the defenders on the opposing team
  • The defense relaunches the s-cianco to hit the 'sea' to eliminate the batter
  • Using the bat to hit the s-cianco on the tip (2), do a wheelie and hit it on the fly (3)
  • The striker has three chances to launch the s-cianco as far as possible away from the the sea [the rock]
  • After the third shot, the score is declared, or the estimated distance reached by the bat.
Community
  • 1
Giorgio
  • 35,660
  • 14
  • 82
  • 200
16

I'd say it is a variant of an ancient italian child game called Lippa, common in most of Italy (and a popular sport in India...don't ask me why...)

I have some doubts because

The batter tosses wooden peg into the air

is different from the way I used to play it as a children, but everything else is more or less the same.

While it is no more played by kids (italian mothers tend to be overprotective), adults are slowly starting to play it again in small tournaments.

pnuts
  • 28,474
  • 3
  • 81
  • 175
motoDrizzt
  • 5,922
  • 1
  • 21
  • 46
5

I'm from Verona, and I can assure you it's called "s'cianco" My grandparents used to play it as kids.

Luca
  • 51
  • 1