A Story About Bocce
So this is my grandpa, Gianni, and this is him playing bocce. Now I’m not sure if bocce is a worldwide thing or an Italian sport but its concept is very simple. There is a small ball (boccino) and with the big balls (bocce) you try to get as close to the boccino as possible.
This is of course not a story about the game itself but the story of how the game created such a strong bond with my grandpa that even now every time I play it I think about him.
Back where my mum was born (50 years ago now) my grandpa bought a house in a little city near the beach, called Misano Adriatico. They spent all their summers there and the main event on the beach was the bocce tournament. At that point, bocce was a really big deal and I’m always amazed by all the stories that my mum tells me all the time. The tournament lasted for days and there were people from every beach coming to win it. Everyone had their brand new bocce, and it was so intense that at the end they needed to celebrate for the entire night with good seafood and drinks.
My grandpa was, of course, one of the best players in every tournament. One time he got lucky enough to be paired with one of his friends. They won that year.
It’s the yearly 2000 when I go on vacation with my grandpa, of course in Misano. That was one of the best vacations I’ve ever had. He was the type of grandpa that leaves you doing your stuff because you need to learn stuff by yourself. He was also the one telling me that seawater cleaned you enough that there was no need for a shower and me, a little dumb child, thought it was true and I didn’t clean myself for a whole week, that’s another story though.
We spent 90% of our time at the beach where he taught me how to play bocce. It was so fun.
That’s the thing I remember the most, the joy of sharing a sport with my grandpa and trying to win games even if he never let me win one.
That was the only vacation I spent alone with my grandpa, after that I always went to Misano by myself. I realised though how much I got from him. The way I throw the boccia, the way I clean it, it’s all a copy of what my grandpa taught me to do.
Grandpa passed away from Covid in December 2020. He was a super healthy man. At 80 he was waking up at 6 am and go for a run, he was still working and it’s safe to say that he was way more healthy than me now at 24. Most of the time I’m okay, sometimes I miss him very much but I’m so grateful for all the time I spent with him and the way he taught me so many things about life, but mostly I can’t wait to go back to Misano when the pandemic is over and play some bocce while I think about him.
