Teams from 30 countries participating! Elimination rounds begin today! Plenty of excitement all week! Finals of this international competition on Saturday! And for what? It’s all about that little white ball…

We’re off to the Women’s World Bocce Championship!

So what’s the game all about?

The goal in bocce (pronounciation, bo-chay) is to get the as many of your team’s balls as close to the pallino (the smaller, usually white ball) as possible on a long court. Think bowling with smaller balls, and snuggling up to the pallino is the object instead of knocking over ten pins.

Accosti o bocci? The accosto (or puntata) is the finesse throw.. rolling your ball along the court, just far and yet gently enough to come to a stop against the pallino. If you bocci or do a bocciata instead, you’ll lob your ball through the air making it descend with brute force onto your opponents’ balls in order to knock theirs away from the little pallino. This clears the way for your partner to accostare their ball to the pallino. The closest balls to the pallino of any one team once all balls have been thrown win points.

Bocce is a game where the participants act as the referees; one has a measuring stick to decide whose ball is closer. The rules, oh the rules! Let’s find a team and cheer them on…

Visit www.federbocce.it to really get in the “swing” of it..