May 04, 2001, 10:40pm

I recently bought a set of bocce balls from Costco. Killer price too, it was $69.95 Canadian, or about $44 US dollars. The set was made by Sportcraft and is called the Heritage Editon (you can see all of Sportcraft's Bocce balls here). What's interesting is the price - I seemed to have scored a serious deal - this place is selling it for $90 USD! For what I paid, you could buy two of these sets for that price!

Bocce is a game that has a lot of wistful memories for me. In North America, it is often called lawn bowling and is associated with the elderly or the handicapped (it is a major sport in the Special Olympics), but in Europe and especially in Italy, Bocce is a way of life for many folks, young and old. I fondly remember playing Bocce with Mara, an Italian woman I knew from a high school exchange program, and her father while drinking coffee and espresso and just plain socializing. Her father really took the game seriously too, but he took it down a few notches while playing with this novice.

Bocce uses fairly heavy composite balls that are similar to bowling balls, but smaller. I prefer the launch, or velo type game where you actually loft the ball half of the court. Most of the old folks playing lawn bowling don't play this way, but instead "bowl" the ball down the court.

The set I got is competition grade quality - very well made and textured balls, very heavy, and a nice white pallino (the marker ball) that is about the size of a cue ball. I can't wait to play!

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Mixelania

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