by Anthony Parente

When I was growing up my father and I would sit down and pass the time by playing briscola, scopa, and tressette, three classic Italian card games. It was a learning experience for me because I was use to playing with a 52 card deck not a 40 card deck like the Italians use. Even though I didn't always win or even understand the rules it was a fun and enjoyable for the both of us. I miss those days. Ever since my father passed away it never seemed the same playing these games until recently.

A few weeks ago I was sitting outside on the patio when my wonderful wife brought out a deck of Italian cards and wanted to know how to play. I never expected my wife to come out with a deck of Italian cards, but when she did it reminded me of when I first wanted to learn. The electricity seemed to come back and I felt like it did when I first learned. The only difference is that I was now teaching instead of learning. The one problem with teaching was that I could only remember how to play scopa. My wife and I played a few hands until the winds picked up and sent us indoors. I sat down and tried to remember how to play briscola and tressette, but it wasn't ringing a bell. Not knowing what to do I decided to turn to the one place I thought could help me, the Web. In a few minutes I was able to find the rules for many Italian card games. Not only did I find the rules I also came across some freeware/shareware games that you can download and play on the computer. Below are the rules for briscola, scopa, and tressette along with the freeware/shareware program to download and enjoy on your computer. Just in case you need to see how the game is played there is a video clip at the bottom that walks you through the game of briscola.

I hope this brought back some wonderful memories for you as it did for me. I can't wait until I play again with my wife and I especially can't wait until my sons approach me and ask me what games they can play with an Italian deck of cards.

What is your favorite Italian card game?

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