Bocce Ball – A Fun Game for All Ages Our family started playing bocce a few years ago during an Easter picnic at a park. It is now a tradition that happens every year at Easter. This year our daughter and son-in-law who had never played before ended up winning the championship game. Because our family is so competitive, there were several members who pouted off and said nothing else. Instruction are listed below and a link for an instruction video is listed at the bottom. Buy a bocce ball set. A set would contain 8 colored balls, with either two different colors or four different colors, a pallino (the smaller ball), and sometimes a bag to hold the balls. For beginners, choose a beginner bocce ball set. There are also tournament and professional sets depending on your skills and competition. Beginner sets range in the $20 price range where a professional set would cost more than $100. The size of the bocce ball depends on your skill. The smaller balls are for beginners and kids and the bigger ones are for professionals. For families to play on weekends, buy a moderately priced and middle-ranged set. Make your game area known as the alley. It should be about 8 feet wide and 60 feet long. Wooden boards go down the sides. Pound a regulator peg in the center of the alley. Draw a foul line at both ends of the alley. But remember, you can play bocce ball any way you want. You don’t need foul lines or wooden boards if you want to play informally. A park is a perfect place to play informally. Make teams and each select a color. If four people are playing bocce, each person gets to throw 2 balls of their chosen color. If two people are playing, each get to throw 4 balls of their chosen color. Stay behind the foul line. Player 1 tosses the pallino in the alley. Formally, the ball should be about 5 feet past the regular peg and 1 foot from the wooden boards. Either by flipping a coin or some other method one team will start the play by throwing the pallino (small white ball). This same team usually the same person will throw one of their team’s balls to get it as close as possible to the pallino. The opposing team will then throw their balls until they have a ball closer than their opponents. Teams switch back and forth when they have gotten closer than the previous throws. At this point in the bocce game, the balls are allowed to hit the sides and other balls even the Pallino. Keeping score – After everyone is done tossing, the balls from one team that are the closest to the pallino ball get 1 point each. To get to the winning score, go behind the opposite foul line and play again. Keep repeating until a team reaches 12 points.