Buying Your Own Balls Is the Key to a Magnificent Summer (Photos)

Do you need to be over 60 to play Bocce Ball? Every time I glimpse a photo of Bocce players, with all due respect, they all seem to be older Italian men smoking cigars. Am I stereotyping here?

The first question my 84 year old mother-in-law asked the doctor before her back surgery was, "When will I be able to pick up my own bocce balls doc?!" She kicks bocce ass, but you don't have to be ancient to play Bocce as evidenced by the opening photo. Good news...Bocce is making a comeback in Connecticut! Why you ask?

**Everyone can play! it's not an exhausting sport. If my 84 year old mother-in-law can play, then you can certainly lift up your own balls.

**Bocce is a social game. You can play while you have a meal, a couple of cocktails, smoke a cigar. Now that's my kind of game!

**Bocce is a simple game. No need for great SAT scores!

**Bocce is affordable! You don't need no official stinkin' Bocce court. Just buy the Bocce balls, a huge bottle of gin, tonic water, limes, and/or case of Corona, and your on your way to a magnificent summer!

Bocce has always been the game of choice at The Amerigo Vespucci Lodge No. 160 on Christopher Columbus Ave. in Danbury. In fact, it's become so popular, the lodge will be offering adult and youth lessons in May. For information, call 203-748-9956 or e-mail info@sonsofitaly.org. Just a heads up, the four attractive ladies in the photo above are not scheduled to teach the course.