Italy is a nation of soccer enthusiasts. The game is called calcio in Italy. Italians are proud of their national soccer team, which has won the World Cup three times. Its stars are heroes. Sunday afternoon league games are televised and are watched in bars and living rooms across the nation. Many famous Italian architects have based their reputations on their designs for sports stadiums. Tiny villages invest in large playing fields with night lighting. Regions play regions, villages challenge villages and neighbourhoods compete against neighbourhoods. In local parks there are always a few children or adults kicking around a soccer ball.
Cycling is also a popular spectator sport. The most important cycling event is the Giro d'Italia. It covers 2,750 km of alpine terrain, including many of the steepest roads in Italy. Formula 1 car racing is another sport that draws thousands of fans, who cheer when the Ferrari team wins. Many Italians enjoy playing bocce. Players roll balls along a court, trying to hit a smaller ball and knock out their opponent's balls. This is the Italian version of lawn bowling. The Corsa del Palio (Race of the Banner) is a horse race that has been held twice a year in the city of Siena since 1482. Ten horsemen dressed in 15th-century costume gallop bareback three times around the Piazza del Campo, the city's main square. They are cheered on by crowds in the square and by thousands watching on television.	Did you know? Every year on the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist, June 24, an unusual soccer game is played in Florence. The 16th century piazza of Santa Croce is covered with sand and 4 teams of 27 people play the rough game of Calcio Fiorentino in medieval clothing. The teams represent rival neighbourhoods. The prize is a white calf.
More than 80% of Italian families have a television at home. They watch an average of three and a half hours of television a day. Many of the programs are from America and elsewhere in Europe. Foreign television shows are always dubbed into Italian. Italy's dubbing industry is one of the biggest in the world. Italians like to play cards. They play briscola and scopa with a 40-card deck. The cards are unnumbered. Instead of clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades, they have pictures of royal figures, swords, suns and goblets. The two different styles of decks are called Napoletane and Piacentine. Italians enjoy lotteries called lotto run by the state. They also play a form of bingo called tombola. It uses 90 numbers instead of bingo's 70. Playing tombola is particularly popular at Christmastime.