Bocce

Bocce is a ball sport of the boules family, sometimes anglicised as bocce ball, bocci or boccie. It developed into its present form in Italy and is closely related to English bowls and French petanque, with a common ancestry in ancient games played in the Roman Empire. The first form of regulation was described in the book Gioco delle bocchie by Raffaele Bisteghi in 1753. It is played around Western, Southern and Southeastern Europe and in overseas areas with historical Italian immigrant populations, including Australia and South America, where it is known as bochas, bolas criollas or bocha. Bocce is traditionally played on a natural soil or asphalt court, with balls of wood, metal, baked clay or plastic that, unlike the balls of lawn bowls, are spherical with no inbuilt bias, and it is now the third most played sport among Special Olympics athletes.