Veni Vidi GlowBocce

Over the last year, I’ve grown to love bocce ball.

How could you not like bocce ball? It is a simple game based on “one of the most primitive concepts in sports history: throwing an item at an inactive target.”   I love throwing, shooting & hitting things at other inactive things:  darts, pool, target practice, shooting old GI Joe Figurines with air rifles…..I diverge.

Though the Romans/Italians are credited for assigning the current accepted name & game-play, like many of the great ancient developments & inventions, the bocce ball concept appears to have first sprung out of Africa (Egypt) and radiated throughout Europe like a wild sapiens.  There are records of prominent figures such as Emperor Agustus, Galileo, Queen Elizabeth I, and Sir Francis Drake all playing the great game.  It apparently was so popular throughout Europe that it was banned by several emperors/kings/leaders in efforts to improve worker efficiency, with many prohibitions including severe criminal penalties under the pretext that bocce was an illicit gateway sport that led to gambling.

So love bocce because you’re a history buff, a sports fanatic, or a rebel.  Me?  I used to love bocce b/c it brought so many of my good friends together and could be played in sand, grass, snow, or on top of a volcano (no, seriously).

Now, however, I love it for a whole new reason:  because it glows.