Westwood UNICO Holds Italian Game Night/Dinner

On January 27, 2014, UNICO’s Westwood chapter held an educational cultural event to introduce its members and their friends to the experience of playing traditional Italian games. The event, held at Bella Campania Ristorante in Hillsdale, was the idea of member Frank Pizzella.  With the cooperation of restaurant chef/owner Chris Tarta, over 32 members & friends of the chapter took over the restaurant on a day that it is normally closed to the public, were served a wonderful Italian dinner, and were taught the basics of Tombola and Scopa.  The first is an Italian game similar in some ways to American bingo, but with a higher level of excitement and socialization. Scopa is an Italian card game played with the traditional 40 card Italian deck involving both luck and strategy. For most of the attendees, this was either their first encounter with these games, or brought back distant memories. Frank met with several members a week earlier in a “train-the-trainers” session.  To further embellish the experience, Frank and his wife Dina (who is the treasurer for the chapter) made some traditional Italian drinks during the evening for sampling by the attendees.  The event was so thoroughly enjoyed by the attendees that there may be a run on Scopa playing cards on the internet!!! The chapter hopes to hold other cultural events like this in the future.