April 5, 2020
The urgency to play briscola won over the fear of coronavirus.
In Castano Primo, a small village near Milan, a bunch of elderly decided enough was enough.
Not only were they forced to stay at home with their wives and family all day long since the coronavirus outbreak here in Italy. They were also, and most importantly, forced to stay away from their briscola partners.
Since the Italian quarantine started, which means almost one month ago, all the energies of this group of briscola addicts were directed to figure out a plan to save their card game routine.
Eventually, a solution was found.
They would use their shopping permissions to gather secretly in the woods where they would finally be able to play a nice briscola.
Which they actually did.
Unfortunately for them, they didn't consider the risks a briscola game normally brings along.
As a matter of fact, this card game is known throughout the country for being just apparently harmless.
Every Italian knows that anything can happen during a briscola game.
Long-term friendships breakups, gentlemen's mouths turned into a well of bad words and much more.
Regardlessly of all the uncountable reactions that briscola can lead to, there is one certain element in all games: shouts.
Nevertheless, it seems like our renegades didn't consider being too loud as a high risk factor for the failure of their criminal plan.
Because they didn't exactly keep it down.
Their swearing and shouting actually reached many fellow-citizens' ears, including the mayor's, Mr. Giuseppe Pignatiello.
"When I first knew about their gatherings I felt very upset. " the mayor said "But if the situation hadn't been as serious as it is nowadays, this whole thing would have really made me laugh."
However, the law is the law and briscola is one of the forbidden activities in the time of coronavirus.
Social distancing is very hard to maintain when all players are yelling in each other's face.
As a result, our bandits were immediately brought back home and, even though no penalties were applied, they are now under special surveillance.
Apparently, the only chance they have to play cards now is with their beloved wives and cohabitant family members.
But, who knows, maybe their resourcefulness will lead them to a more legal "escaping" plan this time.
In the end, they could always learn how to use Skype for their next briscola championship.
留言