Scopa - Italian Playing Cards


These Italian Playing Cards are authentic Italian decks from Italy. Playing Italian Card games is a popular past time in the Country of Italy and many people play the games of Scopaand Briscola.
Italian playing cards most commonly consist of 40 cards (4 suits from 1-7 and 3 face cards). The three face cards in each deck are the King, Cavallo (calvary man) and Fante (Infantry Man), except in the French region (see below) which uses a Queen instead of a Cavallo in the Italian Deck.


Italian playing cards first appeared in the late 14th century when each region within Italy was a separately ruled province. There is no official Italian card pattern for the country of Italy and each region uses its own type of Italian playing cards. In fact, there are 16 accepted patterns of Italian playing cards divided into 4 Italian regional styles: Northern Italian, French, Spanish, and German. Each region has its own interesting and unique styles of Italian playing card presentation. Playing with Italian playing cards gives a player a wonderful historical perspective on this great country. Don't worry if you don't know any Italian Games. We provide you with instructions on Scopa and Briscola.


Our Authentic Italian Playing cards are made by Modiano. Modiano is an iconic business entity in Italy and has been the premier manufacture of Italian Playing Cards in Italy for over a century. Modiano is located in Trieste' and has been in business for over 140 years. The Modiano brand is synonymous with quality and excellence in printing. Modiano manufactures some of the most beautiful playing cards in the world and their designs are considered by many to be the most artfully depicted in the industry. Our Italian Playing Cards make great Italian gifts.


These Italian playing cards are genuine and are the actual Italian decks that are distributed within Italy. Just imagine that you can give an Authentic Italian gift with one of our Modiano Italian decks. A real Italian product from a true Iconic Italian brand!




 











About the Regions


Of course any Italian deck would make a great gift for anyone, but for those more interested in the stylistic differences of Italian regional decks here is a quick description



Northern Italian Regional Style


Includes Triestine, Trevigiane, Trentine, Bergamasche, and Bresciane.

The northern Italian Plying Card decks are primarily played in the north eastern portion of the country. They feature the Spanish style suits of coins, cups, swords and batons (also known as clubs). There are 40 cards in the deck. This regional style features dark reds, blues and yellows on the face of the card. The face drawings typically use solid colors absent of shading with solid block type coloring. The actual card sizes tend to be narrow relative to other regions and especially narrow compared to traditional US playing cards.

King of Cups
Cavallo of swords
Fante of batons
7 of coins
Triestine
Bresciane
Trevigiane
Bergamasche




Spanish Regional Style


Includes Napoletane, Sarde, Siciliane, Piacentine, Romagnole.

The Spanish style decks are primarily used in the southern half of the country including the island of Sicily. They feature the Spanish style suits of coins, cups, swords and batons (also known as clubs). There are 40 cards in each deck. This regional style features a full range of colors. The images are full with ornate details and the use of shading gives the playing cards a life like appearance. The actual card sizes tend to be wider than the northern Italian cards, but are still a little smaller than their US counterparts.

King of Cups
Cavallo of swords
Fante of batons
7 of coins
Siciliane
Sarde
Napoletane
Piacentine


French Regional Style


Includes Genovisi, Lombarde, Piemontesi, Toscane.

The French style decks are primarily used in the north western half of the country. They feature the French style suits of spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds. There are 40 cards in each deck. This regional style features a full range of colors to depict the face cards. However, the 1-7 are depicted in solid single colors. The French style cards are similar to the US version of playing cards as they share the same suit pattern. Both also use a queen instead of a Cavallo. The actual card sizes tend to be wider than the northern Italian cards, but are still a little smaller than their US counterparts.

Fante
King of Clubs
Queen of hearts
Fante of Spades
7 of Spades
Toscane
Lombarde
Genovesi
Piemontesi


German Regional Style


Include Salisburghesi and Salzburger.

The German style decks are primarily used in the Province of Bolzano. They feature the German style suits of heart, bells, acorns and leaves. There are 40 cards in each deck. This regional style features a full range of colors to depict the face cards as well as the 1-7. The 1-7 are depicted with an interesting scenic background below the pips. The German style cards tend to be wider and taller than their northern Italian cards. The cavallo and fante are very similar and can only be distinguished by the placement of the suit on the playing card (a suit placed at or above the head is the higher rank, while the suit placed below the head is considered the lower ranked playing card). This is a very fun entertaining deck of cards given the beautiful landscapes and interesting pictures.

Italian Playing Cards Italian Playing Cards Italian Playing Cards Italian Playing Cards
King of acorns
Cavallo of leaves
Fante of bells
8 of hearts
Salzburger
Salzburger
Salzburger
Salzburger


How to Play Scopa

Scopa is a favorite Italian Game of Italians and Italian Americans. Scopa, in Italian, means broom. In the game of Scopa, you are awarded points in a variety of ways, but one of the best methods is to sweep the board. This is known as a Scopa (the broom for the “sweep”), and was how the Scopa game was named.

Scopa - Initial Scopa Deal

To play the game of Scopa, a dealer deals three Scopa cards to each player, one card at a time. The dealer will also place four Scopa cards face up on the table. (note: an opening scopa board of 3 or 4 kings is considered illegal and the cards are reshuffled and the dealer deals again)

Scopa - Card Values

A Scopa Deck has 4 suits. (Coins, Swords, Batons / Clubs, Cups) within each Italian suit there is the 1-7, Fante (infantry man similar to jack in American deck), Cavallo (calvary man similar to rank of queen in American deck) and King (always donning a crown and similar to king in American deck). For the game of Scopa the fante is worth 8, Cavallo is worth 9 and King is worth 10. These values are important for making Scopa tricks.

Scopa - Game Play

The scopa player to the dealer's right begins play. This player has two options: Either place a card on the table, or play a card to take a scopa trick. A trick is taken by matching a card in the player's hand to a card of the same value on the table, or if that is not possible, by matching a card in the player's hand to the sum of the values of two or more cards on the table. In both cases, both the card from the player's hand and the captured card(s) are removed and placed face down in front of the player. These cards are now out of play until scores are calculated at the end of the round.
Example: The player's hand contains the 2 of coins, 5 of swords, and 7 of clubs (or batons). On the table are the ace of coins, 5 of cups, and 6 of swords. The player's options are: * Place the 2 of coins on the table
* Take the 5 of cups using the 5 of swords, and placing both cards face down in front of him
* Take the 6 of swords and ace of coins using the 7 of clubs, and placing all three cards face down in front of him.



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