The city at play: The case of S'cianco game in Verona and the origin of Tocatì - International Street Games Festival

This paper aims to contribute to the debate on playable city, highlighting the use of urban space for playing traditional games, thus suggesting opening up the field of investigation from gamification - here broadly intended as the introduction of elements of play in contexts that by themselves do not have to do with play - to games indeed played in the urban areas. The concept which is here introduced is the one of the "city at play". The article provides the example of the game of S'cianco (Tip-cat in English) and its revival in Verona (Italy) in 2002. The revival of this game is remarkable since is it an example of a bottom-up event, driven by an informal group of citizens, involving more and more players over 20 years taking part in annual self-organised tournaments, and also because it has given rise to a festival dedicated to traditional games that has become the main event of the Traditional Sports and Games Network in Europe. Yet the “Tocati-International Street Games Festival” has barely received academic attention to date, hence this paper, by investigating its establishment, wishes to be a gateway to future studies.