Scopa - Italian Playing Cards

The Italian Playing Cards on ItalianPlayingCards 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 Scopa and 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.

Modiano distributes the actual Italian decks of cards located on this website to all the regions within Italy. The Italian playing cards on this website 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.

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.

King of acorns	Cavallo of leaves	Fante of bells	8 of hearts
Salzburger	Salzburger	Salzburger	Salzburger