If you’ve ever been to an Italian old-men bar, the one where your granddad would go spend the afternoon with his mates if that’s the type of thing he is into, or if you had the curse – or blessing, depending on which way you look at it – to become acquainted with the habits and quirks of Italy’s spiagge libere (those were everyone can go without paying any daily fee), you know it already: Italians have an obsession with playing cards.

Pensioners from North to South organize bona fide tournaments, I am sure. And the image of a family sharing a game of scala 40 under the beach umbrella is as “quintessential Italian Summer” as the man selling coconut slices on the promenade.