On an unseasonably balmy Friday afternoon in late February, a group of men gather behind the oldest Italian restaurant in Santa Barbara for a test of wills. They stand at the far ends of two giant rectangles, locked into a pivotal moment in the game.
One player steps up for their turn, gently rolling a hefty red ball toward the opposite side.
The ball sidles up to the small white ball at the other end, called the pallino; an ideal turn, given that the objective is for each team to get as many of their balls as close to the pallino as possible. “That’s a hot one!” says player Michael Haber. “That’s gonna roll back.”
