Italians may no longer be the dominant ethnic group in San Francisco neighborhoods like Crocker-Amazon and the Excelsior, but they're still well represented on the bocce ball court. In fact, the 120-member Crocker-Amazon Bocce Ball Club conducts its games mostly in Italian, as captured in a delightful video produced by Emma Marie Chiang for the Ingleside-Excelsior Light.

“The club is a good place for people to come and gather and meet their friends, have a friendly game of bocce ball and cards and carry on conversations with their comrades,” Club President Louis Tosti, who is 93, told the Light. “For $15 a year who wouldn’t want to join?”

As the Light wrote in 2015, "The courts and the Italian-American Social Club are the two major remnants of the Excelsior’s rich Italian cultural history. In the 1940’s and early 50’s Italian families began moving into the Excelsior as an alternative to the congestion of North Beach"

And lest you think this is all about competition, note that "Almost every club member agrees that playing bocce is secondary to the pleasures of socializing with old friends."