Tocatì

Tocatì is the festival of traditional games in Verona. It is held every year on a weekend in mid-September. It is a great event for children and families with game stations scattered throughout the city, food stands, concerts and events related to folklore and folk tradition.

Are you planning to bring your children to Verona for Tocatì? Would you like to get to know the city, finally free of cars and animated by a joyful and surreal atmosphere of yesteryear? Join one of our tours specifically designed for children and families.

If you want to know more

What does "Tocatì" mean

In Veronese dialect "Tocatì" means "it's your turn". This is what children say when they play a street or society game together. This is exactly what the little boy depicted in the Tocatì symbol seems to be saying, with his index finger pointing towards an imaginary playmate.
Large colored silhouettes that represent him are positioned around the city to indicate the direction to the nearest game station. There are more than 50 of them.

How It's Done

From Friday to Sunday of the Tocatì weekend, the entire 200,000 square meters of the historic center of Verona, including the Adige River, become a huge playground closed to traffic. In the squares and alleyways, children can learn to spin a trot, use a slingshot, build a cerbottana out of improvised materials, and many other traditional games under the guidance and supervision of festival volunteers.

S-cianco

A special place is reserved to the s-cianco (Gillidanda or Tip-cat), the ancestor of baseball. It is in fact around the community of Veronese players of s-cianco and the Assogiazione Giochi Antichi (AGA) (Old Games Association) that the idea of Tocatì was born.
On the occasion of the festival a real tournament of this ancient sport is held.

International Guests

Every year a delegation of a foreign country is invited to Verona to propose the games of their tradition and the manifestations of their folklore. Over the years many nations have participated making Tocatì a truly international event.

The underlying idea

Tocatì was born in 2003 thanks to the efforts of the Associazione Giochi Antichi (AGA) di Verona.
Children, even very young ones, spend more and more time interacting with computers, consoles and cell phones. Conversely, because of social changes, they spend less and less time outdoors socializing in the presence of their peers. There is a real risk that traditional games handed down from generation to generation, with all their cultural richness, will be lost forever. This is the reason for the idea of an event in which, even if only for three days a year, it is possible to put away Nintendo, Playstation and various computers, and let children experience and learn about those games that their fathers and grandfathers played until not so long ago in the squares and alleys around their homes. The initiative has been a constant success, registering extraordinary enthusiasm among young and old alike. In some editions, the total number of participants over the weekend has been more than 200,000.

The Traditional Game Intangible Heritage of Humanity

The Tocatì was also an opportunity to sensitize the general public on the importance of handing down and preserving the ancient game as a cultural and identity expression. The Associazione Giochi Antichi is at the forefront in promoting the candidacy of the traditional game as intangible heritage of humanity to be protected by UNESCO.

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