CIRCOLI & COOPERATIVAS: CARDS, SOCCER, AND THE QUIET WORK OF BELONGING

Client: Green Sea Shells
28 October 2025

It’s a damp autumn evening in Bereguardo, Pavia, and the circolo isn’t trying to impress anyone. The building is plain and rather ugly; the paint faded and yellow, the door propped open by a folding chair. A few plastic tables are scattered outside under hopelessly unflattering fluorescent lights. Inside, the furniture is slightly more dignified: wooden tables, heavy chairs, a modest bar. Posters hang on the walls like old repeated stories, sun-bleached and with the corners torn.

Tonight there is a soccer match, and the place is full. Those uninterested in the game have drifted outside, or to the corners of the room, where scopa games unfold in a familiar rhythm. Someone is drinking wine, another a small beer. Most are just sitting; some alone, some in twos or threes. They occupy the space without hurry or expectation. A beer costs two and a half euros. No one seems to be counting.

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