The Neapolitan deck, card by card

Forty cards in four suits

An Italian deck has 40 cards: four suits of ten cards each. The suits are Coins (denari), Cups (coppe), Swords (spade) and Batons (bastoni). They are known as the Latin suits and are shared with Spanish decks and with older card traditions across southern Europe.

There are no red and black suits as in the French deck. Every suit has its own symbol, and on our cards also its own colour: gold for Coins, red for Cups, blue for Swords and green for Batons.

Ten values in every suit

Each suit runs Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, then three court cards: the Fante, the Cavallo and the Re. The Fante is a young attendant standing on foot, the Cavallo is a rider on horseback and the Re is the king. There is no queen.

On our cards the index in the corner shows 1 to 7 for the number cards, and F, C and R for the Fante, the Cavallo and the Re. When a game needs numbers, the Fante counts 8, the Cavallo 9 and the Re 10.

Recognising the suits

A tip for the first games: Swords and Batons are both long and thin. Look at the colour first – blue or green – and at the end of the symbol: a sword ends in a hilt, a baton in a rounded knob.

Italian and French decks side by side

Because the Italian deck has no colours to alternate, our Seven Alleys asks for a different suit instead. And because it has ten values, the pyramid target becomes 11 instead of 13.

Regional patterns

Italy has several regional patterns of the same deck, with names like Napoletane, Piacentine, Siciliane or Trevisane. The suits and the forty cards are the same; the drawings, the shapes of the swords and batons and the look of the court cards differ from region to region.

Our cards are drawn new, in a simple and clear style inspired by the southern look, so that they stay readable on a small phone screen. They do not copy any printed deck.

What the deck is usually played for

Around a table, the Italian deck is best known for games for two to four players such as Scopa, Briscola and Tressette. Solitaire on the 40-card deck is less common, which is why we designed four games around it: Volcano Eleven, Seven Alleys, Two Balconies and Hillside Steps.

Where to start

Start with Hillside Steps: suits do not matter there, so you learn the order 7, Fante, Cavallo, Re without distraction. Then try Volcano Eleven with the pair table below at hand. When the suits feel familiar, move on to Seven Alleys and finally Two Balconies, where every card is open and the whole game is planning.

Pairs that make eleven

Five pairs and no card that leaves alone: that is the whole arithmetic of Volcano Eleven.