Pizzeria Italia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Setup
• Preparing Subsequent Rounds
• How to Play
  • Phase 1: Choosing Ingredients
  • Phase 2: Composing the Pizza
  • Scoring the Round
  • End of the Game

Goal of the Game

The goal of the game is to create the longest and most ingredient-rich pizza. How? In the first phase you choose the cards that you think have the most ingredients in common with the cards in your hand. In the second phase you must arrange in front of you a sequence of cards linked to each other by a shared ingredient, as long as possible. The pizzaiolo who bakes two pizzas with the highest score wins.

Setup

1. Place the Pizzette on the table where all players can reach them: they will serve as score markers during the game.
2. Shuffle the deck thoroughly and set aside, without looking at them, a number of cards depending on the player count: 14 cards for 2 players; 20 cards for 3 players; 26 cards for 4 players; 32 cards for 5 players; 38 cards for 6 players.
3. Put the rest of the deck aside: you will not need it for this round.
4. Form a pile with the cards just taken.
5. Deal two face-down cards to each player.
6. Place the face-down pile in the center of the table: this is the Ingredients deck for this round.
7. Turn the first three cards of the deck face up and place them side by side.

You are ready to play! The player who ate a pizza most recently begins.

Preparing Subsequent Rounds

1. At the end of each round, collect all the played cards and the remaining deck set aside previously.
2. Reshuffle everything and form a single deck with all the cards of the game.
3. Set up the game again as in the "first round".

How to Play

Pizzeria Italia is played over several rounds. Each round is divided into two phases. The first phase is played in turns, clockwise. The second phase is played by all players at the same time.

Phase 1: Choosing Ingredients

All players secretly look at the two cards received at the start of the game. They have 10 seconds to memorize them, after which they place them face down on the table in front of them, one on top of the other, to form their "pizza deck". WARNING: once placed, these cards may not be looked at again for the entire phase.

Ingredient cards may show:

• 2 different ingredients
• the same ingredient twice
• mozzarella
• 1 ingredient plus mozzarella (x3). Edge card of the pizza.
• all mozzarella (x1 and x3). Edge card of the pizza.

NOTE: Each ingredient is represented on the card by its icon on the card edge. Edge cards may only be placed at the start and/or end of the sequence in the second phase. Mozzarella cards link to any other card, but are worth only one point, since they show only one icon.

Each icon is worth 1 point. Each icon with an x2 next to it is worth two points. Each icon with an x3 next to it is worth three points.

The first player chooses one of the visible ingredient cards on the table, trying, if possible, to select the one that has the most ingredients in common with the cards (previously memorized) in their own "pizza deck" (Image 1). In the second phase of the game, the pizza is composed by placing cards with matching ingredients next to each other, like the classic game of dominoes: the more cards that are linked, the more likely you are to win the round.

After choosing a card, the player looks at it and places it face down on top of their own pizza deck (Image 2). They then replace the card taken from the center of the table with a new card from the Ingredients deck and pass the turn to the player on their left.

Play proceeds clockwise, in turns, until the last player to take a turn flips the last card of the deck, chooses one of the three visible cards as usual, and then removes the two remaining face-up cards from the table. This starts the second phase.

WARNING: at no time during this phase may you look at or reshuffle your own pizza deck.

(Setup diagram: Ingredients deck, Pizza deck, and available Ingredients; Image 1 and Image 2 show a player choosing a card and placing it on their pizza deck.)

Phase 2: Composing the Pizza

This phase is played simultaneously. The first player calls out loudly "Ready, pizzaioli... Go!"

At "Go!" each player takes their own "pizza deck" and, as quickly as possible, starts to compose a sequence of cards visible on the table. The sequence must be formed by cards placed side by side that show the same ingredient on the shared edge. Mozzarella links with all other ingredients. The alignment in the first image is correct, with the Mozzarella joining the onion on one side and the salami on the other.

(Examples: CORRECT, WRONG, WRONG.)

It is not necessary to use all the cards of your pizza deck. If, while composing the pizza, some cards cannot be inserted into the sequence, set them aside, well apart from the rest of the sequence.

If your pizza deck contains edge cards, these may only be placed at the start or end of the sequence, following the same principle as the other cards. It is not mandatory to start or end the sequence with edge cards; the player may decide not to keep them in Phase 1. Edge cards are worth more points than other cards, but you may have only two of them in your pizza.

When a player has finished composing their sequence, they slap the table with a hand and say loudly "Pizza!".

The first player to slap the table and say "Pizza!" ends the phase. The other players must stop immobile at the point where they are, no longer touching their cards.

WARNING: to be considered "valid", a pizza must have a correct sequence of cards, and the unused cards must be detached from the rest of the sequence. Otherwise, the player scores 0 points in this round.

Scoring the Round

Each player counts the number of icons in their sequence: each icon is worth 1 point, icons with x2 are worth two points, and icons with x3 are worth three points. Each card not linked to the sequence is worth -1 point. The player with the highest score wins the round and takes one Pizzetta score marker.

(Example: the player scores 3 points from the first card (2 for the eggs, 1 for the salami), 2 points from the second card, 1 point from the third card and 4 points from the last card, for a total of 10 points. From this, 3 points are subtracted for the 3 unused cards, for a total of 7 points.)

End of the Game

The game continues over subsequent rounds in the same way. The first player to obtain 2 Pizzetta score markers wins.