The Smorfia is one of the quintessential symbols of Naples. In this little book, actions, objects, places, and events find their correspondence with a specific number based on the interpretation of dreams, all in hopes of guessing the right prediction for lotteries centered on winning numbers.
The game of Lotto is the most famous of these lotteries, and it is immensely popular in Naples (even if it did not originate there). Matilde Serao once wrote that "Lotto is the great dream that consoles the Neapolitan imagination" fueling – especially among the poorest classes – the dream of a grand win capable of changing one’s life.
Yet, beyond the gambling itself, the game of drawing numbers preserves a harmless tradition of cheerful company and pastime. The clearest proof of this is the Neapolitan Tombola, the typical Christmas game based on the drawing of 90 numbers to achieve ambi, terni, quaterne, cinquine, and tombola, each step invariably accompanied by the colorful definitions of the Smorfia.