Sunday, September 30, 2007

Richmond Italian Street Festival 2007

Another Saturday, another festival. This time we took ourselves up to Church Hill to the Italian Street Festival at Broad and 25th. A fantastic day for food and wine.
The festival featured an Italian wine tasting with three different distributors pouring. The wines from Kobrand turned out to be our favorites. Winners included 2004 Salviano Turlo, 2004 Setti Ponti Crognolo, 2001 Michele Chiarlo La Court Barbera D'Asti, and 2004 Agricola Punica Barrua. We also liked the 2001 Mocali Brunello Di Montalcino. Although these wines were not available to drink at the festival, Strawberry St. Vineyard, Wine Lovers, and Wine Cellar all carry these hearty nectars.
After the tasting we wandered up and down the two blocks trying to decide what to eat for lunch. We were tempted by the Italian sausage sandwich, but we had experienced that delight last year and wanted to expand our experience.
So, it was Cheese Tortellini with a mix of pesto and marinara for me from the Italian Kitchen West. My hubby choose the lasagna from Cavanna Pasta along with a bowl of meatballs with sauce. We washed it down with Castell d"Albola Chianti Classico. All good, but very rich.
We roamed around the booths and activities area watching traditional dances, enjoying the petting zoo, and admiring the brightly painted wagon.
Now time for gelato - a combination of pistachio and nutella.
We then hoofed it up to St. John's Church. What a lovely spot.
Before our festival day ended we stopped to pick up dessert, Sfogliatelle. A pastry filled with orange flavored cheese surrounded by crisp strips of dough. We had marvelled at this delight last year and had to have more this year.


What a marvelous day. I heard that this year may be the last for the festival. I sincerely hope not.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Heading to Richmond this weekend and the festival posting caught my eye...hope it isn't really the last one! We come up every year for the Suntrust 8K, but usually don't venture to that area any other time. It would certainly be a worthwhile trip!