Italian Festival

Photos from the Itailian Festival held at RIR.

A cloudy and windy day, but the rain held off.

Hazelnut gelato...Yummy!

This lodge always has my favorite Italian dessert, sfogliatelle. It's a pastry filled with orange-flavored ricotta (very cheesecake-like) and surrounded by many layers of pastry dough. It has to take an incredible amount of time and effort to make. I've only been able to find them at the Italian festival. This is what keeps me coming back.

Garlic knots  and penne alla vodka from Gino's.

A light red table wine.

Fried mozzarella, calamari, and meatballs with a basil tomato sauce from Italian Kitchen. The meatballs were very good.

A petting zoo. This little show off was extremely cute.

Very nice limoncello. We were glad we had walked to the festival.

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.

2006 Richmond Italian Festival

Don’t you love gorgeous Fall weekends? I do. It’s definitely my favorite time of year. Cool, crisp breezes. Perfect blue skies with a few lazy white clouds as counterpoint. I can take a deep breath, sigh, and exclaim “Life is Good!” This has been such a weekend. And we celebrated on Saturday Italian style by attending the Richmond Italian Festival (www.richmonditalianfestival.com). A small affair located on E. Broad St. at St. John’s Church. Booths lined the street offering artwork, handbags and shoes, jewelry, etc. Of course, we came for the food and wine. What a pleasure to find both wine and beer (Peroni, of course) offered. Nine Italian wines (3 white and 6 red) were available to taste, or to purchase by the glass, or to purchase by the bottle. Since we had arrived in time for dinner, a bottle was in order. All bottles were $21 a pop (of the cork, as it were). We skipped the Chiantis and headed for the Morellino di Scansano (Sangiovese). Even though the wine was unoaked, it still contained some body and suited our purposes for the evening. Now, what to eat. Many reputable local Italian restaurants were plying their scrumptious wares – Roma’s, Angelo’s, A Taste of Italy, DeFazio’s, etc. We headed for The Italian Kitchen West for Spicy Sausage Subs with Sautéed Peppers and Onions ($5). This place makes its own sausage. Heavenly – just the right amount of heat, but nothing to overwhelm the meat. We parked ourselves at an outdoor table, enjoyed our wine and food and did a considerable amount of people-watching. Before we left The Italian Kitchen West booth we were encouraged to try a Sformato (sp?) pastry ($4). Orange-flavored ricotta custard nestled in strips of pastry and sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. Absolutely delightful! We took ours wrapped up for home and enjoyed it with a small amount of Belle de Brillet (pear cognac). As we ate the sounds of Ron Moody and the Centaurs wafted our way (It was far better to just listen than to actually watch them).

This tiny festival was just right to grab a decent Italian dinner and dine al fresco. Viva L’Italia!