Italian Festival

This is the 19th year for the Italian Festival in Seattle! It was so much fun! Lon and I had just arrived, and were going down to see the fountain, when we saw Nonna, Brooks and Nonna's cousins!
This is Nonna and Brooks.




Me, Lon and Nonna. Unfortunately, I did not get pictures of the cousins. They were very nice.

The food court. They had coffee, you could get espresso shots, or a frozen mocha. Yummy. There were two restaurants -- one had lasagne, and brownies and the other had numerous pasta dishes. The Sons of Italy were selling meatballs, either on a stick or in a bun. The next booth had sausage, peppers and onions, mushrooms, marinara sauce on a fresh bun. This is what we all had for lunch! ohmy! It was wonderful! Lon had some of the bread with some onion and peppers and sauce. There was also a pizza booth, and the people selling chocolate dipped fruit on a stick. I think those look really yummy but 6 dollars for three chocolate dipped strawberries on stick seems very steep to me. I did not get one of those. The crowd got bigger later on in the day. We were there about 11.


We all had a great time watching the Grape Stomp. The emcee was funny. Lon liked his hat.

Three teams compete for a prize. A bottle of Bolla Wine!

The Winners! The older ladies won!

In the Center House they were holding a Bocce Tournament. Bocce takes about 3 minutes to learn and a life time to master. It looked like it would be really fun to play. To be in the tournament you had to sign up by the 18th of September. I am thinking we might get a bocce set for Christmas.

On our way back around to the Fisher pavilion they had a display of automobiles. These are not mere cars. A couple of vintage Fiats, which were nice. However the Ferraris were spectacular. Lon told me he would be happy to get one for Mommy when he gets big enough. 6 red and one black. Later on, they added another red Ferrari. Amazing cars. When I was younger I thought I really wanted a fast car, but I realized as I got older that a fast car would only be taken away from me as I would drive it very very fast. Good thing I never got a super fast car. ( you don't believe that I really think that do you?) Lon liked the red Ferraris. They also had a vintage Vespa and a couple of newer scooter models. Later we found out those scooters were being raffled off. Lon bought three tickets. He got some tickets at the Japanese Festival and won a $20 dollar gift cert to I Love Sushi! He is a lucky kid!

The beer and wine garden. If you look closely you can see the small band, an accordion player and two guitar players. Very fun.

Inside the Fisher pavilion they had booths with information, Boracchini's bakery, a gelato booth, some jewelry, some other knick knack, and sulimi meats selling salamis. One of the information booths was for the Dante Alighieri Society. They sounded like fun. They have a Festa di Natale per i Bambini. Lon wants to go to that. He gets to meet La Befana for the first time. He is looking forward to that. At least he chewed on the brochure. I took that to mean he wants to go. Lon got a chocolate hazelnut biscotti at Boracchini's and I got a canoli. We got some Limone Gelato, but it was really more like a sorbetto. Lon liked it. I did too. We got an Italian soda. I had grapefruit. Yummy. Lon liked that too.

Our favorite bakery. We love Boracchinis. We have never had anything bad there. Ever.

A parting shot of the fountain. Next time we go to the Seattle Center we have to bring a change of clothes! That way we can play in the fountain ! Well, I am not sure the weather will be nice enough next weekend to do that. Next weekend is the Croatian Festival at Seattle Center and the St. Demitrios Greek Festival (started in 1960!). The Greek Festival is in Seattle, near capital hill. I have been to the Greek Festival once before, I am looking forward to it.

We had a great time today. It was so nice to meet up with the Cofflands. Lon really enjoyed it and he was so well behaved today! He was, as always, a joy to be with.