Taste of Italy

Italian music and cuisine dominated the Algoma Street area for the first day of Festa Italiana.

Hundreds attended the annual cultural festival at the Italian Cultural Centre. The two-day event, which started on Sunday, offered culinary delights from the traditional staples such as pizza and spaghetti to savoury delights such as gnocchi.

Karley Ambrose attended the festival with her two friends Shaniah McCraw and Kim Commisso. They had only been at the festival for an hour before each had something different to eat. Karley had decided to beat the heat with some ice cream while Shaniah sampled a panzarotti and Kim a slice of pizza.

Karley said the city does well to celebrate the Italian culture.

“I’m very prideful to be Italian,” she said. “It invites everyone to come in and enjoy. It doesn’t exclude anyone.”

Colin Veltri came to the festival with his wife, Melissa. He said he has a lot of Italian family and the festival is a good place to run into them.

He believes the food is what keeps the festival going.

“Nothing beats an Italian home cooked meal,” he said. “I already had my panzarotti. That’s what I like the most. I’ve been in town my whole life and I come as often as I can unless I’m out camping.”

Festa chairman Benny Melchiorre said thousands have attended the festival since it started 23 years ago. He suspects that by the end of the festival, around 23,000 people will have attended.

There’s lots that keep people coming back each year from the food to the music but also because the festival is located near downtown Port Arthur, he said.

“It’s a family oriented festival so that helps bring people back,” he said. “Italy has about 21 regions and we all have different cultures, traditions and specialty foods. We have a little bit of everything from the bottom to the very north of Italy. That’s what makes the festival interesting.”

The festival continues Sunday until 11 p.m. with a fireworks display. The festival wraps up Monday night.