{"id":2291,"date":"2015-08-13T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2015-08-13T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanmatter.com\/chicago\/?p=2291"},"modified":"2019-10-08T13:37:21","modified_gmt":"2019-10-08T18:37:21","slug":"festa-italiana-its-amore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanmatter.com\/chicago\/festa-italiana-its-amore\/","title":{"rendered":"Festa Italiana: It\u2019s Amore!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a kid, I would look up and see those \u201cfunny looking words\u201d painted on my kitchen wall: \u201cIn vino veritas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I had no idea what it meant at the time, but as I grew into adulthood, I learned the meaning behind them: \u201cIn wine, there is truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, in the spirit of Chicago\u2019s favorite Italian festival, I\u2019ve had a couple glasses of wine today. So let\u2019s just say I\u2019m feeling pretty inclined to send the truth packin\u2019 your way.<\/p>\n<p>And trust me, Festa Italiana is a can\u2019t-miss celebration.<\/p>\n<p>The food fest\u2019s eighth annual celebration takes place this weekend, with more than 50,000 festivalgoers expected to attend. And of course it\u2019s located in Little Italy, the place where Chicago and its surrounding suburbs converge to get the very best of Italian culture, food, and wine. Here\u2019s what you can expect:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Legendary Italian Restaurants (duh)<\/li>\n<li>Grape stomping area<\/li>\n<li>Carnival rides &amp; other children\u2019s activities<\/li>\n<li>Cooking demonstrations<\/li>\n<li>Booths selling authentic Italian goods<\/li>\n<li>Wine garden<\/li>\n<li>Meatball eating contest<\/li>\n<li>Three stages of live entertainment covering Italian favorites like the Rat Pack, the Three Tenors, the Four Seasons, and Bon Jovi<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now I don\u2019t know about you, but a few items on this list really stuck out to me. The <strong>grape stomping area<\/strong> is one of them. I\u2019ve seen plenty of people stomp grapes on TV and in YouTube videos, and I\u2019ve always dreamed of doing it myself. I\u2019m in.<\/p>\n<p>Next, the <strong>meatball eating contest<\/strong>. All the meatballs you can handle in a short amount of time. Even if you lose, can you really actually lose?<\/p>\n<p>And of course, <strong>cooking demonstrations<\/strong>. Italian food is some of the greatest cuisine in the world, but very few have mastered the art of authentic preparation. The demos will undoubtedly give you hunger pangs on the spot, so be sure to eat before checking them out. Heck, my mouth is already watering in anticipation.<\/p>\n<p>Truthfully.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Festa Italiana takes place from Thursday, August 13 to Sunday, August 16 on Ashland Ave and Taylor St. Entry to the event is a $5 donation that benefits the University Village Association.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: Enobytes via\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/enobytes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/wine-event.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">enobytes.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a kid, I would look up and see those \u201cfunny looking words\u201d painted on my kitchen wall: \u201cIn vino veritas.\u201d I had no idea what it meant&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2279,"featured_media":2292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,755],"tags":[159,839,835,491,841,840,843,836,838,837,842],"class_list":["post-2291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-category-restaurants","category-category-things-to-do","tag-chicago","tag-cooking","tag-festa-italiana","tag-food-fest","tag-grape-stomping","tag-italian","tag-italian-food","tag-little-italy","tag-meatball-eating-contest","tag-taylor-street","tag-wine-garden"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.4 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Festa Italiana: It\u2019s Amore! | UrbanMatter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Festa Italiana takes place this weekend, with more than 50,000 festivalgoers expected to attend. 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