I’ll be Italian for the Day

Yesterday marked the end of a Tampa event staple: Ybor City’s Festa Italiana or Italian Fest. Italian Fest celebrates Tampa’s rich Italian culture and, what Italians do best, Italian food. It is sponsored by the Italian Club and boasts a wide range of entertainment, family fun, arts, crafts and of course, food. Every year, my friends and I look forward to attending and spend at least one day fasting in preparation because at Italian Fest, we do to one thing and that is eat. (That’s 8 Italians in one paragraph, if you’re counting!)

This year our group included me, Allison, Kevin, and first-timer, Mama Palumbo (Kevin’s Mom). Alex would join us later as he thought our start time of 11:30am was far too early. Guess what? Wrong. Our brood arrived, found parking and paid the $5 entrance fee. Once inside, we procured our food tickets and loosen our belts.

Over the many years of attending Italian Fest, we have devised a strategic route of eating and adhere to a strict mantra of “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” We entered from the east side by the children’s area and make our way past the main entertainment stage and in a “Don’t pass GO, Don’t collect $200” kind of way, proceeded directly to the area where the Italian Club sets up their food booths. They have the best selection of Italian items: Baked Ziti, Meatball sandwiches, Italian Sausage sandwiches, Eggplant fries, and Sfingi (it’s a hybrid of doughnut and hushpuppy). All good choices. From there, we eat our way around the restaurant row for other local Italian restaurant food selections. We ended the day with cannoli and gelato.

I ate/drank these things in this order:

Meatball Sandwich

Italian Pork Quesadilla

Peach Mimosa

Sfingi

Corn Cake with Mozzarella

Banana Caramel Praline Gelato

Another highlight of the day is the $5 raffle. In years past, the raffle prize has been a current year model of the Kia Rio. The car I currently drive, dubbed The Little Red Wonder, is a Kia Rio. So, I’m overjoyed at giving $5 in the hopes of upgrading my model. I was very disappointed to find that this year’s raffle was not a Kia Rio, but in its place you could win one of the following items: a Vespa, $5,000 gas card, or a diamond pendant. Boo! I kept my $5.

The gem of the day was the discovery of the small jugs of sweet tea. We had spied the sweet tea stand when we walked in, but quickly brushed it off because it was on the eating route. Someone from our group broke off, did some reconnaissance and came back with one. Realizing how delicious it was, our group double-backed and get some. 

Totally genius idea and I wish I had thought of it. This little jug was $3 and I could pay $1 to get it refilled. On the way out, we stopped back by and got said refill. I asked the lady behind the counter if they were going to be there next year, to which she said she was hopeful, but if I attended the Tampa Fair, I could bring this little jug and get it refilled there for $1, too.  Dully noted! I’ll be bringing my jug back next year with me along with a lanyard to hold it.

We left Ybor City totally stuffed and satisfied! A great day of eating was had by all. Ya’ll be sure and join us next year!