By Don Quilici
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Part of the crowd enjoying a previous Italian Festival. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
A booth selling Nevada grown vegetables. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
Contestants in the spaghetti sauce contest. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
One of the entertainers on stilts. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
A “rose” between an artichoke and a garlic clove. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
One of the entertainment groups. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
A “BIG” pot of polenta. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
Real persons posing as mannequins. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
Little Donnie Q and an Italian waiter. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
Another entertaining group. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
Cooking Calamari. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
A contestant in the wine stomping contest. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
Don and a monkey. Photo by Elaine Quilici -
Elaine wearing her favorite T-Shirt. Photo by Don Quilici -
The little, older Italian woman in Sorrento, Italy. Photo by Elaine Quilici
Saturday, Oct. 11 and Sunday, Oct. 12 are the 2014 dates for the annual Eldorado Great Italian Festival on North Virginia Street in downtown Reno. If you have never attended the festival, you have missed out on a great way to enjoy a Saturday or Sunday (or both) in early October.
Be sure to mark your calendar for a fun-filled time that weekend. Of all the many fall season activities in this general area, the Italian Festival is our personal favorite, and we try to attend every year.
Virginia Street in the area of the Eldorado Hotel/Casino is transformed into a version of Little Italy, with fun-filled activities which include such things as:
01. A grape stomping contest (one of my favorite things to watch).
However, be advised not to stand too close to the contestants or you, too, will be wearing purple on your face and clothing.
02. A spaghetti sauce cooking contest (with their great smelling aromas).
03. Free, live musical entertainment at many of the street corners from about 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., each of the two days. Our favorites are the musical groups that play and sing Italian songs. Some of this year’s entertainers include: Primo Basso, Bella Ciao and Italia.
04. Costumed entertainers walking around on giant stilts. I get a kick out of having my photo taken with the various people on their stilts and the entertainer with his pet monkey. Last year, when I emailed a photo of me (with that monkey sitting on my lap) to a large number of friends and relatives, I got some very interesting and funny responses, and they were not complimentary!
05. Booths selling all kinds of interesting things. Elaine’s all-time favorite purchase is the T-shirt that she bought one year, which says on the back: “Pray for me, I married an Italian.”
06. Booths offering traditional Italian food such as: Pastas, meatball and sausage sandwiches, Calamari (which we both love to eat), garlic bread, etc.
07. Strolling through the huge crowd that fills the street from sidewalk to sidewalk. It is amazing to me, how many people you will recognize in that huge gathering.
08. A farmer’s market with all different kinds of fruit and vegetables. If you want fresh vegetables like garlic and artichokes, this will be the place.
Finally:
Be sure to set aside the weekend of October 11-12 to attend the latest version of the Eldorado Great Italian Festival in Reno.
It will be lots of good fun, good food, good drinks and good companionship.
I guarantee it and we are looking forward to being there.
And, pray for good weather on that weekend.
Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can’t tell you what is unique about Don Q.
If he grins and says, “Well for starters, Don is a full-blooded Italian, but he can’t speak Italian, he can’t understand Italian, he can’t read Italian and he is allergic to garlic,” he could be one of my relatives or a close friend.
Note 01:
Three years ago, when Elaine and I, together with my cousin Lorraine and her husband Bob, spent 44 days vacationing all over Italy and Sicily, I managed to have a ton of fun, even though I could not understand anything I heard and read.
Note 02:
On that 44 day vacation, the two of us took a total of 5,000 digital photos.
Would you like to see all of them?
Note 03:
When Bob and I were walking down a side street in Sorrento, a little older Italian lady walked up to Bob and jabbered something in Italian at him.
He turned to me and said, “What did she say?”
I had no idea of what she had said, but I told him: “She says you are ugly!”
That remark had all of us laughing, including the lady, who agreed to be photographed with Bob and I.
— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now. His wife, Elaine, is the Outdoor photograph. They live in Carson City and can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com
