Italian Day 2013

Crowds of people flocked down to Commercial Drive on Sunday, June 9th to celebrate Italian Day. It was very hard to find parking!

The street was also packed!

This year's theme is Carnevale di Venezia so there were a lot of people in Venetian style masks and costumes!

 

On the main stage, contests were held such as pizza tossing, grape stomping and pasta eating.

I watched the pasta eating competition. The people had to eat a plate of pasta without using their hands! The winner won a bottle of wine donated by Vancity.

Later on, the Vancouver Italian Folk Chorus gave a performance.

New this year was the cooking demonstrations. I caught Chef Peppe Gioe "The Singing Chef" giving an operatic performance before cooking some pasta.

Of course, I couldn't go home without having gelato on Italian day! It reminded me of when we were in Italy and had gelato for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Good times!