Festival Italia 2016 – Celebrating Italian Food & Wine in Perth

Seriously who doesn’t love pizza, pasta, red wine and prosecco? There is no doubt Festival Italia is one of the must-do events in Perth for all wine and food lovers. Mr. Spittoon and I were lucky enough to attend the media session yesterday and it’s safe to say we definitely got our Italian on! There were so many good wines and delectable bites to eat, that I thought I would put a blog post together. Plus the festival is on again today (Sunday 11th September) – so you can head down and try it all for yourself at the Perth Town Hall.

I have to admit, the festival definitely oozed Italian. From the red and green spotlights to the live Italian music and I feel like a lot of the local Italian community was there too. It was great hearing many people chatting away in Italian – it felt like we were actually in Italy for an afternoon!

The Wine Tasting Hall

Naturally this was the first place Mr. Spittoon and I headed with our Festival Italia branded wine tasting glasses (which you can take home at the end!).
The hall was divided into sections; Australia – all the Italian inspired wines, South & Islands – wines from the South of Italy and the Islands like Sicily, North – wines from Northern Italy and Central – wines from Central Italy.
From white wines made from the Verdicchio grape to Prosecco, Pinot Grigio, Fiano and Sangiovese, there were so many interesting wine styles and grape varieties that any wine lover would find something new to try! It was also great chatting with some of the actual producers about their wines and it definitely made me want to plan another Italian wine adventure!

There were 100+ different wines to try – so it’s safe to say I didn’t make it around them all! However I gave it a good go and here are some of the highlights:

The Food, Aperol Spritz Garden and Music

What’s an Italian festival without food? There’s no doubt that Italian wine is made with the thought in mind that it’ll be enjoyed with food. Italian winemakers know the importance of food and wine, therefore it’s nearly criminal not to enjoy the two together.

At the festival we tried a number of delightful bites to eat from red wine and beer gelato, to the most scrumptious pasta and more. The wedding diet was definitely out the window for the day! We ended off our day at the Aperol Sprtiz garden and Prosecco Bar – I literally could have sat there all day, but alas we had to get home to work on some wedding bits and pieces.

Here’s some pictures to get you drooling:

Festival Italia Tokens

The festival does use tokens for purchasing all food and drink. We bought some tokens to grab a few glasses of Prosecco – we paid $15 for 5 tokens and 2 glasses of Prosecco were 4 tokens – so not too bad really. We even spotted a vendor with little cakes for 1 token so it meant we could easily use all 5 of the tokens up.

As mentioned, the festival is on again today from 11am-5pm so if you have the chance to go – do it! For more information and to be kept in the loop for Festival Italia 2017 details, make sure to check out the Festival Italia website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. #drinkandeatitalian