"UN GRANDE SUCCESSO"- 5TH ANNUAL ST LOUIS ITALIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL - FERRAGOSTO 2022

MICHAEL CROSS
President, St Louis-Bologna Sister Cities

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​​Our region's largest Italian Summer Festival, FERRAGOSTO, was a tremendous success with over 250 people in attendance at the Enterprise Pavilion at Shaw Park in Clayton on August 20th.  I felt privileged to assist in organizing this wonderful yearly event and I am sincerely grateful for all those who helped us bring a piece of authentic Italian culture to St Louis. In the past 5 years, this Ferragosto has been successful in bringing together Italians, students of the Italian language, and persons interested in Italian culture. It's beautiful to see such a vibrant community.

A word of gratitude goes to our presenting sponsor Mr. Piero Scapini and his company Nooter/Eriksen for their very generous donation. I'd like to also thank the following sponsors, individuals, and partners who helped make this event possible: Giorgio Bucci CEO of Arteco Global, John DiGregorio of DiGregorio's Market, Joe Brown of Frank Leta Automotive, Marco Permunian of Italian Citizenship Assistance (ICA), Carmelo Gabriele of Il Bel Lago Ristorante, Lorenza Pasetti of Volpi Foods, Jack Baumann of Guidester Travel, and the companies Birra Peroni who donated over 500 beers and Gelato di Riso who provided gelato for the evening. 

Special thanks to our volunteers for their hard work: Alessandro Valentino (our grill master), Tiziana Orsini, Giovanna Leopardi, Roberto Lanzara, Scott Hoff, Franco Giannotti, Vito Alu, Kristine Galati, Donatella Lanzara, Carlo Sanfilippo, and pizzaiolo Tony Biundo who brought a large group from the Sicilian Cultural Association of St Louis.

Thanks to Birra Peroni for donating over 500 beers for the festival

We made over 150 aperol spritz

Scott Hoff making pizza