In downtown Reno along The Row, The Great Italian Festival transformed Virginia Street into a taste of Italy. With everything from a grape stomp to gelato eating contest, Italian farmers market and of course tons of Italian food booths.
The smell of the family recipes alone will lure you right into one of the main attractions at The Great Italian Festival…the Family Sauce Contest, where sauce is more than just a pasta topping. Gina Lazzerone, the Head Sauce Chef for her family’s booth says, "It brings our family together, and my girls are here, my brothers’ girls are here so all of us are here helping."
Lazzerone tells us the story of how it all started, with her grandparents participating in Reno’s very first Great Italian Festival and have kept the tradition going for 40 years.
She says she’s learned all of her sauce making skills from her grandmother, now running the whole show Lazzerone mentions "I'm the baby and I'm the only girl, so my brothers tell me I get one day to of the year I get to boss them around, so I take advantage of that."
Each Italian booth has their own traditions and flavors to share with visitors during the event, but whether its pasta eating or recipe sharing…"Fun! everybody has so much fun! I mean you can't go wrong with good Italian food, and good wine, and everybody here is just really positive, and everybody has a really good time here." Says Lazzerone.
If you’re new to the event, you might just learn something about Italian culture that you didn’t know before. Stacy Giusti, who calls herself the Princess of the Sauces shares how much she cares about the festival "I love it! I absolutely love it. I look forward to this every year because I know we can share our sauce we can share our stories." Lazzerone adds "Italians are family, it's all about family and I feel people see that orientation when they come to the Italian festival here." Giusti says “It's just a joy to come down here and enjoy the Italian heritage with people who aren't familiar with it who want to enjoy it as well."
But most of all, you’ll want to dig into the Italian flavors the food has to offer at the festival. Lazzerone says "You just get to enjoy that good home style Italian food." Giusti emphasizes "You're going to get some great pasta, you're going to get some great sauce, some great music, and you get to meet people like me which is the best part."
