ExpoItalia will showcase food, wine, crafts, art and music of Italy, Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Richmond County Savings Foundation Tuscan Garden and the South Meadow of Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden.
Entrance is $8 for adults; $6 for seniors and children ages 5 through 18. Kids younger enter for free.
The new 1-acre garden is modeled after the Villa Gamberaia, a 16th-century garden outside Florence, Italy. It features terraces, pools, fountains, topiary, statuary and citrus trees in pots, and was designed by the Milan-based landscape architect Enrica Buccioni.
Though the $1.5 million garden, in the planning stages since 2002, has been used for by-invitation fundraisers over the last year, ExpoItalia will mark the first time the public can explore the grounds.
"This is in celebration of October being Italian heritage month," said JoAnn Mardikos, interim president of Snug Harbor.
The Tuscan garden, is slated to officially open with regular hours -- 10 a.m. to dusk -- and an admission fee of less than $5, next month. It will offer four seasons of programming throughout the year.
"It's a major attraction because you have a very large Italian community Staten Island," said Ms. Mardikos. "If you can't get to Tuscany, this is just about the next best thing."
The 13th Congressional District, which encompasses Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, has more Italian-American residents than any congressional district in the country.
But the Tuscan garden unveiling is only a small part of the ExpoItalia, said Ms. Mardikos. Most of it will unfold on the South Meadow.
"It's like a San Gennaro festival for Staten Island," said John Sollazo, honorary chairman of the event.
Aside from food such as calzones, sausage and peppers and pastries, the event will serve up cooking demonstrations and tastings by the Port Richmond High School culinary department and the cultural center's caterer, Celebrate at Snug Harbor.
Children will be able to craft their own Leaning Tower of Pisa from pasta; bounce around in an inflatable giant blow-up coliseum, fashioned after the Coliseum in Rome; have their faces painted and take in a puppet show courtesy of the Rosebank-based Garibaldi-Meucci Museum.
Among the entertainers will be a saxophone quartet from the province of Bari, Puglia, Italy, performing music by Italian and American composers such as Bernstein, Copland, Nicolau, Annunziata, Zannoni. Tres Bella, who sing three-party harmonies, will deliver classic ballads in Italian and English such as "Mala Femmina," "Sorrento" and "Io Che Non Vivo (You Don't Have To Say You Love Me)," along with Rat Pack standards and doo-wop.
Source: SILive.com
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