{"id":6368,"date":"2026-08-23T10:48:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T17:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/?p=6368"},"modified":"2026-08-23T10:48:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T17:48:33","slug":"ferragosto-in-culver-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/23\/ferragosto-in-culver-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferragosto in Culver City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"On Saturday August 15 I celebrated \u201cFerragosto<\/a>” at an Italian street fair<\/a> in Culver City.
\nThis summer holiday, from the Latin Feriae Augusti<\/em>, is similar to the 4th of Jul<\/a>y in the United States and Bastille Day<\/a> (July 14) in France.\"\"In Italy it usually involves fireworks and a religious procession honoring the Assumption of the “Virgin” Mary<\/a> to heaven (with her mortal body). The Catholic Church having put their interpretation over this tradition from ancient Rome, as it did with many other pagan gods and festivities in the Americas.
\n\"\"For the entire week stores and businesses are closed and everybody goes on vacation, crowding the Mediterranean beaches all the way down the Italian peninsula<\/a> (the boot) or the mountain towns in the Alps<\/a> that cap the Northern border or the Apennines<\/a> that run the length of Italy from top to bottom.<\/p>\n

\"\"It was fitting that the first person I encountered along the pedestrian Helms District was Francesco, CEO of his family restaurant Pasta Sisters<\/a> and organizer<\/a> of the event.
\nI complimented him on his choice of teaching a class on how to make tortellini, a specialty of my home town.\u00a0 Read my article \u201cFresh Pasta, Modena-Style<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Now you may buy<\/a> Pasta Sisters\u2019 tortellini, as well as lasagne and other Italian specialties from several Gelson\u2019s in Southern California. I found them at this Santa Monica location<\/a>, and prepared them \u201calla panna\u201d for my family.\u00a0 If you wish to enjoy tortellini “in brodo” you must go to Uovo<\/em><\/a> at one of their locations, our favorite being the one in Marina<\/a> del Rey.<\/p>\n

\"\"Francesco proudly pointed out the stand of Orto Farms<\/a> displaying luscious red tomatoes and plump green striped zucchini.
\nI told him the amusing story that, when I bought zucchini at Ralphs, the pale green variety, not the darker green kind, the checkout person insisted that those were NOT zucchini, but \u201cwhite squash.\u201d
\nZucchini<\/a> is the diminutive plural of zucca-pumpkin, and it comes in many varieties.<\/p>\n

\"\"I stopped by the gelato mini-truck of Dolcenero<\/em><\/a> and said hello to the owner, Simone. Read his story in my article \u201cGelato in LA.\u201d<\/a>
\nOut of kindness I did not point out that the three flavor choices he offered -chocolate, strawberry and vanilla (stracciatella)- were Americans\u2019 favorites, but did not do justice to his amazing creations, such as \u201cricotta e fichi.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"I grabbed in passing some prosciutto and parmigiano on toothpicks from the appetizers spread by Sogno Toscano<\/em>. I often eat with friends at their restaurant on Montana<\/a> in their large shaded patio, or at their less comfortable location at the Grove<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"I stood in line chatting with three young guys waiting for a cappuccino from Cafe Luxxe<\/a>. I had stopped by their Culver City location, which replaced the corner Starbucks, but not many people seem to go there anymore, since free Wifi is no longer offered.
\nWhen my power was out for hours one morning, I went with my laptop to the friendly bookstore Village Well<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"As a film lover I was intrigued by the sign \u201cItalian Cinema.\u201d So I walked inside Scandinavian Designs<\/em><\/a> around the corner on Venice Blvd, where Roman Holiday<\/em><\/a> by William Wyler was playing on a TV screen in front of an empty leather couch. The bright lights made it difficult to see Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck zipping by the Coliseum in a Vespa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"This large furniture store is still in business, while Ikea recently took over H.D. Buttercup<\/em>, thereby depriving us of the History of Culver City wall. Read my article \u201cCulver City History Tour.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"In a tight corner outside this store, squeezed against the gigantic Apple building<\/a> extension under construction, the LA Vespa club <\/a>was offering rides on this classic Italian scooter.<\/p>\n

I walked down the narrow alleyway to Washington Blvd and enjoyed the art exhibit \u201cLOS ANGELES. Streets, Structures & Stories,\u201d organized by Band of Vices<\/em>. The names of the artists were not listed to identify the small square paintings, but I recognized some landmarks, such as
\n\"\"Chinatown
\n\"\"the Hollywood Sign
\n\"\"the Watts Towers,
\n\"\"buildings like the Beverly Hills Hotel,
\n\"\"neighborhoods like Persian Square,
\n\"\"a mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
\nRead my article \u201cLA History at the Autry<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

\"\"Dulcis in fundo<\/a>, I walked into another space where I was offered a sparkly drink, and watched videos that Andrew Curtis filmed all over Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday August 15 I celebrated \u201cFerragosto” at an Italian street fair in Culver City. This summer holiday, from the Latin Feriae Augusti, is similar to the 4th of July in the United States and Bastille Day (July 14) in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culver-city"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6368"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6409,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6368\/revisions\/6409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}