Tuesday, June 21st, Ninfa Silvia will reach adult age; the “Festa del Nodo d’Amore” will, in fact, cross the mark of its 18th edition. This highly anticipated event is thus confirmed for the year 2011, an event that will host as many as 3,300 commensals, who will gather on the Visconteo Bridge in Valeggio sul Mincio, to sit at a grand table over a kilometer long, to savor the true specialty of Valeggio, the tortellino (a traditional, filled homemade pasta), the unquestioned protagonist of the evening, along with other main courses from the local cuisine.
Interest for this event has uninterruptedly been on the rise since 1993. The magnificent location forces the organizers to a selective entry, confining the number of guests to 3,300 but, at the same time, it allows them to concentrate all their efforts on quality, adding new elements every year to make the evening more and more attractive and exclusive.
The main novelty of this year’s edition will be the participation in the table-waiting service and kitchen of the Hotel management School “Luigi Carnacina” of Valeggio sul Mincio: professors and students will have their post on the Visconteo Bridge, which will ensure an increasingly improved service and will give youngsters the opportunity to measure up with an event of such grand organizational scale.
The “Nodo d’Amore” will also take part in the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, with special lighting works on the Visconteo Bridge courtesy of the company based in Verona, AGSM…. it will be a GREEN, WHITE, and RED colored surprise.
The occasion is thus renewed once more, to present a time for promotion of the territory of exceptional quality, and is a witness to how the synergy between public and private can lead to results of absolute excellence, in the sign of conviviality and hospitality. The Banca Popolare di Verona supports ARV again this year and vital élan is likewise given by countless other sponsors: Spumanti Valdo sparkling wines and the Cantina di Custoza wine cellar, the producers of Custoza white wine and Bardolino red of the Municipality of Valeggio sul Mincio, the Consortium of Monteveronese and Grana Padano cheese, and many more.
The Nodo D'Amore Festival is certainly the most important showcase to promote the wine & food and hotels the territory has to offer, a trade which ARV has been pursuing with a passion for over 25 years, succeeding in understanding, tackling, and mastering the evolution of the markets, of tastes, and of consumptions.
Twelve restaurateurs have picked up the www.ristorantivaleggio.it challenge with added pride, joining efforts to honor their privilege: to be the only true repositories of the ancient recipe of the “Nodo d’Amore”, the true tortellino of Valeggio, a chest made of golden pastry, enriched with the scented filling of braised meat.
Created and run by the Restaurateurs’ Association, the Festival involves the Municipal Administration and all the Trade Associations. It relies on the enthusiasm of a town that boasts over 40 restaurants which, all together, can host as many guests as the entire town population (about 11,000 persons). This is why Valeggio s/M has rightly earned itself the reputation of “true wine & food citadel”.
Record figures have been confirmed: 12 associated restaurants, nearly 300 waiting staff, 100 chefs and just as many sommeliers, 600,000 “Love Knots” handmade one by one (around 10,000 eggs and 8 tons of flour are needed), 3,750 bottles of Custoza White and Bardolino red, 850 bottles of sparkling wine and prosecco, to offer guests the evening cocktail which opens the event.
As with every year, the Festival on the Visconteo Bridge will also be an occasion to award two personalities who have stood apart in the realms of journalism and cuisine, with a special bond with the Nodo d’Amore.
This is why the “Nodo d’Amore” award, conceived by the master goldsmith Alberto Zucchetta, will be handed out this year to the reporter Monika Kellermann, a German wine & food journalist and writer, who has by now been adopted by a place she herself defines as her second homeland, Lake Garda, and to Giorgio Gioco, the great chef of Verona, both for his acclaimed culinary art and for the passion with which he has repeatedly known how to give emphasis to the tortellino of Valeggio.
A special commemoration this year will be attributed to the late lamented Elia Agnolin, an attorney and historian who translated and passed down in the form of rhyme the complex reality and beauty of the Valeggio scenery. A commemorative plate will be handed out to his daughter Eliana.
Special thanks by the Restaurateurs of ARV go foremost to the sponsors Banca Popolare di Verona and AGSM, and to all the others who with their precious support allow the event to improve, and to the Press, which Nadia Pasquali, Vice-President of ARV defines as… ‘the voice of the Legend’, and which through articles and publications makes Valeggio sul Mincio known to the world.
Nadia Pasquali will conclude the presentation to the press of the 18th edition of the Nodo D’Amore, which will take place on June 21st on the Visconteo Bridge in Valeggio, spurring those gathered to ‘Grow together with liveliness…’; this is exactly what Italy needs in the celebration of its 150th anniversary: a dream night come… true.
