You are invited into a world where time runs at a different pace, emotions are passionate and one of the greatest passions is food. This is a fading world -
the world of Prince Fabrizio de Salina - described by Tomasi de Lampedusa in his classic novel "Il Gattopardo".
Set in 1860's Sicily, Il Gattopardo describes the life and fate of an old aristocratic family and its patriarch, Prince Fabrizio. The forces of change are contrasted with Fabrizio’s desire to retain the old ways of life. We experience the richness of this life on the fertile island of Sicily, bathed in the Mediterranean, where sunshine brings to life the bounty of the land.
This event will take you back to a time when passions were strongly felt and the senses could be indulged. Life was filled with richness - in nature, in the home, in fashion, and, most importantly, in food. You can experience the lushness of the textures, colours and flavours described in such delicious detail by Tomasi de Lampedusa, and represented in the acclaimed film starring Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale.
While history and politics flow with the times, the richness of a sensual life and good food never changes. We can learn to incorporate the same passions and textures into a modern life, in another place and time.
Experience this event to the fullest. Gattopardo Day gives you a chance to immerse yourself in another life for a day. Take the time to feel the slowness of time, to enjoy the colours and textures of the fashions of the era, be carried away by the music. Let your day culminate in a grand feast that delights your senses.
Good food, enjoyed with good company, is part of a rich and healthy life. The combination of beautiful music, lush surroundings, elegant fashion and decoration with exquisite flavours provide health for the soul.
This event brings you all the life-affirming qualities of good food and good dining - the social, the spiritual, the psychological and the biological.
"Don't give to the body what the soul could reject."
Luigi De Luca
A Message from Dr Stephan Kerkyasharian, AM Chair, Community Relations Commission for a Multi-Cultural New South Wales:
A feast of elegance, pageantry and colour dazzling our eyes is what wewill be confronted with at the Gattopardo dinner during the SydneyItalian Festival. Communities that make up our wonderful multiculturalsociety all put in huge efforts from time to time to share the verybest of their culture and cuisine with the broader community. But theItalians have been inAustralia a very long time and have become verygood at showing off their superb traditions for the rest of us to enjoy.
