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In London at the time, we took advantage to go to this exhibition at Olympia, and hopefully get ourselves a dose of Italia. I thought Id post a quick review in case anyone wants to visit the next one in the Autumn of 2008.
It was quite enjoyable, but Id say a pale shadow of the annual La Dolce Vita exhibition which is held in London in the Spring. Id hoped to leave some Puglia Uncovered leaflets around (in fact, I did) but there was a very poor showing from anything or anyone from Puglia just one stall promoting purpose built Masserie in Salento. The show might have been vaguely helpful to anyone wanting to buy property in Italy, (Giambrone & Law were there and did some useful talks / Q&A sessions). But frankly it was hard to see the purpose of it. There were really not that many stalls (many fewer than I suspect they were hoping for, based on the wide open spaces filled with potted cupressus semprevirens and agaves). And not many visitors, even on Saturday though the Rugby World cup cant have helped. Some of the best bits were marred by the most dreadful racket / rumbling from back stage sounded as if they were moving a couple of tank regiments in next door. Quite a few of the visitors seemed to be Italian (or else they were friends and relatives of the exhibitors), so it was nice for us to hear animated Italian voices around us. What were the best bits? Food, wine, fashion and music. (Given the lack of tourist and property sites.) A few nice food stalls upstairs, with some wonderful stuffed figs and figs in honey, and delicious Piedmontese cheeses as the most memorable, unfortunately we couldnt buy much as well be travelling. A rather chaotic wine tasting that was fun but took half an hour to get organised they had six glasses and seemed at the last minute to realise there were only five wines, so it appeared they went and found some light sparkling chardonnay to fill the gap and keep us happy while they found the wine expert. The wines were an interesting selection, with a very nice dessert wine, but unfortunately no information on prices nor where to buy the wines (other than Selfridges might have them. (Somehow you could sort of tell this wasnt Viva Germania.) There was a delightful fashion show with attractive young ladies (and men) in various stages of undress and dress, though again, no indication of where you might acquire the clothes (or the young men). But perhaps the highlight was a tribute to Pavarotti, with a group of opera singers and their accompanist recently from the annual Puccini festival held at Lucca. They were excellent, but I felt really sorry for them trying to sing without microphones above the noises from next door, and the general hubbub of an exhibition. We cheered them very loudly. There were some amazing stalls, for example Capodimonte, and a very large exhibit of very stylish (and largely impractical) furniture and art for the home. A couple of restaurants providing what looked like authentic regional Italian food. (But why come to an exhibition to get that in London??) There was a demonstration kitchen which seemed to get a good audience. A good part of the ground floor was given over to cars and scooters, including a display of classic cars. But I was left wondering who the target market was, and what the purpose was. They didnt make it easy for you to buy anything (other than cheese). And there were only limited stands promoting, for example, the joys of holidaying in Italy. (Perhaps it was all in order to use up someones tax allowances?) Would it be worth going to a future event? Depends what you are looking for. With full price £10pp tickets, it would have to convince me it was seriously bigger another year. Perhaps if they had, say, a serious Italian cheese tasting, and made more attempt to link the demonstrations / fashion shows etc to goods they were promoting, it would be of interest, and the music alone (without the noises off) I would have paid good money to hear. But if not, I think Ill stick to La Dolce Vita if Im in London when its on. Last update : 09-10-2007 14:20
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