Venice Film Festival at Gino’s in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget
I decided to celebrate the Biennale of Venice Film Festival 2022 (Mostra Internationale d’Arte Cinematografica) with a family outing to Gino’s Restaurant in Salinas, California.
I wore my Murano beads from Venice, Italy to dinner. Murano beads are made by hand and have gold in them. You can order Murano necklaces from Amazon at a reasonable price. Murano beads look festive on plain colored shirts like the yellow one I had on.
Gino’s makes homemade pasta dishes, which is why I like it.
My daughter Florence Paget ordered pasta a la carbonara, a Roman dish worthy of Rome’s cinecittà studios. Gino’s carbonara is made with chopped pancetta, egg, and Parmesan cheese sauce. My husband Laurent ordered linguine with shrimp.
Producer dad got a heaping bowlful of plump, briny shrimp. He smiled as he ate that great dish.
I ordered cannoli with minced veal and spinach covered in rich Parmesan cream sauce. Wow! Was that good!
Venice has several Biennales including those for art and music. I think it would be fun to do something like Beaujolais Nouveau for these events in Italian restaurants around the world. (The Biennale for art runs through November. Plan a gallery visit and wear an onyx bead bracelet or necklace to go with your black pumps with dinner afterwards to do a local celebration of the Biennale for art.)
For example, before a pasta of your choice, you could order Aperol Spritz or Campari Spritz cocktails. Young people could drink limonatta (lemonade) or aranciatta (orangeade) from San Pellegrino.
For a more upscale celebration, you could invest in Venetian Murano beads, scarves, or ties. I like the Murano beads from Raffinato.
In Monterey County, Gino’s in Salinas is where I will be next year to celebrate the Venice Film Festival, thinking of Sophia Loren, who said, “I owe everything to pasta.”
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
