Vietnamese culture, cuisine shine at Italian ethnic culture festival

ROME — The Vietnamese culture and cuisine were introduced at the 16th Bagnara ethnic culture festival in Bagnara di Romagna commune of Italy's Ravenne province from June 27 - 30.

Festival goers at the Vietnamese booth. VNA/VNS Photo

This is the sixth time Việt Nam has joined in the festival, but this year, aside from cuisine, for the first time, the Vietnamese Embassy in Italy and the Việt Nam-Italy Cultural Bridge Association organised a photo exhibition about the country’s landscapes, people, culture, costumes, and musical instruments.

Massimo Bellotti, art director of the festival, said that for years, organisers have supported the Vietnamese community to open a booth at the festival. The booth continued to prove a great success as a large number of visitors patiently waited for their turn to enjoy Vietnamese dishes.

A perfromance of members of the Việt Nam-Italy Cultural Bridge Association at the festival. VNA/VNS Photo

Members of the Việt Nam-Italy Cultural Bridge Association made Vietnamese dishes at the festival. They also wore traditional costumes to participate in a parade there and performed lion dance and "quan họ" (duet singing), a traditional singing genre of the country.

At a meeting with Mattia Galli - Mayor of Bagnara di Romagna, Vietnamese Ambassador to Italy Dương Hải Hưng, who was the only special guest invited to this year's festival, said that he was impressed with the scale of the event, which attracted representatives from 23 countries and more than 20,000 visitors.

On this occasion, he informed local leaders about Việt Nam’s 45-day visa exemption for Italian citizens and a plan to launch a direct air route between the two countries. — VNA/VNS