'La Bella Figura' at the 20th Annual Italian-American Festival
- Philip Thibodeau
- Aug 1
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 3

For more than a century Italian immigrants – along with their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and more cousins than you can count – have had a hand in shaping Southington’s culture. Pay attention and before long you’ll find traces throughout town of the Italian ideal of la bella figura: the notion that almost every aspect of life – whether building, food, language, or just the way one stands on the street corner – can be turned into a ‘beautiful performance.’
At this past weekend’s Italian-American Festival (July 25th to 27th), that ideal was on full display. All along lower Center Street volunteers were busy preparing treats that one could smell from afar: pepper-and-sausage grinders, meatball and eggplant parm, fried calamari, ‘old fashioned’ pizza – which has a cake-like crust topped with sauce – fried dough, and porchetta sandwiches. The open space north of the street was turned into a makeshift Italian piazza bounded on one side by the arts-and-crafts tent, and on the other by the Sons of Italy building, where for generations members have gathered to play scopa or swap stories over drinks and the occasional cigar. In between rose a concert stage where musicians entertained the crowd.
The area was packed with a mix of locals and visitors – several cars with New York State plates were spotted parked on the side streets – who came to join the family-friendly action. As other parents pushed infants in strollers along the sidewalk, Justin and Alexsandria Robarge took a break with their daughter in front of a scene of Venice:

Southington was literally hotter than Rome or Naples on Friday afternoon, and the line at the gelato booth wound a long way down the street. At the Italian Rosary Society tent, those seeking divine assistance left cash votives on a statue of Mary:

Come dinnertime, visitors were entertained by Lamar Peters, who performed Elvis and Sinatra classics on stage. Once the sky turned dark the crowd watched fuochi d'artificio – ‘artificial fires’, or fireworks, in English – explode in the air over the dog park.
Saturday, though less hot, was just as humid. Event organizers Mike Fasulo, Dawn Miceli, and Dave Zoni ran a bingo tournament in the afternoon:

After filling her card, the youngest member of the Marques family took home one-half of a $175 prize:

In the evening Gino Belmonte, along with other singers, performed a mix of English and Italian favorites for the crowd:

By the time the festival ended Sunday afternoon, thousands of people had come downtown to patronize local businesses, support charitable causes, and join in a community-wide ‘beautiful performance.'