Your Survival Guide to La Festa Italiana - 10 Tips to Enhance Your Experience (and eat a lot more!)

https://www.nepapizzareview.com/2013/09/youre-survival-guide-to-la-festa.html

1. Park at the Steamtown Mall - it's only one block away, and you only have to cross Lackawanna Avenue, which has a crosswalk and pedestrian notification. I further recommend parking on the Boscov's side of the mall in the elevated parking lot.

3. Try something new - don't just go to the places that you are familiar with. The food on the square is probably not as good as the food in the brick and mortar restaurant, so you will probably be let down. Use this as an opportunity to try a place that you haven't yet.

5. Look behind the stand for refrigeration - look for stands which have refrigerated trucks, or refrigerators in the stand, or places like Sal's and Electric City Pizza which have their physical locations directly behind their tents. This will help you to know that the tent is best equipped to safely handle fresh food.
6. Mingle - almost everyone I know ends up going to La Festa at some point. I usually don't go a full block without bumping into someone. Stop and chat a bit, discuss what foods they have tried and get recommendations as to what is the best. This will give you new ideas, and give you time to digest some food to create room for desert!
7. Go with a group of friends - this creates the opportunity for you to split and share everything you buy to try more things. You grab some deep fried twinkies, they grab the porketta and a sausage sandwich. Share and everybody wins!

9. Grab a souvenir - how great of a conversation starter would that "You bet your meatballs I'm Italian" T-Shirt be?!
10. Take home some for family - so your grandparents can't get around as well as they used too, but you know they want some of the great Italian Food as well! Why not grab some cannoli and a few pastries for the road. Walk in the door, exclaim MANGIA! and you are all of a sudden the favorite grandchild!

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Check out New Columbus Pizza Co. at La Festa this year! Click the link to see my behind the scenes interview and an in depth look at NCPC's wood-fired neo-neapolitan pizza!