For University of Dallas students feeling “Rome-sick” this fall, a taste of Italy is closer than they think.
The fourth annual DFW Italian Festival will bring together Italian businesses, performers and community members for two days of food, entertainment and cultural events. This year, organizers graciously offer free admission for the first time.
Behind the growing festival, organizers hope to connect Italian communities from across North Texas.
Dr. Nussmeier, associate professor of Italian at UD and one of the festival’s organizers, said the idea developed years before the first festival took place in 2023. Previous Italian festivals had come and gone throughout the Metroplex, but organizers wanted to create an event that could bring different generations and groups together.
“What we really wanted to do is unite all the disparate strands of Italianità in the Metroplex under sort of one banner with the Italian festival,” Nussmeier said.
Nussmeier began discussing the idea with others before the COVID-19 pandemic. He resumed those conversations around 2021 and 2022 with UD alumnus and restaurateur David Lamberti and local entrepreneur Scott Pearney.
The organizers later formed DFW Italians, a nonprofit dedicated to hosting the festival. Since then, they have expanded the event considerably.
The festival has grown from one day to two days since its first year. Nussmeier said organizers have also increased the number of outside vendors from about one to at least 30 this year and attracted around 15 sponsors.
Nussmeier described the event as a “full spectrum, 360-degree Italian festival,” with an emphasis on bringing authentic Italian culture to North Texas.
Food will make up a large part of that experience. Vendors will serve gnocchi, porchetta sandwiches, piadine, pizza, gelato and other Italian dishes.
Beyond the selection of Italian food, the festival will also give visitors the chance to watch musical performances, compete in a bocce tournament, take gondola rides and attend presentations on Italian culture.
On Sunday, the festival will also host a supercar show featuring more than 40 Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Maseratis and other Italian cars. The festival’s cultural tent will also host presentations on Italian cooking, gondolas, art, photography and the history of Italians in Texas.
Additionally, the University of Dallas will have its own presence at the festival. The UD Chorale will help open the festival Saturday by performing the Italian national anthem and Giuseppe Verdi’s “Va, pensiero,” while several UD alumni will participate as vendors.
For Nussmeier, that connection has particular significance because of UD’s relationship with Italy. The university offers an Italian major and operates its Rome campus in Marino, Italy, where many UD students spend a semester abroad.
“For those who are Romesick, the festival can be really helpful in just giving them a little taste of Italian culture right here in North Texas,” Nussmeier said.
For junior Nick Vicenzino, that connection to Italy began long before his Rome semester.
Both sides of Vicenzino’s family come from Sicily, and his grandparents immigrated to the United States in the 1960s. He grew up in New Jersey surrounded by Italian-American culture but did not visit Italy until his UD Rome semester, when he also had the chance to travel to Sicily.
Italian traditions remain a central part of his family life, from Sunday dinners at his grandparents’ house to making pasta from scratch. One tradition involves making small knots of fresh mozzarella, which Vicenzino learned from his grandfather, uncle and father this summer. “My grandfather did that. His father taught him, he taught my father, and I was taught that actually at the end of the summer,” Vicenzino said. “It was really special.”
Vicenzino said the traditions surrounding food, family and his Catholic upbringing have helped him maintain a connection to his Italian heritage.
That connection also shapes what the DFW Italian Festival means to him. Vicenzino said Italian-American culture surrounded him while growing up in New Jersey, while Dallas has a less visible Italian-American presence.
“Having something like the Italian festival where you are just displaying all of Italian heritage and culture for everyone to participate in and join in and to see is really, really special,” Vicenzino said.
Vicenzino attended the festival during his freshman year and plans to return this year. For him, the food, music and people create something beyond a cultural showcase.
“Everyone gets to eat the food, listen to the music and just be in an atmosphere where everyone’s welcome,” Vicenzino said. “It feels like home.”