Last week we visited the Italy event at castle de Haar. Maybe you had already seen something about it on my Instagram account? What a bizarrely beautiful castle that is! We have not been inside, but just walking around the castle in the garden of castle de Haar is a real outing. In addition, this was the weekend of the Italy event, which immediately brought us into an Italian atmosphere. I would like to give you a small impression of the atmosphere.
It was exactly a 45 minute drive for us to arrive at Castle de Haar from Schijndel at Kasteellaan 1 in Haarzuilen (near Utrecht). A long stretch on the highway and the last part through Vleuten-de Meern and on the idyllic Parkweg with beautiful detached houses. Arriving at the parking lot, we are certainly not the only ones who visit this event, there are quite a few cars!
At the Italy event at castle de Haar itself it is initially just pleasantly busy. And that is fine for such an event, of course, because it promotes the atmosphere. The outside area of castle de Haar has largely been transformed into a fair. All kinds of tents have been set up to offer the exhibitors a place to sell their products.
There is no shortage of stands. I haven't counted them, but a whole route has been plotted with stands on both sides of the path. You will find a lot of tents with food. From olives (hmmm, delicious) to Italian ham and from all kinds of pasta to the tastiest oils. But also clothing, creams, lifestyle products, soap and wine. Lots of wine. And limoncellos.
In addition to the stands with products, there is music and you can taste something everywhere. There are also quite a few places where you can get something tasty as a snack or lunch. Think of a delicious burger or a freshly baked pizza. Our experience with the freshly baked pizza was not entirely top notch. The pizza from Tutta Italia itself was tasty, but we had to wait more than an hour for a nice piece of pizza margerhita. Not only was the line long, the wait afterwards also took forever. A bit of a shame, but it didn't spoil the fun.
Fortunately, there are plenty of places where you can sit at a table or hang out on the grass in the gardens of castle de Haar to have your lunch (or wait) during the Italy event.
In the end we shopped for some delicious olives, tasted delicious pasta and of course immediately took it with us (at a very sweet Gransardegna.com exhibitor), and scored some truffle oil. I can get back to work at home making delicious pasta dishes.
The tickets normally cost € 20.00 per person if you buy a ticket at the box office. I would advise you to look online beforehand to see if you can get the tickets cheaper, afterwards I heard from a colleague of my husband that he had bought them at a holiday auction for € 3.00. That saves a sip on an (Italian) drink.
If you want to know more about this event, check the website of the Italy event at Kasteel de Haar…
