Tre giorno, Italia – 4-Course Lunch, Doggies, & A Vegan Meetup in Pisa!

We’ve decided to move this party to other parts of Italy. But before we leave the Seravezza/Pisa area we wanted to hit up VeganFest one more time and attend a first-of-its-kind vegan meetup held by some vegan locals. But first, breakfast pic!

One of the unique aspects of VeganFest is a sit-down meal option at the event. This 4-course tasting menu featured delights from local, renowned Chef Chicco Coria and vegan cookbook author, Renata Balducci. At 30€ a plate it was a bit more pricey than the rest of the event food, but it was also more formal and quite delicious.

The menu included a warm tomato/vegetable purée to start. The second course was made up of black rice on a bed of puréed cauliflower, and the third course was a mix of diced potatoes, mushrooms, and a delicious sweet sauce. The fourth course was a pineapple in red wine dessert with a side of candied nuts (I think).

After lunch we took a few laps around VeganFest before going back to the hotel to chill for a bit, regroup, figure out the rest of our trip plans and then head to Pisa for the vegan meetup. There were dogs ALL over the place at VeganFest…thought it would be fun to take a few pics of these cuties.

A few more random VeganFest pics: soy- and fruit-based popsicle, and Sea Shepherd decor.

Aaaah, regrouped and ready to hang out with some cool locals ;) we headed back to Pisa as we were invited to attend a vegan meetup held by a group of four local vegans. Chiara La Scura, one of the event hosts, reached out to me via Facebook to tell us about the event. I’m so, so, so glad she did because it was definitely one of the highlights of Italy so far!

On our walk from parking the car to the bar, where the meetup was held, I snapped a few pics of surrounding area stuffs including some cool graffiti and an openair market.

Okay so, as you can see there were already some animal welfare type stickers on this post…so I was just providing some additional support. Eee! :) It also happens to be my first time ‘stickering’ a public anything. Such a daredevil! ;)

This is the Leningrad Cafe, a veg- and eco-friendly bar located in Pisa, Itlay. This is where the vegan meetup was held, with more than forty attendees. Pretty great for the first one!

Chiara and the other event organizers provided a huge buffet of vegan noms. She said she had spent about seven hours straight cooking and baking. Oh my!! Thank you so much, Chiara…the food was amazing!!!! :)

Here we have some vegan literature along with shirts from Chiara’s vegan t-shirt line, and vegan soaps by one of the other event organizers, Mimi La Strega.

There was also a band at the event called Combat Surf. They played some Beach Boys style tunes, which was kinda nice. They weren’t directly related to the event, just happened to be playing at the bar this night.

Chiara and me!

Oh! Chiara also told us about an animal sanctuary about twenty minutes outside of Pisa called Ippoasi. Unforunately we didn’t have time to squeeze in a visit but if you’re in the area, definitely check it out. One of the other organizers from the vegan meetup is a regular volunteer at the sanctuary. So get in touch with Chiara, she’ll be able to help you out! :)

We popped back to VeganFest before calling it a night, in order to grab a final chocolate crépe and listen to a few songs from Floydian (a Pink Floyd cover band).

Ciao, VeganFest. It’s been nothing short of marvelous!

We’re headed to Milan and Venice next and then it’s back to the US on Thursday. I’ll be covering the vegan everythings of our remaining time in Italy so stay tuned!! :) xo