VeganFest in Italy, Day 1 – Breathtaking Scenery, Seitan Hot Dogs, Crépes, & Cover Bands

I have great news — we survived our very mild luggage/car rental hiccup and arrived safely in a small town near Seravezza, Italy this morning!! It took about an hour or more to drive from Florence, through Lucca (ooooh!), and on to Seravezza. When we pulled over for a pit stop Chris spotted some fruit cups. Yay, breakfast!

We arrived at our hotel, unpacked, cleaned up, and promptly headed to VeganFest! w00p! w00p! Oh and look at this terrible view from our hotel. To the left is the ocean, and to the right, mountains. Yuck! ;)

Driving to the VeganFest and what do we spy?! VeganFest posters… I started to get bouncy at this point. :)

We stopped to take out some cash and I couldn’t resist snapping a photo of this beautiful street corner. It’s hard to take your eyes off of any part of this city. Gorgeous.

THIS IS IT! The streets were lined with cars so we had to park a little ways away but there it is… VeganFest, 2012!! What a setting for a festival. Wow. Speechless. That building in the distance is the Palazzo Mediceo. It’s the center of the event. Breathtaking!!

Just inside Palazzo Mediceo, a beautiful courtyard. The inside of the Palazzo had dozens more event vendors and speaker/screening rooms.

View from the top of Palazzo Medico, overlooking the outdoor section of the festival.

Upon arriving at the event we were pretty darn hungry so when we spotted this dazzling vegan hot dog sign, we had to stop. Have you ever had a seitan hot dog? ‘Cause we did! They are sooo good!!!! A few throughout the day as a matter of fact, from this vendor called Vegan Come Koala. Apparently they have a brick and mortar location in Pisa. I guessssss we’ll have to go to Pisa at some point this week. You know, to support them. ;)

Vegan cheeseburger! It was great!! They have these solid “cheese” rounds on the bottom half of the bun. So good!

Chocolate crepes! Crepes were everywhere. We had some later too (pictured below) from another vendor. So good!!

Ready for more festival pics? Here we go…

After meandering around the event for a few hours and filling up on some tasty food we headed back to the hotel so that I could finish writing about Paris. But then, it was back to VeganFest for dinner and a show!

We picked up a few more seitan hot dogs and ate them as we watched the European premier of Vegucated (a must-see documentary, btw). After that we hit up this pizza vendor and another crepe vendor (pics below), while listening to a cover band play music from Queen, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and Led Zepplin. Nice!

They don’t mess around here at VeganFest, let me tell you! This event goes from 10AM until 12AM everyday, for five days with live bands, hundreds of vegan vendors (food, clothing, animal rescues, and more), speakers, documentary screenings, and full on catered dinners. There’s so much more that they offer but it takes some time to translate all that’s going on. I’m willing to bet that Chris and I are the only Americans here. It’s actually pretty cool!

We’ll be spending much time at the festival over the next few days and exploring some other parts of Italy as well. I’ll keep you posted, every step of the way! :) xo