Gnocchi Guide

Simple and very delicious, potato gnocchi has been the typical dish par excellence of the Verona carnival for five centuries.

In that year a severe famine brought the city to the brink of a popular uprising, particularly in the district of San Zeno, which at the time was the most populated and poor in the city. To restore calm, the Citizen Council led by the nobleman Tommaso Da Vico distributed large quantities of bread, wine, flour, butter, eggs and cheese to the people on the last Friday before Lent. In his will, Tommaso Da Vico left a legacy so that every year on that day food was freely distributed to the inhabitants of San Zeno. From this episode originated the tradition of Venerdi Gnocolar, the main event of the Verona carnival (which still takes place on the last Friday before the beginning of Lent) during which a grandiose parade of allegorical floats and figures crosses the main streets of the historic center of Verona under the attentive and happy eye of one hundred thousand spectators of all ages.