With 11 different countries represented in EPCOT‘s World Showcase, you are likely to find a favorite pavilion during your day at the park.
If delicious food, culture, and a variety of entertainment options aren’t enough to win you over, EPCOT also hosts festivals throughout the year. You’ll find four festivals celebrated here — Festival of the Arts, the Flower & Garden Festival, the Food & Wine Festival, and the Festival of the Holidays. While most of the pavilions win our hearts over year after year during these festivals, there is one in particular that never seems to stop breaking our hearts.
Our AllEars team covers every single EPCOT festival. We are there on the first day to bring you our reviews and tips on all of the food, drinks, merchandise, and entertainment for every festival. While there are always some booths that stand apart from the rest, Italy’s booth consistently disappoints us and many other guests.
This year, we were hopeful that L’Arte di Mangiare (Italy’s booth) at the Festival of the Arts would improve, but overall, we gave it a 2/5 this year, which was down from 3/5 last year at the Arts festival. We’ll start with the positive, though. The returning Mozzarella Fritta was a solid option, with its flash-fried, breaded, fresh mozzarella with an artist’s palette of condiments for $9.50.
However, the new dish, Polenta Pasticciata, isn’t quite as pleasing. We just couldn’t get past that texture, so we wouldn’t order this again. The Raspberry Spuma was a disappointment, too. We’ve really liked this in the past, but this year, it just seems like all the flavors in it were trying to be too much, and they never really combined well together in our mouths.
Read Our Full Review of Every Booth from Festival of the Arts Here
Let’s rewind to 2025’s Food and Wine Festival, where we ranked the Italy booth another 2/5. First, the Bacetti ‘Kisses’ di Pizza, Traditional Napoli Street Food, felt like a pizza, and kids will probably love it, but we just don’t think it’s all that unique. The Tortellini alla Vodka gave us grocery store vibes. Again, we were left disappointed.
We are begging EPCOT to improve this booth. There is so much to do creatively with the food from Italy, and we think that it could be something special at the festivals. For all the news and reviews from EPCOT festivals and more, follow AllEars.net
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What would you love to see the Italy booths do during the festivals? Tell us your ideas below!
Italy isn’t part of frstivals to be honest. Italy, China, and Japan are all 3rd party, so even thought they have food kiosks, they are not part of the core festivals team. I used to work in festivals in 21-23.
It’s not Epcot, it’s Italian food in general that is overrated.
One 5 meter long spaghetti noodle with choice of sauce. Should you choose to share, you just might wind up in a kiss! 💋