By Mackenzie Stasko

This weekend you can get a taste of Italy, without even leaving Erie. Hundreds of volunteers are spending countless hours preparing for St. Paul's Italian Festival, which kicks off this weekend in Erie's Little Italy neighborhood. "It's great, we want to share our heritage with them," said Ron DiVecchio, chairman of the festival. Organizers estimate 30,000 people will attend the three-day festival. Some come to gamble, others enjoy the entertainment, but many come for the food.

"Italians are very passionate about food," said Timothy NeCastro, who has volunteered at the festival for the past 20 years. "When you come to our house, the first thing we want to do is feed you. So for us, this is kind of like high holy week." Lisa NeCastro took a week off of work to help run the kitchen. On top of baking brownies and chocolate lover's cake from scratch, NeCastro is taking on the monumental task of filling more than 2,000 cannoli, one of the festival's top sellers.

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Source: http://www.erietvnews.com/story/