Owner of Salvi's and founder of Festa Italiana, Maurizio Cecco shares his top 5 Italian events and places in Manchester.

Salvi's 

Of course I love Salvi’s! It’s my baby and the very best place for Italian food in Manchester. I had worked and lived in Manchester for 20 years and had always wanted to open my own place, because I’ve always been so passionate about sharing the food of my homeland – Naples – with my new home – Manchester.

Salvis at the Corn Exchange was where that ambition became a reality. I brought over fabulous food from the best producers in Campania, in particular Bufallo Mozarella, and opened a deli/café bar/wine bar in a very small space. Now Salvi’s at The Corn Exchange has a restaurant downstairs and we have another restaurant on John Dalton Street, Salvi’s Cucina, plus our Neapolitan takeaway, the Rosticceria next door!

Ancoats (Little Italy) 

It’s great to see that Manchester’s original Little Italy, the area where Italians like me came to the city to start a new life, is now thriving so well! It was named one of the coolest place in the UK recently, which is perfect as I think the Italians made it pretty cool back then! They brought ice cream and music to the area. It’s a nice place to sit and watch the world go by these days, especially looking out onto the Cutting Room Square.

Terrazza Bar 

This is our new cocktail bar – it is right in the centre of the Corn Exchange under the magnifico glass dome. We serve up an amazing range of cocktails, wine and prosecco. Our bartender Max creates a different cocktail each week and we’ve created a nice social hub there in that part of the Corn Excnahge.

Italian Community Procession

This happens in June every year and is a nice way for the Italians in the city to get together. Events like this remind me of the sort of thing that happens back home in Italy.

Festa Italiana!

This is my new favourite Italian thing in Manchester! It is a Festival of all things Italian, of course the main things being food and drink  - that’s what we like best back home! The Italian community have got together to bring a big free celebration of all things Italian to Manchester and it’s going to be fantastic. There’ll be everything from Aperol Spritz to fine cheess and wine, as well as great live music all day long – a real Italian party. This is the first year for our festival but we hope it will be the first of many!