Writing about home city is challenging. It’s very difficult to find the right perspective. On the one hand, there are too many stories to tell, too many memories to share and just too many places to write about. On the other hand, local stories and excessive detailed description will not interest travelers nor tourists. So here is the thing: I will show you my city just as I do with my foreign friends who visit me here. Places I normally go, things I usually do, events I always participate. This is a very personal itinerary of Poznan. And as local as it gets. Food Starting with basics: I’ll show you my favorite places for having a coffee, a delicious dessert or sites where I simply like to chill out with my friends. So next post will take you on tour around the Poznan cafes. Some of them are charming and very busy with locals while others are quiet and peaceful. This is true for Poznan: everyone finds something for himself or herself. A huge variety of cafes awaits you. Not only cafes are busy places here: people all over the world spend time shopping fresh vegetables, fruits and flowers. You must be familiar with pictures of exotic food markets and I’m going to show you how people do their daily shopping on city markets. It’ll be very colorful and crowded, just like elsewhere! Art&History Poznan is an excellent example of a place where history and art are fascinating! No worries: no boring museum with old paintings. Far from it! I’ll take you for a long walk around one of Poznan districts that is called Jeżyce. I’m going to show you a fabulous art deco style of the houses that survived last war. Spectacular details, glass windows, door, balconies and stucco. Few sites here reminds me my trip to Barcelona and I hope you’ll share my delight with these beauties. Further, I’m taking you to one of the most modern places in the city where ancient history becomes alive. Sounds weird: modern technologies and the ancient history? Fair enough. You’ll se for yourself. Events Poznan is a city of festivals. No doubts about it! Throughout the year there is no weekend without a music or cultural event. Seriously! You can chose from street theaters’ festival, ethnic music festival, jazz festival, films and music festivals and so many others! I will focus on two events I participate: Dancing Poznan and 15th Poznan Marathon. I think these two events are very particular and you will find out why if you read these posts. If you wish know Poznan better, see whether this city is an interesting holiday destination or just check what to do here follow posts published under “Home City”. Trust locals – they know best!    

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UPDATE This is great news! If you have ever thought about coming to Italy and participating in Street Dinnes this is an excellent opportunity for you! Yes! It is possible to join me for a week this autumn and experience together this awesome event! Check the details here! The project is called iloveFerrrara and it is the essence of Italian Dolce Vita. Street Dinner 2013 I have just returned from my favorite Italian town Ferrara where an amazing event took place. It was the fourth time when Street Dinner was organized and it gathered this time more than 300 participants. I shared some basic information with you before but now it’s time to give you the full review of what happened. I started with meetings with people responsible for organization of this event: Giulia- from the local touristic organization, and Zeno- the person who brought this idea to Ferrara. After meeting these two people and some other collaborators I am pretty sure that the success of such events is strictly related to the effort of few enthusiasts. It took Zeno few years to gather people from the local community to organize it for the first time. From the moment they were convinced about the beauty of this idea the rest was just fine. Although this idea was imported from the French white dinners- the idea that currently spreads out through the world- there are some particular elements in Ferrara that does not exist anywhere else. First of all: the location is secret! I knew about it before but I had no idea that the secret is really kept from everybody until the very last moment! Even I spoke to the guys from the organization committee the day before they didn’t tell me a word about it! And I am really grateful for this because I could participate in the event just like everybody else. Second, the message on the location is revealed through the text message. In the late afternoon the city center was full of people dressed in white, hanging around, laughing and waiting for the message. The locals and other tourists were intrigued and were asking us what is the reason behind the white crowds. The whole beauty of this idea was seen when the message came and everybody dressed in white were walking to the same direction. Just like Zeno described: like white wave through the city. I expect nothing less than that at this year’s event: Street Dinner 2014 is coming! Book today! Small groups were growing fast and finally we arrived to the place indicated. It made us walk through the most beautiful parts of the city which was one of the organizer’s ideas. The Marfisa Palace (Palazzina di Marfisa d’Este) and local tennis club were hosting the first part of the event: aperitivo. The location was spectacular! And the food served as well. What marvels me about it is that in the garden there were no tables or chairs but people did not mind. There was live jazz music as a background and we had simply amazing time together. We immediately got some new friends and just started chatting about the place, food, previous Street Dinners and Ferrara. We could also visit the palace which was impressive even for the local people. Some of them admitted that it was the first time they visited it and were delighted about it! If that was the end of the event I would be already happy about it. BUT this was just the BEGINNING! We received another message with the location of the food distribution. And again, the white wave flooded the city. The main street Corso Gioveca was transformed into a walking-only zone so we could get our dinner sets (meat or sea food). It was dark already but our white clothes were visible from the distance. If you add to it a sound of laugh you’ll get a picture of happy people having fun. The third message of the evening indicated the location of tables and chairs collection.  And finally we got to the point and the location of the dinner was revealed: Piazzale Medaglie d’oro. This is a modest square at the entrance to the city center. There is large stairs and a sort of archway that leads to the Castello. The most impressive thing about this location was a transformation of ordinary public space into an open air restaurant with special guests in it. I admire the effort of the organization committee, their perseverance and enthusiasm to bring this event to Ferrara. And, just like Zeno said, the modern media accused for distance people from each other were employed for the opposite: to bring them together. The company at the table was awesome and the whole atmosphere unforgettable. Just after we ate our dinner and drink excellent wine we started to dance. Watching 300 people dressed in white dancing at the stairs with a renaissance town as a background was something really special. My guess is that our joy out of gathering, eating out, enjoying the beauty of Ferrara exploded and so the dance was a lovely conclusion of this edition of Street Dinner. I simply can’t wait the next year event! Have you ever thought about visiting Italy? Here is an alternative way on how to visit Italy and get really close to the Italian way of life. I created a project ‘I love Ferrara‘ so you could join me and experience how beautiful and tasty Ferrara is. If you wish to immerse in Italy book your holiday now!  

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