Bella notte

Take note, aspiring lovers. This weekend’s Moderno Festival del Cinema Italiano is a ready-made awesome date night. There’s the romantic ambience of stars overhead, wind whispering in the trees and the trickle of the fountain in Fremont Park. There’s the opportunity to impress your date with your cultural interests. (Subtitles make everyone feel more cosmopolitan.) There’s delicious food available from suggestively named eateries like Hot Italian and Naked Lounge, and meals are automatically more intimate when shared al fresco. Festival admission is free, and if your relationship takes off, you can return every year for a sweet anniversary.

Sacramento’s inaugural Moderno Festival del Cinema Italiano will screen Caterina va in città (Caterina in the Big City) on Friday, October 1. This 2003 film is a coming-of-age story about a girl who moves from a rural Italian town to Rome and finds herself torn between two powerful cliques at her high school. Saturday’s selection is 2007’s Giorni e nuvole (Days and Clouds), about an affluent couple struggling to keep their marriage together after the husband loses his job. Both films star the award-winning Italian actress Margherita Buy. Both will be shown with English subtitles at 8 p.m. in Fremont Park, located at 16th and O streets.

So, what are you waiting for? Call the object of your affections and arrange a meeting by the park’s central fountain. With the seductive power of Italy on your side, you can’t lose.