V° Encuentro Amigos De Partagas En Italia - part 3

This is my last post on the Cigar Event in Matelica. The Gala Dinner was full of memorable moments, like prices for various cigars lover (Gino Iannillo, of Amicigar, in the picture below), a video on Don Alejandro Robaina (who passed away on April 17, 2010) and of course special cigars... 





Diadema - the Italian official cigars distributor - offered a H. Upmann Magnum 50... but the real deal came later... with a Behike 56-sized special cigar rolled by La China. I didn't sample that cigar that evening, I instead smoked the new Montecristo Gran Edmundo Limited Edition 2010 - a very good smoke, a vitola in the middle between an Edmundo and a Sublimes of Montecristo, very dark wrapper, with a great draw and a full body flavour.

The Gala dinner was attended by guests from literally all over the world. Amongst them there was a well represented London contingent, included Magali DeLa Cruz. Magali is an institution for London cigar smokers. What I didn't know until that evening was that Magali is an artist, a poem writer, a photographer... Here she's reading a special letter from a Cuban association to all attendees of the Gala Dinner.

What else can I say? The most touching moment was certainly the video of Don Alejandro, a real legend amongst cigar smokers, who named his own brand (Vegas Robaina) and has a cigar named after him (the Don Alejandro, a double-corona full-body smoke). It was great to meet so many "local" cigar smokers, connecting to some people who participated to past events organised in London thanks to the connection made by Ajay (for example Gino in the picture above and his wife Anna - who is below showing a bag who only a true cigar lover could have...). 

In this picture you can see me enjoying the event at my table with Magali and Giancarlo Di Mauro, another cigar lover from Sicily! (courtesy of Magali - this is actually a picture from her camera - taken I think from Alex Iapichino - thank you!)

Many congratulations to the Cigar Club Matelica and its president Francesco Minetti who made the event possible. I have never been to Cuba myself, but listening to what many people who have been were saying, it was like being in Cuba, only 20 minutes away from my hometown - what an amazing experience!