WE CELEBRATE

Il Cenacolo San Francisco Italian Cultural Club holds several annual events for members and the community each year celebrating wine, film, opera,, culture, and friendship. It’s a time to join together in celebration. Lively conversation winds like a ribbon throughout the event with food, wine, dance, and song adding to the festive atmosphere.

NOTE: These activities traditionally enjoyed annually by Cenacolisti have been suspended due to COVID until it is safe to resume. In the meantime, Il Cenacolo is offering several stand-in virtual events in order to stay in touch with each other and the culture!

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IL CENACOLO HOLIDAY GALA

For the holiday season, Il Cenacolo does it right! For the past several years, this Black Tie Optional affair has been held at the St. Francis Yacht Club on the San Francisco marina, overlooking the bay and lit up by the Golden Gate Bridge. Music, first-class catering, clinking glasses of good cheer with fellow Cenacolisti and their guests. 

SAL REINA ANNUAL OPERA OUTING

Il Cenacolo, established in 1928, hosted annual picnics since at least 1933, with an understandable hiatus during the war years. Salvatore Reina joined the club around the same time in those early years, and when he became the fourth president in 1952, he shaped this idea into a grand tradition. One fine Sunday in August, 1954, the vintner Louis M. Martini hosted the Cenacolisti and their wives—the term “significant others” had not yet been coined—at a Sunday luncheon at his Monte Rosso Vineyard on the west slope of the Mayacamas Mountains north of Boyes Hot Springs.  In the meantime, back in San Francisco, Il Cenacolo had put on an Opera Luncheon for some time, in which Italian members of the San Francisco Opera Company were honored guests. The annual picnic and the celebration of opera lirica finally converged on Sunday, October 10, 1954, with  Il Cenacolo’s first Opera Outing, again under the pergola of the Monte Rosso Vineyard in the Valley of the Moon. The cost per person was $4.00! Il Cenacolo’s Opera Outing was held at Louis Martini Vineyards every autumn for over 50 years, and, since 2008, at the Seghesio Family Vineyards, Deer Park Villa, and now at the beautiful Marin Art & Garden Center.
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Italian Film Festival Il Cenacolo Members Night

DINNER + A FILM:
IL CENACOLO AT THE MARIN ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL

Originally started as an informal, one-time only presentation of Italian movies in a college lecture hall, the Italian Film Festival of Marin County has grown over its 40 years into a perennial favorite in the San Francisco Bay Area. From the beginning it has been a labor of love for its longtime director, Lido Cantarutti, also a Cenacolista. Under his direction the program has included appearances from Italian film directors and composers, dignitaries of the Italian and Italian-American communities, and an authentically Italian atmosphere at every presentation. The centerpiece, however, is always top-quality Italian cinema.

Cenacolisti meet before the film at a nearby Italian restaurant, enjoy good food and wine, and toast to the rich and continuing history of Italian cinema.

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA / AN EVENING OF SYMPHONY

In season, Cenacolisti enjoy the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco symphony in the heart of the City.

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BACKSTAGE AT THE SAN FRANCISCO OPERA

Cenacolisti are treated to a specialized tour by the opera staff.