Cigars take center stage at Tampa’s La Verbena Festival

 

(tbo.com) YBOR CITY - Giacomo Guggino’s mother used to drop him off at St. Joseph’s convent in the morning before going to her job rolling cigars across the street at A. Santaella Cigar Co.
After long days rolling Churchill-style cigars, Guggino’s mother, Giovanna Gucciardo Guggino, would retrieve him.
“I would smell that wonderful aroma on her clothes,” Guggino said during Sunday’s La Verbena Festival at Centennial Park, where people mingled, smoked stogies, danced to Cuban rhythms and sampled food from a variety of vendors. Continued