Santa Felicidade is Curitiba's Italian quarter, a neighbourhood in the western suburbs settled by Italian immigrants from the Veneto region in the late 19th century. Today it is primarily known for its restaurants — dozens of them, mostly serving the long-table, all-you-can-eat style that is the neighbourhood's signature. You sit down, food arrives in waves: pasta, polenta, risotto, grilled chicken, pork, beef, salad, dessert. The wine is house-poured into small ceramic pitchers.
The neighbourhood itself is pleasant to walk through outside meal times — the original colonist houses, the church, the small central square all survive — but the main reason to come is the food. Families drive across the city on Sunday afternoons to eat here. It is unpretentious, cheerful, and genuinely good. The main restaurant strip runs along Avenida Manoel Ribas.