ALBANY — It was a tie Saturday between the princesses and the horses for 4-year-old Georgianna Bamberger.

The Albany preschooler liked the royalty who waved demurely while seated in their floats and the equines that plodded past during the Capital Region’s 17th annual Columbus Parade — some carrying mounted police officers and two supporting one skilled rider who stood on the backs of both horses.

“That was very impressive,” her father, Joe Bamberger, said of the standing equestrian.

While Georgianna wasn’t a judge of the parade, she partook of it with relish, gathering lollipops and taffy tossed from floats and parade participants with her brother Marshall and sister Nina.

For many at the parade and the Italian Festival that followed during the afternoon in Washington Park, the event was a celebration of a heritage that started with Christopher Columbus crossing the Atlantic Ocean in 1492.

“I still feel very strongly about my heritage,” said Philip DiNovo, a third-generation Italian-American who is president of the Italian American Heritage Association in Albany.

Italian music, food, dancing, crafts and cultural displays were showcased at the festival, as well as a gondola in Washington Park Lake.

The day’s parade attracted fewer floats and spectators than the huge St. Patrick’s Day and Memorial Day parades in the city and had a neighborly feel as people on the sidewalks called out to friends in the parade.

Connie Styno waited with her digital camera at the ready for her nephew, Daniel Radtke, 15, to walk by with the Christian Brothers Academy color guard. The Colonie woman had never attended the Columbus Parade before.

“I had no reason to come,” she said.

For College of Saint Rose students Emily Jahn and Mallory Cairo, who heard the parade from their campus dorm and went looking for it, the festival after the parade was a fun way to spend a gorgeous Saturday. Cairo had the added benefit of being Italian.

“All the old people remind me of my Italian grandparents,” the 19-year-old sophomore said with a smile.

Italian Americans will get some more recognition when a museum opens at 1227 Central Ave. later this year or next year, DiNovo said.

“We’ll be one of the few Italian American museums in the country,” he said.

The organization, which has been converting a Mission-style building into a museum for the past four years, plans to offer Italian language and cooking classes as well as opening its exhibits to the public.