Italian Steps - Local food festivals - Cultural notes

Fact File

• Traditions and customs are still greatly respected in Italy and there is a deep affinity with the land, reflected in a healthy interest in its food and produce, and highlighted by la Sagra. These annual gastronomic festivals celebrate a successful harvest of the local produce, ranging from the chestnut, la Sagra della Castagna, and mushroom, la Sagra del Fungo, to the wild boar, la Sagra del Cinghiale, or snail, la Sagra della Lumaca.



• Of course, there are many festivals celebrating the national dish, with sagre for the many different types of pasta, such as la Sagra dello Spaghetto del Carbonaio in Fratticiola, la Sagra del Fusillo in Felitto and there's even a Sagra della Lasagna e delle Patate Fritte, lasagne and chips festival in Benevento, Calvi, in August.



• Most sagre last for around a week and because different produce harvests at different times, eg peaches in June and olives in November, sagre take place throughout the whole year. But these gastronomic events are particularly numerous and popular in the autumn months, celebrating products such as chestnuts, mushrooms and local cheese.



• Sagre are a cacophony of sounds, smells and colours, with markets, food tents and sometimes a livestock show or a carnival with children's rides. There are also bancarelle, stalls full of colourful sweets, liquorice, nibbles, sweet nuts, croccante - almond brittle - and candy floss. You'll also often find games of bingo, la tombola, and the night culminates with il ballo liscio - a light-hearted, inter-generational let-your-hair-down knees-up up in the town square.



• The food at the sagre is prepared by the locals, and along with the sagra speciality, there's generally a choice of other dishes. After going up to order your food, you often get a receipt with a number on. When your number is called you collect it yourself then take a seat at one of the long and benches and tuck in!



• Sagre usually take place in the village or town piazza, square, but you may struggle to find information about where and when a sagra is to be held as they're not always widely advertised. Ask at the local Tourist Board or look out for billboards.



• Autumn is the season of the vendemmia, the grape harvest, celebrated with various Sagre dell'Uva, grape festivals. Among the most famous is that of Marino, Lazio, where the Fontana dei Mori on the Piazza Matteotti spurts out wine instead of water. The second week in September sees the celebrations of la Rassegna del Chianti Classico in Chianti, Tuscany, while wine festivals take place in Castelli Romani, Lazio in the first week of October. If you're a beer lover, then head for Arsoli in late-July and join in the popular Festa della Birra.



• The mother of all sagre, la Sagra delle Sagre, is held in San Sisto, Umbria in September. Food stalls from the smaller sagre come together, offering a tremendous variety of food and produce.



• Among the more bizarre food festivals is the Sagra dello Stoccafisso, stockfish fair in Melazzo in Piedmont in April, where one of the day's events is a stockfish-hurling contest. And not for the squeamish, the Sagra della Ranocchia in Asciano in June offers festival-goers fried frogs for free.