Le Sagre

If you really want to see how the Italians in rural Italy live, your best bet is to head to the nearest sagra.

A sagra (from the Latin “sacrum”, meaning sacred) is a festival held in the open air: most of them are held in small towns, usually in the main piazza, and they usually celebrate a food that is typically harvested at the time of the festival.

Many Italian Sagre (plural of sagra) are in conjunction with a Saint's feast day or based on historic events and often include processions with people dressed in period costume, contests between neighborhoods of the town, flag throwers, food and fireworks, musical bands.

Festivals can be quite specific. They can celebrate local specialties, i.e. truffles or wild boar, or a specific dish or preparation. You generally sit at long comunal tables and the food is usually brought to you. The food at a Sagra costs much less than it does in a restaurant.

There are enough festivals throughout the year in Italy that it’s a food idea to check whether something is going on when you are here: with all the saint days and local food festivals, something is being celebrated somewhere in Italy on every day of the year.

Among the most famous in Rome and surroundings: Sagra dell’Uva at Marino (Festival of Grapes – October); Sagra della Porchetta at Ariccia (Festival of roasted flavoured pig); Sagra della Castagna at Soriano del Cimino (Festival of Chestnut).

Do you want to know more? Go to http://www.festivalsinitaly.com/main-events-in-italy.html! Or simply do not miss our weekly messages and notes we post in studios and offices: you will have all the necessary details on the current sagra and information on how to get there!