Sagre Calendar 2025
Italian Food Festivals
What are sagre or feste in Italy? Broadly speaking, they are what Americans might refer to as food festivals. Typically they run on weekends (from Friday through Sunday) and may include musical concerts, unique cultural shows, and local specialities. These events tend to take place on the weekends and the longer festivals can span over a month or more. In the context of Farm Table Italy, these sagre will be focused on ingredients, dishes, or food products that are unique or special to the particular areas they are held. If you have ever been to a weekend or holiday market in Italy, you have an idea of what to expect. I actually wrote about such an event — the Sagre Delle Ciliegie di Marostica (Marostica Cherry Festival) — in an earlier post in Farm Table Italy.
Not surprisingly, many of these events take place during the late summer and into fall during the vendemmia (or harvest time.) But that’s not a strict rule; you can definitely find them throughout the year all across the country. I hope this list will encourage you to explore the region you’re visiting for sagre during your trips. They provide a rich, cultural, insight into Italian food, culture and life. And the food’s not bad either. ;-)
JANUARY
Sagre delle Frittelle
Frittelle are traditional Italian doughnuts that feature raisins, and orange and lemon zest. There are sagre focused on frittelle in many locations across Italy, but the one of the largest ones takes place in the village of San Donato in Collina just outside Florence and should be on your short-list if you’re in the area during the winter.Location: San Donato in Collina (TU)
Location: The event starts in mid-January and runs every weekend through mid-March.
FEBRUARY
For Italian foodies, Norcia in the province of Umbria means cured meats; in particular, its famous prosciutto ham. But another gem exists in the Umbrian hills: black truffles. This feste both celebrates these ingredients and provides a unique view into the culinary life in the mountains of Umbria. There are tastings, conferences, and producer demonstrations focused on the black truffles but cold cuts, cheeses, wines and many other typical regional products are also featured.
Location: Norcia (UM)
Timing: Weekends beginning February 21 and continuing through March 2nd.
Prosciutto being cured.
MARCH
Festa Regionale Del Vino Friulano
This noteworthy wine festival takes place each year for two weeks in March since 1950 in the town of Bertiolo in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. (This area is north of Venice near the border with Slovenia and Austria.) Friuli produces wonderful Italian wines and the sagre features kiosks for wine tasting and sample local agricultural food products along the streets of the town. In 1984, a wine competition was introduced and it has expanded to include all DOC Friulian wines. The event attracts all sorts of vendors markets and includes car shows, concerts, and even rides for children.
Location: Bertiolo (VE)
Timing: Weekends in the middle of March.
APRIL
Mostra Interprovinciale Dell’Asparago Bianco di Cimadolmo IGP
For Italian foodies, springtime is synonymous with the annual harvest of white asparagus (asparagi bianchi). Sagre focused on asparagus take place all over the country thanks to Italians hyper-regionality and unshakable belief that their local version of any ingredient or dish is always the best one. But the festival in the town of Cimadolmo on the banks of the Piave River in Veneto is worthy of special attention. The flood plains of the Piave provide an ideal, nutrient-rich environment for the growing of asparagus. If you can’t make it to the event, be sure to try asparagi bianchi during the springtime when it’s ubiquitous in restaurants all around the country.Location: Cimadolmo (VE)
Timing: The event runs from early to mid-April.
SEPTEMBER
Sagra Dell’Anguilla
Comacchio, aside from being a lovely town full of Venice-style canals on the Adriatic coastline of the northern province of Emilia-Romagna, is home to a food with which many Americans might be unfamiliar … or even squeamish. Anguilla means eel and while you may not want to hold them in your hands, you will definitely want to eat them. Specialities include grilled eel and polenta (whose flavor is so wonderful that it’s considered an insult to ask for lemon juice to drizzle) and Emilia-Romagna style Eel Risotto. In addition to the local dishes that feature anguilla, there are opportunities to explore the Po Delta Park by boat, bike, minibus and on foot. You can discover the districts, canals, and bridges of Comacchio as well.Location: Comacchio (ER)
Timing: Sagra dell’Anguilla runs from late September to mid-October.
I Primi d’Italia
I Primi d’Italia focuses on an Italian staple that everyone can get behind: pasta. A bit more commercial and larger in scale than many of the other sagre listed here, this is a gastronomic event. It bring chefs, producers, experts, critics and journalists together in a celebration of pasta. It takes over Foligno — a town in central Umbria not far from Perugia or Assisi — with tasting points, gala dinners and shows. Pasta, tortelli (stuffed pasta famous in central Italy) and rice are the stars in this pastafest. Finally, themed events and markets attract groups of gourmet enthusiasts as well as food professionals and even celebrities.Location: Foligno (UM)
Timing: End of September and into the first days of October.
Sagra dei Funghi di Cusano Mutri
I’m thrilled to recommend a sagre in one of my favorite Italian regions - Campania. The village of Cusano Mutri is located in the hills about 75km northeast of Naples in the Benevento province. It’s a town full of medieval charm with well-preserved buildings and squares that will transport you back in time. The focus of the sagre are the local porcini mushrooms but expect to smell roasted chesnuts and other locally harvested ingredients. Also look for dishes featuring Campania’s famous Caciocavallo cheese. (Imagine porcini on toasted Italian bread drizzled with melted Caciocavallo and you have the idea.) If you want to explore more in the area, consider a visit to nearby Sepino where exist the ruins of an ancient Roman town dating to 300 B.C.Location: Cusano Mutri, CM
Timing: Weekends from mid-September to mid-October annually.
About ten years ago, I was driving down the winding switchback road in Tuscany from Lamole, where my family and I were staying, a brown beast flashed up a very steep banking and bolted across the road. Powerful, with a thick neck and large tusks, it looked like it weighed at least 200 or 300 lbs. We had crossed paths, albeit briefly, with a Tuscan cinghiale (or wild boar.) Beyond its size, our reaction was amazement that something that big could move that quickly. It’s not surprising that it didn’t see us; wild boar have extremely small eyes and poor eyesight but a long, straight, hard snout and an acute sense of smell. That anatomy means it easily digs up nuts and mushrooms from the rich soil that gives it a flavorful meat. Cinghiale has long been a popular dish in central Italy where they are plentiful. Normally that takes the form of a ragu (or sauce) served with wide pasta like pappardelle. But also can be found a la cacciatore or even cured as a cold cut. The festival takes place in large park near the medieval village of Capalbio in the Maremma region of western Tuscany.
Location: Capalbio (TU)
Timing: Visit during the second week of September.
Tuscan Wild Boar Ragu with Pappardelle
Fiera Internazionale del Tartufo Bianco d'Alba
To my enduring shame, I have never been this sagre, but rest assured I will remedy this heinous gap in my foodie resume. An international celebration of the white truffles of the Alba region that takes place in historic Alba. There are markets where you can buy truffles directly from the Trifulao (truffle hunters) and other authorized merchants. There are more cultural, food, and musical events than I can list here. Walk, run, crawl, or drag yourself to this one.Location: Alba, PE
Timing: Early-to-mid October until the first week of December.
A couple of disclaimers:
(1) Make sure to check dates carefully for precise activities and timing. Many of the websites you will find are not written in English. Feel free to reach out to me if you want some help with translation.
(2) This list is far from exhaustive! But from my research, these events demonstrate a good cross-section of the type and variety of food festivals that can be found outside the Italian cities.
Buon appetito tutti!