37ª Sagra dei Frutti del Bosco e dei Prodotti Tipici dell'Umbria

"Each August the tiny hilltop borgo of Montone re-enacts the 1473 gift of a thorn from Christ's crown by Count Carlo Fortebracci, with costumed processions, three rioni competing for the Palio della Santa Spina and a solemn public display of the relic."

Donazione della Santa Spina

"For two weeks every August the three terzieri of Città della Pieve compete in archery, medieval tavern cooking and costumed processions rooted in the town's 1250 submission to Perugia, culminating in a silk-arazzo palio painted by a local master."

Palio dei Terzieri

"Every 16 August the hilltop village of Monteleone d'Orvieto dresses in full medieval costume to re-enact episodes from the castle's 14th-century history, culminating in the competitive Palio del Carro."

Corteo Storico e Palio del Carro di Monteleone d'Orvieto

"Villa Pitignano's long-running salt-cod festival showcases baccalà alla perugina and other inland Umbrian fish preparations that recall centuries of trade routes over ten late-summer evenings."

Sagra del Baccalà e dei Prodotti Tipici Umbri

"The small Umbrian commune of Valfabbrica, in the hills above Assisi, hosts its annual Palio as part of the national Giostra d'Italia circuit, pitting local rioni against visiting knights in a ring-joust that draws competitors from across central Italy."

Palio di Valfabbrica - Giostra d'Italia

"Foligno's September Rivincita gives the ten rioni a second chance to contest the painted Palio banner on a figure-of-eight course against the rotating Mars statue, with 800 participants in scrupulously documented seventeenth-century costume filling the streets the night before."

Giostra della Quintana - La Rivincita

"A beloved mountain-village summer institution at the foot of Monte Melanico, where each of 14 consecutive weekends spotlights a different Caserta speciality from arrosticini to caciocavallo impiccato, paired with the local Casavecchia DOC wine."

Sagre di Liberi, Arrosticini e Caciocavallo Impiccato

"A summer sagra dedicated to pinsa, the traditional Friulian flatbread with sweet and savoury toppings, celebrated in this village on the edge of Udine's agricultural plain."

Sagra della Pinsa

"Pollina is one of the last places in Europe where manna is still harvested from ancient ash trees by incision, and its August sagra celebrates this extraordinary and almost-forgotten Sicilian sweetener with tastings and artisan demonstrations."

Sagra della Manna

"In Sicily's only village built partly inside a sandstone cliff, the sagra del tortone celebrates a uniquely local baked cheese pasta cake at the foot of the famous Sperlinga castle, where Norman defectors once held out for a year after the Sicilian Vespers."

Sagra del Tortone

"The Arab-Norman hilltop town of Salemi celebrates its signature handmade pasta, the busiata, each August with live cookery, local wine, and the rich flavours of western Sicily's wheat-growing heartland."

Sagra della Busiata

"A long-established goose festival in the medieval hill village of Fagagna, celebrating the prized oca in pinzimonio and other traditional Friulian preparations over more than two weeks."

Sagra dell'Oca