Autunno in Barbagia - Cortes Apertas

"Paolo Fresu's internationally celebrated jazz festival, founded in his home village of Berchidda, transforms vineyards, piazzas and rural corners of the Gallura hills into intimate open-air stages each August."

Time in Jazz

"One of Sardinia's lesser-known candelieri traditions, in which huge votive wooden candlesticks are carried in procession through the streets of mining-heritage Iglesias in honour of the Assumption, echoing the five-century vow made against the plague."

Festa di Sancta Maria di Mezo di Gosto

"Young men dressed in white habits run barefoot through the streets of Cabras carrying the statue of San Salvatore to his rural sanctuary, in a breathless dawn race that re-enacts a 17th-century rescue from Moorish raiders."

Corsa degli Scalzi

"Held every last Sunday of October in the mountain village of Aritzo, this celebrated chestnut festival draws crowds to taste roasted chestnuts and hazelnuts from the Barbagia hills, with folk exhibits and local craft stalls."

Sagra delle Castagne

"In this small Barbagia village, the pre-Christian Mamuthones in heavy black sheepskins and carved wooden masks shuffle in solemn file while the white-masked Issohadores lasso young women from the crowd, enacting one of the most ancient and mysterious carnival rituals in the Mediterranean world."

Carnevale Storico di Mamoiada

"In this remote Barbagia village, farmers in sheepskins wearing hand-carved wild-pear wooden masks play out the ancient struggle between man and beast: the bell-laden Boes (oxen) rebel against the Merdules (their keepers), while Sa Filonzana, the only female carnival figure in Sardinia, threatens to snip the thread of life."

Carnevale di Ottana - Boes e Merdules

"Every August the small walled borgo of San Giorgio Morgeto in the Reggino Aspromonte hosts a medieval festival that unfolds through a long historical procession winding the principal streets of the village, with costumed guilds, artisan markets and period entertainments set against the backdrop of a Norman-era castle."

Festa Medioevale

"One of Italy's most beautiful villages, Montalbano Elicona dresses its medieval streets in Aragonese costume each August for a multi-day historical festival centred on the 14th-century royal castle of Frederick II of Aragon."

Feste Aragonesi

"Randazzo, a remarkably intact medieval town built entirely from black Etna lava stone, stages its annual historical festival with costumed processions and period markets through streets that survived every Etna eruption for 700 years."

Festa Medievale

"For one week every August, Volterra's alabaster-walled medieval centre transforms into a living 14th-century town with period costumes, medieval money, crafts demonstrations and food stands inside one of Tuscany's most atmospheric hilltop cities."

Volterra AD 1398

"A five-day celebration anchored in the Stelvio National Park, bringing together mountain guides, naturalists, local producers and community storytelling in the historic alpine town of Bormio at the foot of the famous pass."

Parco in Festa

"A four-day medieval living-history re-enactment that transforms the perfectly preserved walled borough of Finalborgo into a 15th-century scene, with costumed parades, artisan markets, falconry and evening spectacles."

Viaggio nel Medioevo