Festival del Gran Sasso
A twelve-edition mountain culture festival threading cinema, guided trekking, author talks and local food tastings across the high-altitude village of Castel del Monte, with transhumance and pastoral heritage as the 2026 theme.
Cottages, B&Bs and hotels near Castel del Monte, Abruzzo.
Some stay links are affiliate links. More
Add the free Villagly badge to your own website. It shows visitors you are listed with us and links them straight back to this page.
Get the free badge →Event details come from organisers and can change. Please check with the organiser before you travel.
"One of Abruzzo's oldest and most prestigious sagre, now in its 55th edition, celebrating Campli's Porchetta Italica whose roasting tradition is traced back to pig remains found in the 3,000-year-old Campovalano necropolis."
Sagra della Porchetta Italica
"With the snow-capped Gran Sasso and its Corno Grande as a backdrop, this ancient village at 1,000 metres altitude lights every lane with torches on Santo Stefano evening for one of Abruzzo's longest-running and most atmospherically remote living nativities."
Presepe Vivente di Cerqueto di Fano Adriano
"Nestled at 969 metres inside the Sirente-Velino Regional Nature Park, the tiny hamlet of Santa Jona stages one of Abruzzo's most ancient and atmospheric living nativities, its steep lanes opening into craft workshops including tombolo lacemaking, goldsmithery and traditional cookery."
Presepe Vivente di Ovindoli - Frazione Santa Jona
"Inside the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise, around one hundred villagers dress as their ancestors to populate a living nativity theatre winding through the upper borgo, with the manger overlooking the sweeping Vallis Regia valley and the baby Jesus played by the last child born in the village."
Presepe Vivente di Villetta Barrea
"Italy's oldest living nativity (since 1951), staged at dusk on the snowbound plain of Pie Lucente by over 500 figurants, with the baby Jesus traditionally played by the last child born in the village that year."
Presepe Vivente di Rivisondoli
"A multi-day gastronomic festa in the handsome medieval hill-town of Campli celebrating the timballo teramano, an elaborate baked pasta and meat pie that is one of Abruzzo's most storied Sunday dishes."
Sagra del Timballo Teramano
"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
"Now in its 16th year, this theatre festival stages performances on and around the water at Arona on Lake Maggiore, blending outdoor drama with the lakeside setting in a programme beloved by locals and visitors alike."
Il Teatro sull'Acqua
"For three candlelit evenings the ancient stone hamlet of Lundo near Comano Terme switches off all electric light, with over fifty figurants and professional theatrical performances including a theatrical Nativity, videomapping and a prize-winning marionette company."
Shalom, Pace: Presepe Vivente nel Borgo di Lundo
"This Sienese hill village's open-air nativity spectacle deploys over 300 figurants through every corner of the historic borgo, from a gladiatorial arena and Roman market to the manger itself, making it one of central Tuscany's grandest Christmas events."
Praesepium di Casole d'Elsa
"Now in its 29th edition, this mountain film festival spreads across Gran Paradiso villages including Cogne, Aymavilles and Rhemes, screening nature and adventure films outdoors amid some of Italy's finest alpine scenery."
Gran Paradiso Film Festival
"A festival of music composed for the cinema held on the island of San Pietro, using the Ligurian-dialect village of Carloforte as an atmospheric open-air backdrop for film scores and live performances."
Creuza de Mà