Sagra degli Orapi

"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

"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