Summer Sagre, A Real Italian Tradition

When I think of Italy in the summer I think of two things.  The first: hoards of sweaty, rude tourists.  The second: le sagre.  For probably obvious reasons, I prefer to think about le sagre.

 

“Le sagre” are local festivals that happen all year round in various cities and towns throughout Italy, but there seems to be a concentration of them in the summer.  The entire village gets together to set up booths and help staff them, local musicians play and Italians and tourists alike stop to read the signs posted on nearby roads announcing the dates and celebrations. And the best part? They usually center around food.

 

This is all simply what I’ve heard of them, of course.  My deeply ingrained and completely hypocritical dislike of tourists has kept me away from Italy in the summer up to this point, but as I speak with more and more people who frequent Italy in its warmest months I find myself yearning to experience a sagra. Every town, village and city in Italy has a patron saint and many times there will be a sagra on or around the Saint’s Day.  Other sagre are set around the expected harvest of a local crop.

 

Sometimes sagre also involve historic or traditional reenactments, local music and dancing or regional product demonstrations.  I was talking to a guy the other day who lives outside of Florence and was looking forward to dressing up like a soldier in full chain mail this coming weekend.  He and his “troop” of soldier friends will patrol the streets, protecting the main gate of the city as his ancestors used to and camp outside the city for the night.  I was a bit confused at first, thinking this was his typical Saturday night, untill I realized it was in conjunction with his village’s annual sagra. He said he thought it would be more fun than dressing up as a monk, like he did last year.  

 

Yeah, I’d think it might be.

Every village runs their sagra a bit differently and to a stranger figuring out where and how to order food, if you sit at a table before or after ordering, if you wait for your food or if its brought out, can be a bit difficult at first, so standing back and observing for a few minutes is recommended.  The menu might change every day so bring your Italian-English dictionary of food words with you if you want to have an idea of what it is you’re getting, or just go with the flow and eat whatever’s brought to you.  One person I spoke to said that in the chaos that can define a sagra orders get mixed up all the time but since all of the food is generally excellent, it doesn’t really matter.  

 

If you’re in Italy this summer and want to go to a really good sagra, simply find a flyer or sign advertising one in the area and ask a local “si mangia bene?” (“does one eat well?”).  Most Italians seem to have very strong opinions on food, so if they don’t recommend the one you’re pointing to they’ll more than likely have another (or a few) in mind to send you to for “una buona festa“.  You can find a sagra to savor pretty much anything you could ever think of from wild boar to lambrusco (a fizzy red wine) to chocolate, hazelnuts, olives, artichokes, tomatoes, fish, risotto, asparagus, mushrooms, eel, roast goose, bread, truffles – you name it!  

 

The infamous Festa dei Noantri in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood (“noantri” derives from “noi altri”, or “the rest of us”, as opposed to “the rest of you not lucky enough to live in Trastevere”) dates back to 1535AD when some fisherman found a wooden statue of the Madonna on the banks of the Tiber after a storm.  The statue sits in St. Agatha’s church to this day and each year in July the sagra celebrates with theater, folklore, parades in costume, opera, boxing matches and concerts – not to mention food!  There’s even a website with a countdown clock to the big day (http://www.festadenoantri.it)!

 

Just a few minutes outside of Rome is the equally tantalizing Sagra degli Gnocchi in Cantalupo.  Imagine an entire festival dedicated to gnocchi! It’s like a dream!  

 

Possibly the most surprising summer festival – to me, anyway – is the Campionato Nazionale dei Mangiatori d’Anguria, the National Watermelon-Eating Championship, held in Sissa near Parma each year.  Hey, whatever floats your boat.

 

All of this talk of summer sagre is almost enough to make me confront my fear of tourists en masse and hop a flight to Italy, drink a little (a lot) of wine, sample (stuff myself with) a selection of Italy’s best local cuisine and enjoy a bit of local conviviality (dance the night away).  I’m not sure even bicycling to and from the sagre would keep me from coming back a few (ten or twenty) pounds heavier, but hey – it would be worth it.