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FOOD AND DRINK

Sagra: The best Italian food festivals to visit in October

If you're visiting Italy in October, you won't want to miss the many local food fairs held around the country. Here are some of the best 'sagre' you can stop by in the coming weeks.

Man smelling a glass of Italian moscato.
The end of summer means the return of Italian food and drinks festivals, or ‘sagre’. Photo by Marco BERTORELLO / AFP

One of the best things about visiting Italy in the autumn months is having the opportunity to attend a sagra, a type of harvest festival or fair centred around one particular food or drink item local to the town hosting it.

sagra has a fairly broad definition: it could last for several weeks or one day, and might consist of anything from raucous celebrations with music and dancing to more relaxed tasting experiences amid food stalls and wooden benches. It will usually be hosted in a field or a piazza (square), and entry is free.

READ ALSO: Seven reasons autumn is the best time to visit Italy

What all sagre have in common is the focus on eating and drinking fresh local produce, and the assurance that you won’t leave unsated.

As October is by far the month with the most sagre, here are some of the best events taking place across the country in the coming weeks.

Campania 

Festa della Mela Annurca (‘annurca‘ apple festival), 20th-22nd October in Valle di Maddaloni, Caserta.

Sagra del Cinghiale (boar festival), every Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the month in Dugenta, Benevento.

Emilia Romagna

Sagra della Salamina da Sugo (salami festival), 4th-9th October in Poggio Renatico, Ferrara.

Sagra del Vino Romagnolo (Romagna’s wine festival), 5th-8th October in Cotignola, Ravenna.

Sagra del Tartufo (truffle festival), 6th-8th October in Bondeno, Ferrara.

Sagra dell’Anguilla (eel festival), first three weekends of the month in Comacchio, Ferrara.

Friuli Venezia Giulia 

Sagra del Pan-Zal (pumpkin focaccia festival), 12th-22nd October in San Vito al Tagliamento, Pordenone.

A street seller prepares roasted chestnuts in Rome.

Roasted chestnuts are a staple of Italy’s October ‘sagre’. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

Lazio

Sagra dell’Uva Cesanese del Piglio (‘cesanese‘ grapes festival), 29th September-1st October in Piglio, Frosinone.

Enorvinio (wine festival), 1st October in Orvinio, Rieti.

Castelli di Cioccolato (chocolate castles festival), 20th-22nd October in Marino, Rome.

Sagra delle Tacchie ai Funghi Porcini (‘tacchie‘ pasta and porcini mushroom festival), first two weekends of the month in Bellegra, Rome.

Lombardy

Castagnata a Caglio (chestnut festival), first two Sundays of the month in Caglio, Como.

Festival della Mostarda (mustard festival), 6th October-19th November in Cremona.

Fasulin de l’Oc con le Cudeghe (beans and pork rind festival), 28th-31st October in Pizzighettone, Cremona.

Marche

Castagnata in Piazza (chestnut festival), 21st and 22nd October in Montefiore dell’Aso, Ascoli Piceno. 

Piedmont

Sagra del Ciapinabò (Jerusalem artichoke festival), 6th-8th October in Carignano, Turin.

Cioccolato nel Monferrato (chocolate festival), 15th October in Altavilla Monferrato, Alessandria.

Puglia

Sagra del Calzone (calzone festival), 13th-15th October in Acquaviva delle Fonti, Bari.

Sicily

Funghi Fest (mushroom festival), 20th-22nd October in Castelbuono, Palermo.

Chocolate fair in Milan, Italy.

A number of chocolate festivals take place up and down the boot in October. Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP

Trentino Alto Adige

Festa dello Speck (smoked ham festival), 30th September-1st October in Plan de Corones, Bolzano.

Festa del Radicchio di Bieno (‘Bieno‘ radicchio festival), 1st October in Bieno, Trento.

Tuscany

Sagra del Fungo Amiatino (‘amiatino‘ mushroom festival), 14th-15th, 21st-22nd October in Bagnolo, Grosseto.

Sagra delle Frugiate (roasted chestnuts festivals), first three Sundays of the month in Pescia, Pistoia.

Boccaccesca (local food festival), 13th-15th October in Certaldo, Florence.

Umbria

Sagra del Sedano Nero e della Salsiccia (black celery and sausage festival), 14th-15th October in Trevi, Perugia.

Veneto

Festa del Baccalà (cod festival), 6th-9th October in Montegalda, Vicenza.

Festa delle Giuggiole (jujubes festival), 1st and 8th October in Arquà Petrarca, Padua.

Mele a Mel (apple festival), 6th-8th October in Mel, Belluno.

This list is not exhaustive. Did we miss out your favourite October sagra? Leave a comment below to let us know.

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FOOD AND DRINK

French and Italian wines set to lose out to British vineyards, claims study

English wines could benefit at the expense of French and Italian vines as climate change shifts the landscape in traditional wine growing, according to a new study published on Tuesday.

French and Italian wines set to lose out to British vineyards, claims study

Increased heatwaves and erratic rainfall could wipe out vineyards from Greece to California by 2100, researchers found – while creating optimal conditions for wine growing in the UK and other unlikely regions.

“Climate change is changing the geography of wine,” said Cornelis van Leeuwen, the lead author of the paper published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environment.

“There will be winners and losers,” he told AFP.

Researchers compared existing but scattered data on the effects of rising heat and drought, as well as changes in pests and diseases, on global wine regions.

They found a “substantial” risk that 49 to 70 percent of these producing regions would become economically unviable, depending on the extent of global warming.

“You can still make wine almost anywhere (even in tropical climates)… but here we looked at quality wine at economically viable yields,” said van Leeuwen, a professor of viticulture at Bordeaux Sciences Agro.

Conversely, 11 to 25 percent of regions where vines are already planted could see production improve.

And completely new vineyards could emerge at higher latitudes and altitudes, researchers said – including southern regions of Great Britain where viticulture is in its infancy.

The extent to which global temperatures rise will make the difference.

If warming remains within two degrees Celsius of pre-industrial averages – a limit set by the 2015 Paris climate accord – most wine regions will survive, but need to adapt.

But under “far more severe warming scenarios, most Mediterranean regions might become climatically unsuitable for wine production”, the study found.

About 90 percent of winelands in coastal and lowland parts of Spain, Italy and Greece “could be at risk of disappearing by the end of the century.”

Southern California, where conditions are already warm and dry, could suffer the same fate with suitable areas for wine production declining by up to 50 percent.

But warmer conditions in America’s northern wine regions, from Washington State to the Great Lakes region, and even New England, could see the potential for premium wine production to flourish.

While “France is not the most exposed country”, van Leeuwen said, it like many other wine-growing regions will have to adapt by using more resilient grape varieties like Grenache for reds or Chenin for whites.

But he cautioned against turning to irrigation.

“Irrigated vines are more vulnerable to drought if there is a lack of water,” he said, adding it would be “madness” to direct such a scarce resource toward such hardy crops.

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