The Ultimate Guide to an Italian Sagra
If you’re wondering what an Italian Sagra is, then you’ve come to the right place. In this post, I am going to explain to you what the term means and how to find the best ones near you.
What is an Italian Sagra?
An Italian Sagra is a festival that is celebrated in the smaller towns by all the locals in the area and around. These festivals are usually held to celebrate either a patron saint of the region, or to celebrate some kind of food items like chestnut, grapes (uva in Italian), truffle, steak, lasagna etc. It usually happens over the weekend and in some cases over two consecutive weekends.
What to expect at a Sagra?
If you’re planning to visit a Sagra during your visit to Italy, here what you could expect. I have been to two Sagras, one in Tuscany which was the Sagra delle Castagne (Festival of Chestnuts) and the other one in a small town of the Castelli Romani for the Sagra del Uva e Vino (Festival of Wine) and both of them turned out to be wonderful experiences.
While there are different things that happen in every Sagra, the most basic things to expect are great local food, ample of local wine, friendly Italians of every age, good music and in some cases even live performances from the youth of the region. The vibe is extremely chilled out with people from cities around visiting and socializing. In some of these Sagras, there could also be a parade of some kind with local costumes and a marching band.
How to find a Sagra near you?
If you’re already in one of the tiny towns in Italy, keep your eyes wide open. There are usually banners or signs of Sagras happening in the region around. But if you’re just visiting the big cities and want to know about Sagras in the surrounding regions, you would definitely have to try harder as most of the locals who live in the bigger cities are barely even aware of the Sagras happening in the smaller towns unless they are locals of those towns and are just in the bigger cities for work or studies. The other thing you could do is also to check out the official website of every region and check out the schedule of all the Sagras being held in the region.
Planning your trip around a Sagra?
The good news is that there is always a Sagra happening in some part of Italy throughout the year. All you need to do is check the schedule in various regional websites.
If you’re visiting Florence or Pisa, you could check out the list of the sagre happening in Tuscany right here.
From Rome, you may want to check the list of Sagre in the region of Lazio.
From Milan, you could easily check out some of the Sagre in region Lombardia
Find out more about Venice and Veneto region sagre here.
From Naples, check out all the sagre in the region of campania here.
And if you need any help planning a trip to experience the real Italy, feel free to contact me for any further help you may need.
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