Local Sagre and Feste

The 11-day festival in Papiano 2013 - menu on the left, music on the right. All you really need to know...sometimes you have to trade off the menu you like with the musical act you don't...

One of the joys of Italy is the multitude of sagre - essentially a multi-day chance for the folk to get together, eat dinner, hear some (sometimes dreadful!) music and just..well, enjoy themselves! It never ceases to amaze me how a small village of maybe 500 people can put on a 10-day festival, with dinner for maybe €10 plus €5 for a litre of wine. There's usually a community space, set up with bench, or a park or some other place (you will see it because of the host of badly-parked cars...), and they are totally welcoming to any visitors. The most challenging thing is usually trying to work out:

a) where do I pay - usually some old woman next to a till in an obscure corner - look for a queue..
b) where am I sitting - sometimes choose first, sometimes don't
c) where do I buy the wine? - sometimes a different station
d) how do I know when my food is served to me (listen for your number..or other system..or just when they shout 'Inglese?')

Just join in the fun if you happen to be staying over in late August - if you don't you'll hear it up at La Torretta anyway...for at least one of the nights, and consider why in the UK we can't even do this for one night in a town of 15,000..

And - do consider going to another village - to see what their speciality is!

Here are the local Sagre and Feste just in the comune of Marsciano, with the village in brackets. And of course, only a little further afield there will also be ones in the villages in the Comunes of Deruta and Todi.

FIERA VERDE (MARSCIANO) mid-April
SAGRA DELLA CACCIAGIONE (SCHIAVO) mid-late April
SAGRA DELLA CILIEGIA (SAN VALENTINO) early May
SAGRA DELLA FRAGOLA (SAN BIAGIO DELLA VALLE) mid-late May
FESTA SAN GIOVANNI (MARSCIANO) mid-Late June
BADIOLA NEL VERDE  (BADIOLA) early July
SAGRA DEL CINGHIALE E ARVOLTOLO (MIGLIANO) mid-late July
MUSICA PER I BORGHI (MARSCIANO, SPINA, PAPIANO) mid-late July
SAGRA DELLA CREPE (SPINA) early Aug
MEZZ'AGOSTO A MORCELLA (MORCELLA) early Aug
AGOSTO CASTELLANO (CASTELLO DELLE FORME) early-mid August
SAGRA DELLA MACEDONIA (VILLANOVA) mid-Aug
SAGRA DEI PRIMI PIATTI (AMMETO) mid-late Aug
SAGRA DEL MIRTILLO E FRUTTI DI BOSCO  (PAPIANO) mid-end Aug
CERQUETO DI NOTTE (CERQUETO) late Aug

Check locally for the exact dates - in most cases these run for at least a week so you've a good chance of catching one night.

Enjoy!