Does anyone know about these festivals and can share their wisdom?
Cesaro Nebrodi Black Pig & Mushroom Festival
Caccamo Sausage Festival
San Cono Prickly Pear Festival
Ottobrata Zafferanese
Any others that you might be aware of that we may have missed for October?
We spent most of October in Sicily and didn’t hear of any of these. However, it is prickly pear harvest time and they were for sale everywhere we went. Good luck with the festivals and please report back if you attend any of them.
Please do report back! We are planning our 20th anniversary for October 2020 Malta and Sicily. For some reason I’ve been working on it more than our trip for this year!
Happy to do that.
There is a fun grape festival in Impruneta (suburb of Florence) it is typically the last weekend in October. The town divides into 4 teams that present floats primarily of grapes (Think Rose Parade on New Years in the US but on a smaller scale). There are also performances by the groups. Bragging rights last a year!
Hi there! I have not been to the Cesaro Black Pig Festival, however, I have been to Cesaro and tasted the "Suino Nero"! I went to Cesaro to meet distant cousins (everyone in this town knows each other), my great grandmother's family was from that town... You will not find a more hospitable and caring group of people who are committed to family and keeping their traditions alive. It is a very interesting small town too! There is a Palazzo that is now a Museum that you can tour, a very quirky "keeper of the cemetery" who will trudge out into cemetery and help you find graves of long since dead relatives, and if you go to the main church, look up Nunzio Vasta, the parish priest, he is my grandfather's second cousin and my first time ever meeting him (my grandfather never even met him) he bought me a giant tray of Sicilian cookies! If you want a fantastic meal in a very magical setting in the Nebrodi mountains, head to Villa Miraglia. It is also a hotel, very beautifully done. From Cesaro it is a quick trip to Bronte where they have best pistachios in the world. I am biased because these are my people, but Cesaro was a great little town with a lot of history. I say go to the black festival, and give my "cousins" a giant hug!
hey pmalbritton
go to all of them, festivals are so much fun. lots of food wine music dancing fireworks great times.
are you staying in sicily the whole month of october?
a friend and i were lucky to be in venice (end of sept/first of oct) and went to festa dell uva e del vino in bardolino on lago di garda. rented hotel room and it was a eat drink and be merry party all weekend.
since october is harvest season many festivals not mentioned will happen the whole month, them italians love to party when that season begins.
since you mentioned impruneta, discoverytuscany.com (under things to do click events calendar) and it's got festivals by the month in that area.
like others have said, do come back and let us know how they were, you'll have a blast. enjoy
aloha
Thanks so much for the wonderful description of Cesaro. We have been to Bronte. Drove through the Nebrodi Mountains from Chefalu for a day trip. Spectacular view of Mt. Aetna from some country roads through the forest. We will keep your information close at hand if we get there.
Yes, I have lots of good things to say about Impruneta. We were there one year for their Feste dell Uva. The town spends a month in 4 teams getting ready to compete at the grand weekend with floats made of grapes, dancing and presentations to the town judges. It is quite the spetacolo!! We will be in Calabria and Sicily for 1/2 a month. My husband's family is from Piane Crati outside of Cosenza and we are interested in all the small towns along the coast. Our most memorable have been Scilla, Pizzo and Amantea.
