“Father of Italian cookery” fabulous free food festival set to smash records

Garden of Italy celebrates its midsummer glorious food heritage bigger and better yet again in 2015

150,000 people celebrated wonderful food at FestArtusiana in 2014 – how many in 2015?

Every year, Forlimpopoli, Romagna holds an annual gastronomic event dedicated to Pellegrino Artusi "Father of Italian Cookery" and author of the masterpiece of Italian cookery books ‘The Science of Cooking and the Art of Fine Dining’

This year is the festival of home cooking’s 19th birthday, when for over a week every night between 7pm and midnight, Casa Artusi and the historical center of this small town with its ancient citadel come alive as a "City of Taste." for the glorious Festa Artusiana.

The 2015 midsummer festival is set to open on Saturday 20^st June and will run until Sunday 28^th June.

For these 9 nights, Forlimpopoli becomes a massive pageant – truly a feast for all the senses. Streets, alleys, courtyards and squares become stages for food stands featuring Artusi’s dishes, exhibitions, performances, multi-media productions, tastings and gastronomic tours, concerts, children’s events, cultural events, art displays, and more.

Foodies from all over the world swarm to Forlimpopolo to eat, drink, buy, learn and be merry! And with free entrance for everybody, there will be fun and tastes, music and conversation for all.

Everywhere you are able to buy and consume delicious specialities straight from recipes in the Artusi cookbook – listed by recipe number AND at extraordinarily low prices.

Pride of place is given to really local seasonal foods and great wines such as the Mora Romagna pork, the Squacquerone di Romagna cheese, Romagna peach and nectarine, the Romagna shallot, Volpina pears and the amazing DOC Sangiovese di Romagna, DOCG Albano di Romagna and DOC Trebbiano di Romagna.

And music is the melodious background around the town’s citadel where more than 150 stalls open up for business together with over 60 open-air restaurants, which together with the 11 local ones, serve massive portions of amazing food and wine every evening for 9 warm edible nights.

Although local food and drink, fresh produce and sweets are very much to the forefront – there is a major international flavour to the event too, with delegations from all over the world bringing their sensational food and drink, last year there were special guests from other parts of Italy, from France, Spain, Austria, Croatia, USA – even from an Artusi enclave in the Phillipines.

As the aromas of great food fill the air, the strains of great music do too – Jazz, Blues, Classical and Folk music seem to combine to deepen the sense of taste and smell. And children are catered for too with performances and happenings. In all there are never less than a dozen events each evening to choose from. Plus great street performances from jugglers, stilt-walkers, mime artists, comedy cooking demonstrations, storytellers, Comedia del Arte masked performances, and even more surprises.

But it’s not just eating and drinking, tasting and dancing and watching performances – there are usually over 150 events during the nine days of celebrations to reflect he fact that the festival honours great food in every way possible – culturally, historically, economically and environmentally.

The top event, of course is the ‘Marietta Prize’ – to honour the roots of Artusi as a champion of home cooking – THE national Italian competition for amateur cooks.

And, just down the road at the serene city of Cesena, another, even more ancient festival takes place – the three day celebration of St John the Baptist – Cesena’s patron saint – has been celebrated now for hundreds of years.

The city of Cesena was endowed by the rich and powerful Malatesta (Badhead) warrior family with both a soaring citadel overlooking the city and the world’s first public library. But the thing that most Cesenate know best how to do is to celebrate, traditionally and, it must be said, rather stylishly.

So the cobbled alleyways, elegant streets and delightfully-paved squares are all festooned with stalls helping the inhabitants to drink, and eat and buy all they need to have a good time.

Pride of place are the red sugar cockerels, symbols of Romagna. The idea is that you resist eating these succulent delights until the eve of St John’s Day and you whistle through them to get rid of all your sins! It’s no wonder that all the stalls with cockerels on display (there are always a dozen at least!) were sellouts.

Other stalls include even more traditional St John’s ware – beautiful hand-made sprays of lavender and garlic – the garlic to ward off witches and the lavender to ward off the smell of garlic! These bouquets were made by a daunting group of women numbering at least 20 who were creating them to fund the Red Cross. Special icecream (gelato) made of milk from the local 0 kilometer dairy is also on offer.

One of the traditions of the St John’s Day festa is to buy something for your house – and (given that this is in Romagna) to get it at the very vest price. All manner of stalls were doing great business – around 500 of them throughout the city centre!

Plus a big fair, plus the usual outside summer culture that is Cesena.

Why not make a visit? An informed, tailor-made service is available to organise exciting visits to suit any budget for groups or individuals. Just contact [email protected]

For further information about Romagna, download one or two issues of  the stunning free lifestyle magazine  Best of Romagna Spring HERE or Autumn HERE

FAM trip opportunity HERE

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