In Summer, delicious, juicy strawberries and cherries enhance the whole Lazio with their intense red colours and scents. Let us enjoy a gastronomic journey through these extraordinary flavours!
The Cherry Festival in Celleno
Cherries, blooming between May and June, have been cultivated in the upper Tuscia since the late Middle Ages and, after the Second World War, they arrived in Celleno, where they became the typical product. This ancient Etruscan settlement on a spur of tuff overlooking Lake Bolsena and the Tiber Valley, hides a dark secret, the mysterious Ancient Celleno. Abandoned in 1855, it represents today one of the most beautiful ghost villages in Italy. At early June in Celleno, a Cherry Festival is celebrated with the Crostatona, a twenty-metre-long cherry tart!
The Cherry Festival in Palombara Sabina
The Asiatic Ciliegia Ravenna, already widespread along the Tiber Valley at the time of the proconsul Lucullus, only arrived in Palombara Sabina a hundred years ago and today even inspires enthusiast beer artisans. A fascinating greenery surrounds the village and the Savelli Castle, with plenty of olive and cherry trees at the foot of Mount Gennaro, in the “Parco dei Monti Lucretili”. The sweet, pulpy fruit is celebrated in Palombara Sabina in early June, during the “Sagra delle Cerase”, the oldest cherry festival in Europe.
The Cherry Festival in Pastena
During the Cherry Festival of Pastena in Ciociaria, celebrated at early June, the town is decorated with extraordinary sculptures of cherries. Always in pairs, these tasty fruits especially grow in the “Parco Naturale Monti Ausoni e Lago di Fondi”, where an underground river flows in the Pastena Caves, a speleological complex undoubtedly worth a visit.
Not to be missed are the flavoury strawberries from Nemi, in the Castelli Romani, to be enjoyed maybe admiring the Belvedere over the Lake from the romantic Lovers’ Terrace. On the first Sunday of June, the renowned Strawberry and Wild Strawberry Festival and the Flower Exhibition liven up the town. Served with sugar and lemon, or whipped cream, strawberries are also employed in the preparation of syrups, ice creams, granitas, and liqueurs, such as the legendary Fragolino.
A zero-mile ice cream has even been created with buffalo milk from the Agro Pontino and favette strawberries from Terracina, reputed to be aphrodisiac!