Food, Wine and Sagre in Tuscia: What to Eat and Where to Find It

By Federico Francolini, Viterbo · Updated 27 October 2026

Tuscia’s cooking is the food of farmers, shepherds and lake fishermen: simple, seasonal and built on extraordinary local products. You won’t find many fine-dining temples here; you will find trattorie where the pasta is made by hand, olive oil from the next hill, and village festivals where a whole town cooks for you. This guide explains what to eat, what to bring home, and how to find a sagra.

Products to know

Hazelnuts of the Cimini hills

The volcanic soils of the Monti Cimini around Lake Vico, Caprarola and Vallerano are one of Italy’s most important hazelnut areas. The local hazelnut is protected as Nocciola Romana DOP. You’ll find it in cakes, biscuits, spreads and liqueurs; in autumn the orchards are harvested and the smell of roasting nuts fills the villages.

Chestnuts

The woods of the Cimini hills also produce chestnuts; the Castagna di Vallerano DOP is protected. Autumn is chestnut season, with roasted chestnuts (caldarroste) sold at festivals and chestnut flour in cakes and pasta.

Olive oil

The province produces the Tuscia DOP extra virgin olive oil, typically green, fruity and peppery when fresh. In November, after the harvest, look for olio nuovo drizzled on toasted bread (bruschetta) — one of the simplest and best tastes of the year.

Pulses

• Lenticchia di Onano: small lentils from the village of Onano, in the north of the province.
• Fagiolo del Purgatorio di Gradoli: a small white bean from Gradoli on Lake Bolsena. It gives its name to the Pranzo del Purgatorio (“Purgatory lunch”), a traditional lean meal held in Gradoli on Ash Wednesday.

Lake fish

From Lake Bolsena come coregone (whitefish), often grilled or baked, lattarini (small fish fried whole), and eel. The fishing village of Marta and the towns of Capodimonte and Bolsena are the places to try them.

Cheese and meat

Sheep farming is traditional in the Tuscia countryside, so pecorino and ricotta are everywhere; pork products (salami, guanciale, porchetta) are a staple of festivals.

Dishes to order

• Acquacotta: literally “cooked water”, a peasant soup of wild greens, onion, tomato and bread, topped with an egg. Each village has its own version.
• Lombrichelli: thick, irregular hand-rolled pasta (the name evokes earthworms), typically served with a tomato sauce or with garlic, oil and chilli.
• Fieno di Canepina: very fine egg pasta from the village of Canepina, cut like “hay”.
• Pasta with pecorino and black pepper and other Lazio classics, here often made with local cheeses.
• Coregone al forno with potatoes, by the lake.
• Tozzetti: crunchy biscuits with hazelnuts, perfect dipped in sweet wine.

Wines

• Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone DOC: a white wine from the hills around Montefiascone, with a famous legend: a bishop’s servant, travelling ahead to mark the inns with good wine with the word “Est”, liked this one so much he wrote it three times.
• Aleatico di Gradoli DOC: a red, aromatic and often sweet wine from the volcanic slopes of Gradoli.
• Other local DOCs include Orvieto (partly produced in the province of Viterbo), Vignanello, Colli Etruschi Viterbesi / Tuscia, and Cerveteri near Tarquinia.

Many small wineries welcome visitors by appointment; book ahead and don’t drive after tastings.

Sagre: village food festivals

A sagra is a local festival dedicated to a food — chestnuts, a bean, a kind of pasta, wild boar, lake fish — usually organised by the village association or parish. Long tables are set up in a square or field, volunteers cook, prices are low and the atmosphere is cheerful, often with music and dancing. For many Italians, sagre are summer and autumn’s great social events.

When

• Summer (June–September): the busiest period, with festivals almost every weekend across the province.
• Autumn (October–November): chestnuts, hazelnuts, new wine and new olive oil. For example, Soriano nel Cimino is known for its autumn chestnut festival, and Montefiascone hosts a wine fair in summer.
• Spring: fewer events, often linked to religious feasts.

Check before you go: dates of sagre change every year, and some are not held every year. Look for posters in the villages, the town’s official website or social media pages, and local event listings, a few days before.

How a sagra works

1. You queue at a cash desk (cassa), order from a printed menu and pay — often cash only.
2. You get a ticket and collect your food from the stands, or wait for your number.
3. You sit at long shared tables. Bring patience on busy evenings: food often runs late into the night.

Tips

• Arrive early: popular dishes run out.
• Bring cash and a light jacket — evenings in the hills are cool even in summer.
• Parking is often in fields with volunteers directing traffic.
• Respect that it’s a community event: it’s not a restaurant, and the volunteers are your hosts.

Markets and shops

• Weekly markets in Viterbo and most towns sell local cheese, vegetables, porchetta and olive oil; ask locally for days.
• Buy hazelnut and chestnut products, olive oil and lentils directly from producers or small shops: easy to carry home (check customs rules for your country).
• Wineries around Montefiascone and Gradoli sell bottles direct.

Eating well: practical tips

• Lunch is usually 12:30–14:30, dinner from 19:30–20:00; many places close one day a week and some close for holidays in winter.
• Book at weekends, especially Sunday lunch, when local families eat out.
• A coperto (cover charge) per person is common and legal in Italy if shown on the menu.
• Ask for the piatto del giorno — the dish of the day is usually the seasonal, local choice.
• Tell your host about allergies: Italian law requires restaurants to provide allergen information on request.

A food-lover’s weekend

• Saturday: morning at Viterbo’s market and in San Pellegrino; lunch of lombrichelli and acquacotta; afternoon tasting near Montefiascone; dinner of lake fish in Marta.
• Sunday: drive into the Cimini hills, through hazelnut orchards and chestnut woods to Caprarola and Lake Vico; in autumn, finish at a village sagra.

In short

• Local stars: Nocciola Romana DOP, Castagna di Vallerano DOP, Tuscia DOP olive oil, Onano lentils, Gradoli Purgatory beans, Bolsena lake fish.
• Order acquacotta, lombrichelli, coregone and tozzetti with sweet wine.
• Drink Est! Est!! Est!!! and Aleatico di Gradoli.
• Sagre run mainly in summer and autumn; dates change every year — check locally and bring cash.