Snail festival
Cortona (ar). Traditional Sagras
Original name: Festival della Lumaca
Place: Fossa del Lupo (hamlet) near Camucia, in municipality Cortona, in Arezzo Province, Valdichiana area.
First year of the festival: 1984
Period: end of May - first days of June
2019 scheduled on: Saturday, 25, Sunday 26 May; Thursday 30, Friday 31 May, Saturday 1, Sunday 2 June
Opening times: Snails served only on dinner, at the sagra's restaurant which opens at 7 p.m; on Sunday, from 9.30 am a stand will open with porchetta panini (roast pork).
Local Specialties:
- Second courses - lumache in salmì, snails in sauce; porchetta, roast pork; panino con la porchetta, bread filled with roast pork.
The snails cooked in a sauce are a typical, very popular Tuscan peasants' dish, largely appreciated in ancient times, but now extremely rare to find in restaurants and sagras' menu, or in Tuscan families' tables. Hence the opportunity to taste this wonderful specialty, it should not be lost! Here in Fossa del Lupo this dish is called "lumache in salmì" and as it takes hours to prepare, it's available only on few days.
This sagra has a program of some entertainment events too as traditional ballroom music groups starting at 9 pm and also a religious ceremony dedicated to San Celestino, the Patron Saint of Fossa del Lupo, actually this Snails festival takes place during the "Festa di San Celestino", the celebration of San Celestino.
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