Patron Saints' festival

Original name: Festa dei Patroni

Place: San Piero a Ponti (hamlet) in municipality of Campi Bisenzio, in Florence province.

First year of the festival: 1975

Period: end of June - first days of July

Opening times: every evening, from 8 pm

2023 scheduled on: from June 18th 4 to June 29th

Local Specialties:

• Appetizers: antipasto toscano, Tuscan appetizer;
• First courses: penne alla pecora, sheep sauce penne pasta;
• Second courses: bistecche di pecora, grilled sheep steak; pecora in umido, sheep stew; bistecca di maiale, grilled pork steak; salsicce, grilled sausages; rosticciana, grilled pork rib; bistecca di vitella, grilled T-bone veal steak;
• Side dishes: fagioli all'uccelletto, tomato sauce beans;
• Fruit: cocomero, fresh watermelon;
• Dessert: frittelline di riso, rice fried frittelle

Just 12 km from piazza della Signoria in Florence to San Piero a Ponti hamlet, where this festival is held: you'll discover a popular, hearty, viscerally beloved festival, with a whole local people gathering to it as their most important feast, as volunteers - impressive, the group image of them - or as simply attenders.

Should you decide to be part of the feast, its menu will welcome you with some of the very classic of Tuscan cuisine: a Tuscan appetizer; grilled meat, like sausages, pork steak, pork ribs - rosticciana, and even veal T-bone steak; and as side dish, tomato sauce beans, fagioli all'uccelletto.

But in San Piero, we are in the Florentine piana, which means, the plain of the Arno river close to Florence and so here, the queen of the dishes is what in Italian is called pecora: the sheep, triumphantly cooked in incredibly delicious recipes; penne alla pecora, pasta with sheep sauce as first course - penne isn't Tuscan traditional pasta, but it's often present in Tuscan sagras' menus and you won't be disappointed at all by the result; and as second courses, grilled sheep steak, bistecche di pecora; and sheep stew, pecora in umido, a dish that just itself alone deserves the trip to San Piero a Ponti, in our humble opinion. After all that, you have the choice to taste another traditional recipe, the sweet frittelle di riso, or a fresh cocomero, which means to all Italians the beautiful, hot, and peaceful summer nights.