Capena Threshing Festival

The Capena Threshing Festival

Every summer, in the farmyard of the Mulino Di Pietro in Capena, near Rome, the Threshing Festival brings one of the oldest rites of peasant civilization back to life: grain threshing. In the heart of the Roman Sabina, this re-enactment transforms a working farm into a living museum, where vintage machines return to work under the July sun and the community gathers around the harvest, just as they did a century ago.

The threshing rite lives again

The heart of the event is the threshing re-enactment: wheat sheaves are brought to the farmyard and fed into a vintage early 20th-century threshing machine, powered by a hot-bulb tractor with large mechanical pistons. It is a spectacle of sounds, dust, and ancient gestures that tells the story of the toil and solidarity of field work, when harvesting and threshing brought entire families and neighbors together. Around the machine, demonstrations of traditional crafts and live processing of farm products complete the scene.

Authentic zero-mile flavors

The festival is also a grand celebration of flavors from the Capena countryside. The food stalls offer exclusively local zero-mile products, avoiding long transport: freshly baked bread and pizza, Sabina cheeses and dairy products, fried snacks, desserts, and artisanal gelato, accompanied by local wines and beer. Every taste is a way to rediscover the authentic flavors of local agriculture, deeply rooted in Lazio and its traditions.

Culture, entertainment, and memory

Beyond the food and threshing, the program of past editions has featured historical and archaeological insights related to the agrarian myths of the ancient world—from the goddess Demeter to the Roman Anna Perenna—alongside equestrian performances, traditional games, live music, marching bands, and dance evenings. Great attention is also given to children and local schools, with educational projects dedicated to grain and the bread supply chain.

An event born from the earth

The Threshing Festival is organized by the Azienda Agricola di Umberto Di Pietro together with the Capena community, with the aim of preserving and passing on the rural memory of the Sabina region. In a part of Lazio where agriculture remains a living identity, the event has become the most anticipated summer appointment, attracting visitors from across the Roman hinterland for a day dedicated to tradition, taste, and conviviality.