Frascarelli and Chestnut Festival

An autumn festival in the heart of the Sabina region

The Frascarelli and Chestnut Festival is the most anticipated autumn event in Rocca Sinibalda, a small town in the province of Rieti, in northeastern Lazio. Traditionally held around November 1st, the festival transforms Piazza della Vittoria into a large open-air dining room where people eat, drink, and socialize until evening, with the scent of roasted chestnuts wafting through the village alleys.

The event is organized by the Pro Loco of Rocca Sinibalda, which has kept this tradition alive for years with a deliberately simple setup: food stalls, live music or folk entertainment, and free admission. It follows the classic model of a local Lazio festival, where the value lies not in the scenery, but in the quality of the food and the warmth of the hospitality.

Frascarelli, the dish that gives the festival its name

Frascarelli are a peasant dish of ancient Apennine origin, found across the Marche, Umbria, and Sabina regions. It is a type of white flour polenta: rice is cooked in a pot with plenty of water, and flour is added little by little, stirring over low heat until the mixture reaches a thick, creamy consistency similar to polenta.

The topping remains faithful to tradition: a tomato sauce prepared with a sauté of onion, celery, and carrot, enriched with pork fat or pieces of sausage, and finished with a generous dusting of grated cheese. It is a humble dish in terms of ingredients but rich in flavor, created to feed families during the cold months and now a symbol of the town's gastronomic identity.

Chestnuts, wine, and autumn flavors

Alongside the frascarelli, the absolute star is the chestnut, roasted on the spot and served hot: an unmissable classic of autumn festivals in the central Apennines. The offering is completed by wine from local producers, homemade desserts, and other typical Sabina products, a land known above all for its PDO extra virgin olive oil.

• Frascarelli with sauce, served at the Pro Loco stalls
• Roasted chestnuts prepared on the spot
• Local wine and typical Sabina products
• Music and entertainment in the square
• Free admission and a festive village atmosphere

The village and castle of Rocca Sinibalda

The festival is also the perfect opportunity to discover one of the most intriguing villages in the Rieti area. Rocca Sinibalda is dominated by its castle, redesigned in the 1530s by the Sienese architect Baldassarre Peruzzi for Cardinal Alessandro Cesarini: a fortress-palace with an unusual layout, often compared to the shape of a scorpion or an eagle. Declared a national monument in 1928 and reopened to the public after a long restoration, it hosts tours of the frescoed halls, courtyards, dungeons, and gardens.

From the village, the view opens up over the Turano Valley and the lake of the same name, in a landscape of wooded hills that takes on particularly beautiful hues in autumn. Those arriving for the festival can easily combine lunch in the square with a walk through the historic center or an excursion along the trails of the Laghi Lungo e Ripasottile Nature Reserve, located nearby.

Why it's worth visiting

In a landscape of increasingly similar festivals, the one in Rocca Sinibalda preserves an authentic dimension: few stalls, one dish done well, and a community that comes together to welcome visitors. It is a great starting point to understand how people ate—and still eat—in the hinterland of Lazio, just over an hour's drive from Rome.