Gustare la Storia - A Journey into the Peasant Traditions of Morra De Sanctis

An Alta Irpinia village telling its own story

Gustare la Storia - A Journey into the Peasant Traditions of Morra De Sanctis is the event through which the birthplace of Francesco De Sanctis, perched on the hills of Alta Irpinia in the province of Avellino, showcases its collective memory. This is no ordinary food festival: the concept, promoted by the Municipality of Morra De Sanctis together with the Pro Loco, is to combine culinary pleasure with the rediscovery of the rural roots of a community that experienced significant emigration during the 20th century.

The stage is the historic center, with its narrow streets, stone portals, and squares that fill up as evening falls. Within a few hundred meters, visitors find food stalls, performances, and music, all accessible on foot, offering an intimate, human-scale experience of this Irpinian village.

The Casa dei Ricordi, the heart of the project

The 2025 edition saw the inauguration of the Casa dei Ricordi, a permanent space dedicated to the history of Morra. Photographs, documents, and objects donated by local families tell three intertwined stories: emigration abroad, agricultural labor in decades past, and the daily life of the village. Mayor Fiorella Caputo explained that the goal is to reach out to second and third-generation Morresi living around the world, offering them a physical place to reconnect with their origins.

Folk music and street performers

The entertainment side of the event focuses on the local folk repertoire. Street performers entertain the crowds in the town center, while the quadriglia morrese and tarantella montemaranese—two iconic dances of inland Irpinia—get the audience directly involved. Late in the evening, the program concludes with concerts, which in 2025 featured artists like Zeketam and Battista.

The table: baccalà, migliazza, and local cuisine

The stalls set up along the route offer the traditional cuisine of Morra De Sanctis. Two dishes stand out:

• Baccalà: In Morra, salted cod is a true culinary institution, a legacy of ancient trade routes and traditional peasant fasting cuisine.
• Migliazza: A rustic preparation of Irpinian tradition, linked to humble flours and the home cooking of the past.
• Alongside these, other traditional Morrese dishes and products from the Avellino hinterland are available.

A piece of the Itinerari Irpini project

Gustare la Storia is not an isolated event; it is part of the Itinerari Irpini project, shared with other partner municipalities in the province of Avellino and supported by regional funds dedicated to cultural tourism. The goal is to build a network of events that enhances the villages of Irpinia outside the beach season, shifting the focus from the Campanian coast to the Apennine hinterland.

When to go and what to expect

The event takes place in September, when Alta Irpinia offers cool evenings and an autumnal landscape. The format consists of two consecutive evenings, starting in the late afternoon and continuing until night. It is a family-friendly event with a relaxed pace and a strong sense of community: visitors will find a village that tells its story without any tourist filters.

Morra De Sanctis beyond the event

A visit can easily be extended: the village is home to the Castello Biondi-Morra, the House Museum of Francesco De Sanctis—dedicated to the great literary critic and minister of unified Italy, who was born here in 1817—and a panorama that stretches across the Ofanto valleys. Within a few kilometers, you can find Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi, Lioni, Guardia Lombardi, and other centers of Alta Irpinia, an area also known for the DOCG wines of inland Campania.