Gusto Italia in Tour - Ascea

Gusto Italia in Tour in Ascea: Made in Italy on the seafront

Gusto Italia in Tour is a major travelling fair dedicated to food, wine, craftsmanship, and tourism that has spent years touring the most beautiful locations in Southern Italy during the summer. In Ascea, a town in the province of Salerno, Campania, the event takes over the Ascea Marina seafront: a seaside promenade that, for a few days, fills with white gazebos, enticing aromas, and the voices of producers arriving from all over the peninsula. Admission is free, and the stalls remain open from late afternoon until midnight, the time when the Cilento coast truly comes to life.

A journey through the Italian regions

The heart of the festival is its selection of typical products: every stall tells the story of a territory, and the producers are almost always on hand to explain their techniques, aging processes, and family recipes. Previous editions in Ascea have featured, among others:

• Calabrian liquorice and black pork cured meats;
• Organic honey from Campania and Giffoni PGI hazelnuts;
• Apulian taralli and cruschi peppers from Basilicata;
• Cheeses, cured meats, extra virgin olive oil, wine, and artisanal sweets;
• Liqueurs, jams, and preserves from small family-run businesses.

It is a formula that works because it combines zero-kilometre shopping with storytelling: you buy a little, taste a lot, and take home something you would rarely find in a supermarket.

Artistic craftsmanship and handmade creations

Alongside the food, an equally rich section is dedicated to craftsmanship: handmade leather goods, bags and wallets, wooden objects, ceramics, natural aloe vera products, raffia jewellery, and textile creations. These stalls display unique pieces or small-batch items, often crafted on-site in front of visitors: a simple way to appreciate the work behind a handmade object.

Puppets, music, and family evenings

The event is more than just a market. In previous Ascea editions, the performances of the National Puppet Theatre of master Mauro Apicella, featuring the iconic Pulcinella, accompanied the evenings, with shows also held away from the seafront in Piazza Antonio Correale and along Corso Elea in the main town of Ascea. Southern folk music and small live performances complete the programme in a deliberately family-friendly atmosphere with no entry fees.

Ascea, Velia, and the Cilento National Park

The setting does much of the work. Ascea is one of the most popular seaside resorts on the Cilento coast, awarded the Blue Flag and Legambiente's Vele, and it houses the archaeological site of Velia, the ancient Elea of the Eleatic school of Parmenides and Zeno. All around lies the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park, the home of the UNESCO-recognised Mediterranean Diet: a context that gives the fair extra significance, as the theme of good food and local produce is an identity here, even before it is a tourist attraction.

A young stop on the tour

Gusto Italia arrived in Ascea for the first time in 2024, from 18 to 21 July, on the recently renovated seafront; the following year, the event returned from 7 to 10 August 2025, moving into the peak of the beach season. The event is organised by the Associazione Italia Eventi, with the patronage of the Municipality of Ascea, the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park Authority, the Salerno Chamber of Commerce, and UNOE.

Why it's worth an evening

Those spending their holidays in Cilento will find this a pleasant alternative to the usual evening stroll: you walk by the sea, taste local delicacies, chat with artisans, and return to the beach with a bag of local products. For visitors from further afield, it is also a quick way to get a sense of the gastronomic variety of the South, all concentrated in a few hundred metres of seafront.