Maccaruni cu gli Feri Festival

A festival that tells the story of a town

Some festivals are born around a product, others around a gesture. The Maccaruni cu gli Feri Festival in Giuliano di Roma, a small town in the province of Frosinone overlooking the Sacco Valley, undoubtedly belongs to the latter. The star of the show is neither a rare ingredient nor an elaborate recipe: it is the rhythmic movement of the local women's hands as they roll small pieces of dough around a thin metal rod. This humble gesture, repeated thousands of times, has become a symbol of collective identity in southern Lazio.

Maccaruni cu gli feri: water, flour, and patience

The dough is disarmingly simple: water and flour, nothing more. The uniqueness lies in the technique, locally known as sferramento. Each piece of dough is rolled on a wooden board around a thin metal rod—the same type once used for umbrella frames, hence the dish's name—to create an irregular, rustic noodle that holds sauce better than almost any other shape. It is a craft that requires passion, patience, and precision, passed down from mother to daughter in Giuliano households without ever needing a written recipe.

In February 2026, this tradition received long-awaited recognition: the Lazio Region officially registered the maccaruni cu gli feri as a Traditional Agri-Food Product (PAT), following an inspection by regional experts at the Pro Loco headquarters, where local women demonstrated the ancient technique live.

The Pro Loco: the engine of the festival

Behind the festival is the Pro Loco of Giuliano di Roma, an association that celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2025 with a rich program of traditions, historical re-enactments, and cultural initiatives. The festival is its most famous event: by 2017, it had already reached its twenty-first edition, and for over thirty years, it has marked the end of the Giuliano summer. President Carlo Coccarelli has often highlighted the role of the «tireless women who collaborate every year», the true architects of the evening's success.

When and where

The festival traditionally takes place on the Wednesday preceding the patronal feast, which is the Wednesday before the last Sunday of August. The setting is Piazza Borgo Vittorio Emanuele, in the town center, where food stalls and long open-air tables are set up starting at 8:00 PM. The format follows the classic Ciociaria tradition: serving the signature dish, traditional sides and desserts, local wine, and live music until late in the evening.

More than just a dish

Visitors arriving in Giuliano di Roma for the festival find much more than an open-air dinner. They discover a hillside village coming to life, a community that identifies with its own dialect—«Sagra dugli Maccaruni cugli Feri» is the spelling the town has always used—and a gastronomy that, alongside the maccaruni, preserves other identity-defining dishes like the minestra du panu. In recent years, the festival has expanded its hospitality, introducing a gluten-free stand in 2025, a sign of an event that knows how to stay true to tradition while remaining inclusive.

Ciociaria around the festival

• The village: stone alleys, views over the Sacco Valley and the Lepini Mountains.
• The season: late August, with mild evenings and the town bustling for the patronal feast.
• The audience: families, locals returning for the summer, and visitors from across the province of Frosinone and the Rome area.
• The PAT recognition: since 2026, the dish is officially among the traditional products of the Lazio Region.